TLS from Civil Rights Activist Pauli Murray on MLK

[Letter Suggesting Changes to the Contract for Stride Toward Freedom]

Murray, Pauli

Notes: A four-page carbon copy typed letter, hand signed in ink, from the attorney Pauli Murray to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s advisor Stanley Levinson, proposing changes to King's contract with Harper & Bros. for the publication of his first book. This copy was sent to King's literary agent, Marie F. Rodell, and comes from her files.

The letter proposes a few minor changes and then offers Dr. King a few optional changes, depending on his needs and future plans. This letter connects two important civil rights leaders—King at the start of his literary career and Murray while she was still working as an attorney. In recent years, Murray's personal writings have revealed that she was transgender—she felt she was a man trapped in a woman's body (her preferred pronoun, however, was "she").

This letter is described in The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Volume IV, p. 314:

"At the request of Stanley Levinson, attorney Pauli Murray reviewed King's 17 October contract with Harper & Brothers and recommended changes that she sent to Rodell... Anna Pauline (Pauli) Murray...earned a B.A. (1933) from Hunter College. In 1938 she was denied admission to graduate school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill because of her race. Murray graduated from Howard University Law School with an LL.B. (1944), first in her class and the only woman. While at Howard, Murray participated in sit-ins to desegregate several local restaurants. After being denied admission to Harvard University Law School because of her sex, she earned an LL.M. (1945) from Boalt Hall of the University of California. Believing there was a need for an 'NAACP for women,' Murray was among the founders of the National Organization of Women (NOW) in 1966. At the age of sixty-seven Murray became the first black woman ordained as an Episcopal priest." The ribbon-copy of this letter is preserved in MLK's papers.

Edition + Condition: Onion-skin sheets stapled twice in the upper left. This copy for Marie Rodell is signed in ink, "Pauli" with a handwritten post-script: "P.S. Much love, Marie. Hope we have a best-seller here!"

This letter is accompanied by two related documents: 1) A handwritten letter incorporating some of the changes to the contract suggested by Murray, probably prepared by Rodell for a typist to complete; and 2) A letter on Dexter Avenue Baptist Church letterhead transmitting a chapter of Stride Toward Freedom, secretarially signed "Martin Luther King Jr." (The chapter is not present).

Publication: New York: Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, 1957.

Item No: #362641

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