Duke students who are working on a project through the Center for Documentary Studies are learning about Durham history through the Pauli Murray Project as they build an interactive Google map of historic sites of Durham, which is scheduled to go public on Dec. 1. The map will include such historic sites as the Hayti Heritage Center, the Royal Ice Cream Parlor, N.C. Mutual Life Insurance, St. Joseph’s Historic Foundation, White Rock Baptist Church, and Murray’s childhood home on Carroll Street on Durham’s West End.

The historical map will be accessible through the http://paulimurrayproject.org/ web site where extensive information can also be found on Murray’s life. Her image can be seen painted on several wall murals throughout Durham. Murray is the author of "Proud Shoes: the Story of an American Family," which was published in 1956. The book talks about issues that made many readers uncomfortable at the time. It looked at interracial dating and marriage, and examined the way that African-Americans with lighter or darker skin tones treated another differently.

Murray's ancestry is made up of both blacks and whites, according to the web site. Her mother was one of the Fitzgeralds of Durham, a prominent African-American family. In 1977, Murray became one of the first women and the first African-American woman to be ordained as an Episcopal priest. She was 66. She was also a co-founder of the National Organization for Women and the Congress of Racial Equality.


The Pauli Murray Project is part of the Duke Human Rights Center and is supported by the Andrus Family Fund and the North Carolina Humanities Council.

For more information, check out Dawn Baumgartner Vaughn’s article in The Herald-Sun at: http://heraldsun.com/bookmark/4437749.