Pauli Murray applied to be a Supreme Court justice in 1971. 50 years later, a Black woman could make history.Posted in Articles, History, Media Archive, Politics/Public Policy, United States, Women on 2022-02-01 23:05Z by Steven |
The Washington Post
2022-01-27
The trailblazing lawyer wrote President Nixon to do something “unprecedented”
When Pauli Murray wrote to President Richard Nixon in September 1971, the trailblazing lawyer, activist, writer and scholar held no illusions about how the letter would be received.
The 60-year-old constitutional lawyer was writing to Nixon to “do something which may be unprecedented in the history of the USA”: to directly apply, as a self-identified “Negro woman,” for a seat on the Supreme Court.
“By the time this letter reaches the White House, I suspect you will have announced your choice to fill the vacancy left by Mr. Justice Hugo L. Black’s resignation,” Murray wrote. “Since I do not expect you to see this letter, it does no harm to amuse your administrative and secretarial staff as it passes up and down the line on its way to the waste basket.”
But while Murray may have taken a tongue-in-cheek tone, the ultimate aim of the letter was a serious one…
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