Song in a Weary Throat: Memoir of an American Pilgrimage

Zoom only at the present time.
Reading the book is not required.
You can register any time before the last meeting.
Only Name and Valid Email needed to register.

The book is the story that is behind the documentary "My Name is Pauli Murray" movie.  A memoir by the activist that developed the foundations of civil rights and women's rights movements.
First African American woman priest.  In 2012, Pauli Murray was elevated to the status of sainthood by their inclusion in the Book of Holy Women,  Holy Men by the General Convention of the Episcopal Church.

Register for the Zoom link to be sent to your email.   Come join us to discuss and fellowship with others who share an interest in Pauli Murray.
Please do not share Zoom link.

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Meeting Once a week starting Tuesday, August 06, 2024 at 6:30pm CDT

Place: Zoom only at this time

Type of study: Discussion based on Questions
Questions will be emailed to all registered participants once week before each meeting.
Also, any questions or comments or information are welcome by email.

A Presenter will give a very brief summary of chapters according to the meeting schedule for that week then start the discussion by questions.   
Other questions or comments or information are welcome.

It's suggested to start reading about a week before the meeting to allow time to read the scheduled chapters.
It's based on the Kindle version of reading about 20 pages a day for 5 days.

Meeting Schedule:
August 06
Introduction thru Chapter 7 - Introduction(Summary), Daughter of Agnes and Will through Survival Making It Through College
August 13
Chapters  8 thru 13 -  Making It Through College through A Sharecropper's Life
August 20
Chapters 14 thru 21 - A Sharecropper's Death through Further Adversities
August 27
Chapters 22 thru 28 - Boalt Hall and International House through Teaching in Ghana
September 03
Chapters 29 thru Epilogue -  Civil Wrongs and Rights through Full Circle, Epilogue

Summary of the book:
Song in a Weary Throat: an American Pilgrimage is the title of the posthumous
memoirs of Pauli Murray, an extraordinarily accomplished African American woman
who dedicated her life to overcoming barriers of race and gender and the civil
rights cause. Born in Baltimore in 1910, she was raised in Jim Crow-era North Carolina, by
an aunt who was a schoolteacher. She instilled in the young girl the importance of a
good education.
Murray would put herself through Hunter College and earn a law degree at Howard
University, where she graduated first in her class. Although this achievement should
have entitled her to a fellowship at Harvard, it was denied her due to her gender.
She would go on to an amazingly varied career, as a law clerk, college professor,
civil-rights activist, poet, and one of the founders of the National Organization for
Women. Never afraid of a challenge, late in life she became one of the first women
to be ordained as an Episcopalian minister.
Her experience as a dual victim of both racism and sexism led her to create the
term "Jane Crow" to describe this phenomenon, and was outspoken about the way
in which even African American male civil rights leaders refused leadership roles in
the movement to women.
Although a lifelong civil rights activist, Murray was startled by the aggressive
rhetoric and personal style of her African American students at Brandeis during the
political tumult of the late 1960s. She offers a reflective, nuanced response to the
differences between herself and these students; her goal had always been to work
within and reform the system, theirs was to overthrow the system to create a new
order. "Breaking the code of respectability enforced by parents" can be, she says,
"as formidable a psychological barrier to action as the prospect of police brutality."
In all, this is the rich and inspiring journey of a woman who combined an
indomitable strength of character with the insight, sensitivity, and complexity of a
poet.


Pauli Murray Center

Timeline of Pauli Murray's life

Sainthood/Feast Day July 01 of Pauli Murray

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