My Name Is Pauli Murray

Pauli Murray was a unique individual who transcended race and gender.

She struggled with the limits that a racist and sexist society imposed on her.

She went through so many transitions during her life from hopping on freight trains during the Great Depression to teaching at Yale and finally becoming an Episcopal priest.

This is a fine and sensitive documentary giving a close and intimate portrait of this fine human being. As some mentioned during the documentary we should all know who Pauli Murray was. She was ahead of her time and a beacon for a better humanity.

(why this is rated so low on IMDb (6.1 as of this writing) is beyond comprehension.)

Before they died, Pauli Murray wrote and recorded their autobiography. This film shares that voice to tell the moving story of a person who was way out in front of profound changes in Black civil rights, women's equality, and gay liberation. This is a love story for democracy and equality.

I watched this documentary last night about the Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray.

I had never heard of this amazing person before and that is really sad. I strongly recommend this film.

Having the courage to be exactly who they were. Speaking up about gender identity, segregation and equality in the 1930's into the 1970's.

I learned so much and was so surprised that they are not included as a central character in the history of the civil rights along.

"A look at the life and ideas of Pauli Murray, a non-binary Black lawyer, activist and poet who influenced both Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Thurgood Marshall."

This documentary is excellent in showing how white women supported black women and how black men did not support black women with respect to black women's civil rights as women--a balanced intersectional analysis that is generally ignored in other recent documentaries on black history and/or women's history.

I subtracted one star because (like other historical documentaries on black history and women's history) it went into graphic detail about INTERcommunity racial violence against black men, but did not go into graphic detail about INTRAcommunity gender violence against women of all races perpetuated within their own communities (i.e. Coverture, marital rape, femicide, human trafficking, etc.)

I also subtracted one star because they glossed over Murray's brilliant "Jane Crow" analysis, in which she demonstrated how the arguments to keep blacks and women in an inferior status are the same. The filmmakers kept the two issues of race and sex discrimination apart, but Murray rightly connected them, which is one of her most brilliant intellectual contributions to legal theory.

I'd heard Pauli's name for the first time when I watched RGB. So, I committed it to memory at that time, researched more about Pauli, and wondered when someone would create a documentary on Pauli's contributions. Finally! It is very well put together, educational, and tactful with Pauli doing a large portion of the narrating. I'm sure Pauli would be proud.