Pauli Murray and Caroline Ware: Forty Years of Letters in Black and White (Gender and American Culture) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807859281 ISBN 13: 9780807859285

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, 2008

Synopsis

In 1942 Pauli Murray, a young black woman from North Carolina studying law at Howard University, visited a constitutional law class taught by Caroline Ware, one of the nation's leading historians. A friendship and a correspondence began, lasting until Murray's death in 1985. Ware, a Boston Brahmin born in 1899, was a scholar, a leading consumer advocate, and a political activist. Murray, born in 1910 and raised in North Carolina, with few resources except her intelligence and determination, graduated from college at 16 and made her way to law school, where she organized student sit-ins to protest segregation. She pulled her friend Ware into this early civil rights activism. Their forty-year correspondence ranged widely over issues of race, politics, international affairs, and--for a difficult period in the 1950s--McCarthyism.

In time, Murray became a labor lawyer, a university professor, and the first black woman to be ordained an Episcopal priest. Ware continued her work as a social historian and consumer advocate while pursuing an international career as a community development specialist. Their letters, products of high intelligence and a gift for writing, offer revealing portraits of their authors as well as the workings of an unusual female friendship. They also provide a wonderful channel into the social and political thought of the times, particularly regarding civil rights and women's rights.

About this title

Book Description:

"Not only does Scott inspire readers to learn more about Ware and Murray, but she also teaches us about the challenges of using letters as a historical source. Overall, Scott's volume demonstrates how personal friendship helped sustain the public activism of intelligent, politically engaged women."-- Journal of Southern History

From the Inside Flap:

Caroline Ware (1899-1990), a white historian, was a leading consumer advocate and a political activist. Pauli Murray (1910-1985), was an African American student of Ware's at Howard University who went on to become a labor lawyer, a university professor, and the first black woman to be ordained an Episcopal priest. The women shared a life-long friendship, and their forty-year correspondence ranges widely over issues of race, politics, international affairs, and McCarthyism. The letters, products of high intelligence and a gift for writing, reveal portraits of their authors as well as the workings of an unusual female friendship. They also provide a wonderful channel into the social and political thought of the times, particularly regarding civil rights and women's rights.

About this edition

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0807859281
• ISBN 13: 9780807859285
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 216
• Editor: Scott Anne Firor