06/15/2025
In honor of the celebrations of Pride & Juneteenth this week, in the shadow of the No Kings protests this weekend and all the uncertainty and turmoil around us, we are reflection on stories of struggle and resistance and playful non-conformity. The great changes in history often happen very gradually, driven by non-famous people whose stories are seldom told — like Shiprah and Puah, the Hebrew midwives of Exodus 1:15-21, who quietly saved the lives of Moses and many other Hebrew children.
We’ll also hear the story of Pauli Murray, an activist, teacher, poet, and the first Black and q***r woman ordained as an Episcopal priest. As a law at Howard University in 1944, she wrote a paper arguing that the best way to test the constitutionality of segregation was to focus not on the “equality” of separate but equal laws, but on the “separation.” Murray’s idea was mocked by both the teacher and students. A decade later her paper would be used as the basis for the pivotal Brown vs Board of Education Supreme Court case that abolished segregation in public schools. She experienced being transgender before there was a word or any support for her experience, and she worked fiercely (and largely unnoticed) for racial and gender justice. You can learn more in the amazing documentary My Name is Pauli Murray.
In 1944, Pauli Murray was a law student at Howard University when she wrote a paper arguing that the best way to test the constitutionality of segregation was to focus not on the “equality” of separate but equal laws, but on the “separation.” Murray’s idea was mocked by both the teacher and students. A decade later, Murray’s paper, unbeknownst to them, would be used to form the basis for the pivotal Brown vs Board of Education Supreme Court case that abolished segregation in public schools. Today, Murray is remembered as an activist, teacher, poet, and as the first Black and q***r woman ordained as an Episcopal priest.
