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Title details for The Firebrand and the First Lady by Patricia Bell-Scott - Available

The Firebrand and the First Lady

Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Social Justice

by Patricia Bell-Scott
Karen Chilton
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An important, groundbreaking book—two decades in work—that tells the story of the unlikely but history-changing twenty-eight-year bond forged between Pauli Murray (granddaughter of a mulatto slave, who, against all odds, as a lesbian black woman, became a lawyer, civil rights pioneer, Episcopal priest, poet, and activist) and Eleanor Roosevelt (First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1948 and human rights internationalist) that critically shaped Eleanor Roosevelt's, and therefore FDR's, view of race and racism in America. It was a decades-long friendship—tender, moving, prodding, inspiring—sustained primarily through correspondence and characterized by brutal honesty, mutual admiration, and respect, revealing the generational and political differences each had to overcome in order to support one another's life. Of the two extraordinary women, one was at the center of world power; the other, an outsider ostracized by the color of her skin, fighting with heart, soul, and intellect to push the world forward (she did!) and to become the figure for change she knew she was meant to be; each alike in many ways: losing both parents as children, being reared by elderly kin; each a devoted Episcopalian with an abiding compassion for the helpless; each possessed of boundless energy and fortitude yet susceptible to low spirits and anxiety; each in a battle against shyness, learning to be outspoken; each at her best when engaged in meaningful, important work. And each in her own society sidelined as a woman, and determined to upend the centuries-old social constriction . . . A riveting portrait that shows how their friendship deepened and endured in the face of enormous social barriers, and that makes clear how Pauli Murray, foremother of the modern-day black and feminist movements, crucially influenced Eleanor Roosevelt's progressive stance on civil and human rights, challenging her to take a stand for justice and freedom ("If some of our statements are bitter these days," Pauli Murray wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt in a postscript from a 1942 letter, "you must remember that truth is our only sword"), a book that reveals, as well, the profound impact of Eleanor Roosevelt's friendship on the shape of Murray's life as an activist, lawyer, cofounder of the National Organization for Women, principal strategist in the fight to preserve Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and the first African American woman to be ordained as an Episcopal priest.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    February 15, 2016

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781501909269
      • File size: 415978 KB
      • Duration: 14:26:37

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Karen Chilton gracefully narrates this fascinating account of the unlikely friendship between Eleanor Roosevelt and African-American activist Pauli Murray. Chilton's blend of dignity and passion is suitable to recount their remarkable relationship, which persisted over decades despite daunting challenges and vastly different stations in life. Initially encountering each other during the Depression, when the first lady visited the work camp for unemployed women where Murray resided, they discovered their mutual respect, which developed mostly through letters in which they shared their zeal for social justice. Both vigorously championed rights for people of color and women, but Murray was radical while Roosevelt was gently persistent. Chilton breathes life into the many eloquent letters between the two women, who were both gifted at articulating their political visions with inspiration and beauty. N.M.C. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from December 7, 2015
      Bell-Scott (Life Notes), professor emerita of women’s studies and family science at the University of Georgia, deftly reveals two women’s crucial involvement in the struggle for civil rights. Pauli Murray, a young African American woman, crossed paths with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in 1934 when Murray was living at Camp Tera, a New Deal facility for unemployed women. The burgeoning professional relationship between these two smart, strong-minded, and ambitious women developed into genuine affection. They shared similar ideas about social justice, and each chose her own course of action. The fascinating, complex Murray takes center stage in this absorbing historical page-turner. In the decades before the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision and Rosa Parks’s 1955 bus protest, Murray challenged racial segregation at the University of North Carolina (1938) and on public transportation in Virginia (1940). As a law student in the early 1940s, she battled gender discrimination, foreshadowing her co-founding of the National Organization for Women in 1966. Until Roosevelt’s death in 1962, she supported Murray’s various projects and helped the younger woman with her career goals. Murray’s considerable achievements weren’t dependent on Roosevelt’s assistance; Bell-Scott brilliantly shows that the friendship equally enriched both women. Illus.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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