The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Social Justice (75 page)

Late in the fall
: PM,
Song
, 318.

Even Howard University
: J. Clay Smith Jr., “Appendix B: Pioneering Facts About Black Women Lawyers and Law Teachers,” in
Rebels in Law: Voices in History of Black Women Lawyers
(Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000), 278.

“a desk lawyer”
: PM,
Song
, 318.

Springer’s work
: Ibid., and Yevette Richards,
Maida Springer: Pan-Africanist and International Labor Leader
(Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2000), 106, 206–7.

In addition to her
: PM,
Song
, 318.

“Nothing I had read”
: Ibid., 321.

While the countryside
: Ibid., 323.

Murray suffered
: Ibid., 324.

“three times a day”
: Ibid., 323.

“cut his hair short”
: PM, travelogue and progress report to family and friends, July 10, 1962, PMP.

“entrenched custom”
: PM,
Song
, 324.

“an angry-looking gash”
: Ibid., 325.

“dignity and lack of obsequiousness”
: Ibid., 324.

“politically controversial”
: Ibid., 334.

“with bright-blue covers”
: Ibid., 335.

She adopted an American-style
: Ibid., 335–37.

“switched from English”
: Ibid., 336.

“We used to accept”
: Ibid., 338.

54. “IT IS A BIT OF A PEST TO HAVE TO KEEP STILL”

Murray saw these sit-ins
: PM,
Song
, 200.

“Heed Their Rising Voices”
: “Heed Their Rising Voices,” advertisement,
NYT
, March 29, 1960.

She criticized
: ER, “My Day,” October 28, 1960.

She applauded
: ER, “My Day,” February 19, 1960.

Two years earlier
: Black,
Casting Her Own Shadow
, 117–19.

“If I blew up”
: “Mrs. Roosevelt Addresses Mixed Group Despite Telephone Bomb Threat,”
Ocala Star-Banner
, March 15, 1960.

She had always loved
: Cook,
ER
, 1:399, 473.

Not surprisingly
: “Professor Roosevelt,”
NYT
, October 5, 1959.

“I managed to get”
: ER to PM, April 11, 1960, PMP.

The governor
: “Stevenson Avers He’d Still Accept: Telegram to Mrs. Roosevelt Expresses Willingness to Run If He Is Drafted,”
NYT
, June 12, 1960, and “Stevenson Seen Ready to Approve Draft Move: Stevenson Seen Accepting Draft,”
Washington Post, Times Herald
, June 12, 1960.

Yet she did not believe
: Black,
Casting Her Own Shadow
, 191.

She finally agreed
: Douglas Cornell, “Kennedy, Mrs. FDR Make Peace: Nominee Scores Senate Version of Aged-Care Plan,”
Washington Post, Times Herald
, August 15, 1960.

Sally, Nina’s younger sister
: “John Roosevelt’s Daughter, 13, Dies After a Fall: President’s Grandchild Faints on Adirondack Hike,”
NYT
, August 13, 1960.

“was a great blow”
: ER to PM, October 3, 1960, PMP.

utilize Stevenson
: ER, “My Day,” August 17, 1960, and Black,
Casting Her Own Shadow
, 190–91.

“a quick mind”
: ER, “My Day,” August 17, 1960.

He would have
: ER to Mary Lasker, August 15, 1960, ERP.

“I thought of you”
: PM to ER, September 5, 1960, ERP.

“I see you’ve finally”
: Ibid.

55. “I HOPE YOU WERE NOT IN DANGER”

In Ghana
: For Murray’s account, see PM, “A Question of Identity,” in PM,
Song
, 318–32, and PM, “Teaching in Ghana,” in PM,
Song
, 333–43. For a scholarly assessment of Murray’s experience and political developments in Africa during her residency, see Kevin K. Gaines, “Pauli Murray in Ghana: The Congo Crisis and an African American Woman’s Dilemma,” in
African Americans in Ghana: Black Expatriates and the Civil Rights Era
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006), 110–35.

“the Africans, too”
: PM, letter to the editor,
Washington Post, Times Herald
[draft], August 20, 1960, attached to PM to ER, September 5, 1960, ERP.

“Africa is certainly”
: ER to PM, October 3, 1960, PMP.

Not even the distinguished
: Brian Urquhart,
Ralph Bunche: An American Life
(New York: Norton, 1993), 308.

“a sense of history”
: Maida Springer to President Kwame Nkrumah, February 25, 1959 (quoted in Richards,
Maida Springer
, 207).

Her suspicion
: PM,
Song
, 339.

He was awed
: Ibid., 337.

A Jew who had
: PM, interview by McNeil, February 13, 1976, Interview G-0044, transcript, Southern Oral History Program Collection, #4007, UNC.

The text he and Murray
: Leslie Rubin and PM,
The Constitution and Government of Ghana
, no. 1 of Law in Africa (London: Sweet & Maxwell, 1961).

“I am beginning”
: PM,
Song
, 332.

“Africans are no longer”
: Ibid.

56. “READ THAT YOU HAD A BAD CASE OF FLU”

ER hoped
: ER, “My Day,” May 24, 1961.

Eleanor Roosevelt had brought
: Black,
Casting Her Own Shadow
, 192.

“If I am right”
: ER, “My Day,” November 2, 1960.

ER arrived early
: Joseph P. Lash,
Eleanor: The Years Alone
(New York: Norton, 1972), 300–301, and Black,
Casting Her Own Shadow
, 192.

It must have pleased
: W. H. Lawrence, “Nation Exhorted: Inaugural Says U.S. Will ‘Pay Any Price’ to Keep Freedom,”
NYT
, January 21, 1961.

“We observe today”
: “Text of President Kennedy’s Inaugural Address,”
Washington Post, Times Herald
, January 21, 1961.

“our last best hope”
: Ibid.

“My fellow Americans”
: Ibid.

“glad” that ER
: PM to ER, June 1, 1961, ERP.

Murray took comfort
: Ibid.

“This is still”
: Marie Smith, “Mrs. FDR Pushes Women Toward New Frontier,”
Washington Post, Times Herald
, March 14, 1961.

When the president’s
: Lash,
Eleanor: The Years Alone
, 318–19, and ER, “My Day,” October 18, 1961.

“Guns never really change”
: ER, “My Day,” May 1, 1961.

“the present drift”
: ER, “My Day,” November 3, 1961.

“He seems a little slow”
: PM to ER, June 1, 1961.

“You’ll be pleased”
: Ibid.

ER had aplastic anemia
: Questions about the cause and nature of ER’s illness, as well as the quality of care she received, would linger for years after her death. For an assessment of her medical records, see Barron H. Lerner, “Revisiting the Death of Eleanor Roosevelt: Was the Diagnosis of Tuberculosis Missed?,”
International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease
5 (2001): 1080–85.

“As one gets older”
: David E. Lilienthal,
Journals of David Lilienthal
, vol. 4:
The Road to Change, 1955–59
(New York: Harper & Row, 1969), 298.

Kennedy named her
: “Mrs. Roosevelt Nominated for U.N.,”
NYT
, March 1, 1961, and Lash,
Eleanor: The Years Alone
, 316.

“two old legs”
: ER to Adlai Stevenson, April 19, 1961 (quoted in Lash,
Eleanor: The Years Alone
, 316).

“didn’t want to talk”
: Ibid.

“I am delighted”
: ER to PM, June 6, 1961, PMP.

Their homecoming
: PM,
Song
, 344–45.

“space capsule”
: PM, travelogue, July 10, 1962.

“private office”
: Ibid.

“three times”
: PM,
Song
, 345.

The law school student body
: Ibid.

“almost single-handedly”
: Eleanor Holmes Norton, introduction to PM,
Song in a Weary Throat: An American Pilgrimage
(New York: Harper & Row, 1987).

“I was delighted”
: ER to PM, September 11, 1961, PMP.

57. “I AM AS WELL AS ANYONE CAN BE AT MY AGE”

“is to find how”
: ER, “My Day,” February 16, 1962.

“I have no idea”
: ER, “My Day,” November 20, 1961.

“with the responsibility”
: Exec. Order No. 10980, 26 Federal Register 12059 (December 16, 1961).

“self-protection”
: William McPherson, “JFK Backs Equal Job Status at Commission’s First Meeting,”
Washington Post, Times Herald
, February 14, 1962.

“The other and more”
: Ibid.

The PCSW went to work
: ER, “My Day,” February 16, 1962.

The group’s plans
: For a detailed summary of the PCSW, its subcommittees, and a listing of members, see Margaret Mead and Frances Balgley Kaplan,
American Women: The Report of the President’s Commission on the Status of Women
(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1965).

Because Murray had
: PM,
Song
, 349–52.

“puppy with two tails”
: PM, travelogue, July 10, 1962.

The steroid prednisone
: Lash,
Eleanor: The Years Alone
, 321–22, and Lerner, “Revisiting the Death of Eleanor Roosevelt,”
International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease
.