The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Social Justice (70 page)

“I’ve waited years”
: Poston, “Miss Murray Delays Study at Harvard,”
NYP
.

31. “I COULDN’T WAIT TO GIVE YOU ONE OF THE FIRST COPIES”

On March 26, 1949
: “Murray-Wynn Marital Affair—Annulment Proceedings,” 1943–49, PMP.

The impetus for the project
: PM,
Song
, 283–93; Thelma Stevens had been working for civil rights years before she hired Murray for the
States’ Laws
project. See Thelma Stevens, interview by Bob Hall and Jacquelyn Hall, February 13, 1972, Interview G-0058, Southern Oral History Program, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

“carry an intrinsic argument”
: PM,
Song
, 286.

“developed a ritual”
: Ibid.

She found solace
: PM to ER, June 29, 1950, ERP.

“the best of Christian-Judaeo-Democratic”
: Ibid.

“beyond all doubt”
: Associated Press, “Statement on Korea,”
NYT
, June 28, 1950.

“I think of you”
: PM to ER, June 29, 1950.

“influence over the Northern Koreans”
: ER, “My Day,” July 1, 1950.

“the first effort”
: PM, comp. and ed.,
States’ Laws on Race and Color and Appendices: Containing International Documents, Federal Laws and Regulations, Local Ordinances and Charts
(Cincinnati: Women’s Division of Christian Service, Board of Missions and Church Extension, Methodist Church, 1951), 6.

“to publish or distribute”
: Ibid., 18.

“I couldn’t wait”
: PM to ER, March 8, 1951, ERP.

“the bible”
: PM,
Song
, 289.

“a primary source”
: Ibid., 288.

“Dear ‘Mrs. Rovel’ ”
: PM to ER, March 26, 1951, ERP.

“nasty”
: Ibid.

“to take care”
: PM to ER, March 26, 1951, ERP.

“a sprig of lilacs”
: ER to PM, May 15, 1951, PMP.

“own health situation”
: PM to ER, March 26, 1951, ERP.

“I have known Miss Murray”
: ER to David Morse, June 14, 1951, PMP.

“I guess this just isn’t”
: PM to ER, June 23, 1951, ER.

“that she had to quickly”
: Springer-Kemp, interview by author.

32. “I HAVE TO STAND OR FALL WITH THE PEOPLE WHO KNOW ME”

In March 1952
: PM,
Song
, 294–98.

“had a penchant”
: Ibid., 271.

“affiliated with twenty-eight”
: William S. White, “McCarthy Says Miss Kenyon Helped 28 Red Front Groups: Tells Names,”
NYT
, March 9, 1950.

“little people”
: Ibid.

“knowingly identified”
: Ibid.

“an unmitigated liar”
: Doris Greenberg, “Miss Kenyon Calls McCarthy a ‘Liar’: Denies Ties to Red Fronts and Terms Him Coward for Use of Congressional Immunity,”
NYT
, March 9, 1950.

“to stick it out”
: PM,
Song
, 271.

In the state of Washington
: Jane Sanders,
Cold War on the Campus: Academic Freedom at the University of Washington, 1949–1964
(Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1979).

These attacks
: See Ronald E. Magden, “The Schuddakopf Case, 1954–1958: Tacoma Public Schools and Anticommunism,”
Pacific Northwest Quarterly
89, no. 1 (Winter 1997–98): 4–11.

“if there was anything”
: PM to Messrs. Lloyd K. Garrison, Lester B. Granger, William H. Hastie, Elmer A. Carter, A. Phillip Randolph, Morris Milgram, Thurgood Marshall, Will Maslow, Miss Maslow, Miss Thelma Stevens, Dr. Caroline F. Ware and Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, May 6, 1952, PMP.

“an outspoken critic”
: Ibid.

“knowingly joined”
: Ibid.

“infiltrated or were”
: Ibid.

“for the record”
: Ibid.

“a recommendation from someone”
: PM,
Song
, 296.

“that as a person”
: PM to Messrs. Lloyd K. Garrison et al., May 6, 1952.

“produce a casual reference”
: Ibid.

The May 14, 1951
: U.S. House Committee on Un-American Activities,
Guide to Subversive Organizations and Publications
(Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1951).

“several years”
: ER to Milton R. Konvitz, [May?] 1952, ERP.

“qualifications”
: PM to Messrs. Lloyd K. Garrison et al., May 6, 1952.

“they felt they ought”
: Ibid.

“I share with you”
: Milton R. Konvitz to ER, May 7, 1952, ERP.

“the unhappy go-between”
: PM,
Song
, 297.

“think and to differ”
: ER, “Address to the Americans for Democratic Action Convention” (Washington, DC, April 2, 1950), ERP.

“The day I’m afraid”
: Ibid.

“If all of”
: ER, “My Day,” March 11, 1950.

“absolutely furious”
: PM to Skipper [Caroline Ware], May 10, 1952, PMP.

“One has to go on”
: Ibid.

“exaggerated stories”
: William Worthy, “In Cloud-Cuckoo Land,”
Crisis
59 (April 1952): 226–30.

“race riots”
: Ibid.

“dishonest”
: Ibid.

“It was wonderful”
: PM to ER, May 9, 1952, ERP.

33. “I COULD WRITE IN PRIVACY WITHOUT INTERRUPTION”

“shadowy inference”
: PM
, Song
, 297.

“earliest and most enduring”
: Ibid., 298.

“the germ”
: Stephen Vincent Benét to PM, [October 1939?], PMP.

“do some more”
: Stephen Vincent Benét to PM, [1944?], PMP

“rolled a sheet”
: PM,
Song
, 298.

“I could write”
: Ibid., 299.

“dedicated to becoming”
: PM, journal, [1954?], PMP.

Together, they would occasionally
: PM to Skipper [Caroline Ware], August 1, 1954, PMP.

The reputations
: On the prejudice and discrimination Bayard Rustin suffered at the hands of white conservatives, as well as black civil rights leaders, because of his sexuality, see D’Emilio,
Lost Prophet
, 338–39.

She had been studying
: For a discussion of Murray’s review of the scientific literature, her correspondence with doctors, her personal notes, and her identity development vis-à-vis the social context of her life, see Drury, “ ‘Experimentation on the Male Side.’ ”

Murray’s family background
: Ibid.

“the long way”
: ER,
On My Own
, 96.

“going through this pass”
: ER, “My Day,” February 28, 1952.

“hated to leave”
: ER, “My Day,” March 22, 1952.

34. “WE CONSIDER YOU A MEMBER OF THE FAMILY”

“happy to have the picture”
: ER to PM, January 26, 1953, PMP.

“beautiful blue pool”
: Pauline F. Dame [and PM?] to Dear ——, August 19, 1952, PMP. Although Murray’s copy of this document is marked as “letter from Pauline F. Dame,” the format, font, and style strongly suggest that it was typed, cowritten, and edited by Murray.

“raising and training”
: Ibid.

“talked politics”
: Ibid.

“liberal civil rights record”
: PM,
Song
, 306.

“white plain marble”
: Pauline F. Dame [and PM?] to Dear —— August 19, 1952.

“flat marker level”
: Ibid.

“little kiltie”
: Ibid.

“My Sallie gave birth”
: Ibid.

“It’s not the best”
: PM to ER, June 6, 1954, ERP.

35. “I WAS DEEPLY MOVED THAT YOU COUNTED ME AMONG YOUR CLOSE FRIENDS”

Although he pledged
: “Text of Eisenhower Inaugural Address Pledging Search for Peace,”
NYT
, January 21, 1953.

He had carried
: PM,
Song
, 306.

That the new president
: On Eisenhower’s reluctance to criticize Joseph McCarthy or defend General George C. Marshall, whom McCarthy had attacked, see W. H. Lawrence, “Eisenhower Scores President on Reds: Supports McCarthy; In Tour of Wisconsin, General Asserts He Backs Senator’s Aims Not His Methods,”
NYT
, October 4, 1952.

Inside, Murray was mentioned
: ER, “Some of My Best Friends Are Negro,”
Ebony
, February 1953, 16–20, 22, 24–26.

“social equals”
: Ibid., 16.

“One of my finest”
: Ibid.

“I think there were times”
: Ibid.

“really close friends”
: Ibid.

“I howled”
: PM to ER, January 21, 1953, ERP.

“I had always thought”
: Ibid.

“I am glad”
: ER to PM, January 26, 1953, PMP.

“ran, gathered momentum”
: Eleanor Roosevelt II,
With Love, Aunt Eleanor: Stories from My Life with the First Lady of the World
(Petaluma, CA: Scrapbook Press), 78.

Malvina Thompson died
: “Malvina Thompson Dies in Hospital, 61: Confidential Secretary to Mrs. Roosevelt 25 Years Served—in Albany and Washington,”
NYT
, April 13, 1953.

“Her standards were high”
: ER, “My Day,” April 14, 1953.

“I will miss her terribly”
: ER to PM, [April 1953?], ERP.

36. “I KNOW HOW MUCH THIS DECISION MEANS TO YOU”

“For those of us”
: PM to ER, June 1, 1954, ERP.

“I think I can”
: PM, letter to the editor,
NYT
, May 21, 1954.

“I could not let”
: PM to ER, June 1, 1954.

“I know how much”
: Ibid.