Sign-In
Cart
Song in a Weary Throat: Memoir of an American Pilgrimage
Paperback
Biographies GeneralPolitical Biographies
Publisher Price: $24.99
ISBN13: 9781631494581
Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation
Published: May 8 2018
Pages: 624
Weight: 1.55
Height: 1.50 Width: 6.30 Depth: 9.10
Language: English
First published posthumously in 1987, Pauli Murray's Song in a Weary Throat was critically lauded, winning the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award and the Lillian Smith Book Award among other distinctions. Yet Murray's name and extraordinary influence receded from view in the intervening years; now they are once again entering the public discourse. At last, with the republication of this beautifully crafted memoir, Song in a Weary Throat takes its rightful place among the great civil rights autobiographies of the twentieth century.
In a voice that is energetic, wry, and direct, Murray tells of a childhood dramatically altered by the sudden loss of her spirited, hard-working parents. Orphaned at age four, she was sent from Baltimore to segregated Durham, North Carolina, to live with her unflappable Aunt Pauline, who, while strict, was liberal-minded in accepting the tomboy Pauli as my little boy-girl. In fact, throughout her life, Murray would struggle with feelings of sexual in-betweenness--she tried unsuccessfully to get her doctors to give her testosterone--that today we would recognize as a transgendered identity.
We then follow Murray north at the age of seventeen to New York City's Hunter College, to her embrace of Gandhi's Satyagraha--nonviolent resistance--and south again, where she experienced Jim Crow firsthand. An early Freedom Rider, she was arrested in 1940, fifteen years before Rosa Parks' disobedience, for sitting in the whites-only section of a Virginia bus. Murray's activism led to relationships with Thurgood Marshall and Eleanor Roosevelt--who respectfully referred to Murray as a firebrand--and propelled her to a Howard University law degree and a lifelong fight against Jane Crow sexism. We also read Betty Friedan's enthusiastic response to Murray's call for an NAACP for Women--the origins of NOW. Murray sets these thrilling high-water marks against the backdrop of uncertain finances, chronic fatigue, and tragic losses both private and public, as Patricia Bell-Scott's engaging introduction brings to life.
Now, more than thirty years after her death in 1985, Murray--poet, memoirist, lawyer, activist, and Episcopal priest--gains long-deserved recognition through a rediscovered memoir that serves as a powerful witness (Brittney Cooper) to a pivotal era in the American twentieth century.
Also in
Political Biographies
Crisis of the Common Good: The Fight for Meaning and Connection in a Broken America
Murphy, Chris
Hardcover
Into the Wood Chipper: A Whistleblower's Account of How the Trump Administration Shredded Usaid
Enrich, Nicholas
Hardcover
American Scoundrel: Roy Cohn's Dark Journey from Joe McCarthy to Donald Trump
Bird, Kai
Goldmark, Susan
Hardcover
The First Eight: A Personal History of the Pioneering Black Congressmen Who Shaped a Nation
Clyburn, Jim
Hardcover
Alito: The Justice Who Reshaped the Supreme Court and Restored the Constitution
Hemingway, Mollie
Hardcover
Poisoned Ivies: The Inside Account of the Academic and Moral Rot at America's Elite Universities
Stefanik, Elise
Hardcover
The Power Broker (Pulitzer Prize Winner): Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
Caro, Robert A.
Paperback
King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation
Anderson, Scott
Hardcover
The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the Cia, and the Rise of America's Secret Government
Talbot, David
Paperback
How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will (Large Print Edition)
Kennedy, John
Paperback
Don't Tell the President: The Best, Worst, and Mostly Untold Stories from Presidential Advance
Becker, Jean
Collamore, Tom
Hardcover
Winning the Earthquake: How Jeannette Rankin Defied All Odds to Become the First Woman in Congress
Rinehart, Lorissa
Hardcover
Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines
Jean-Pierre, Karine
Hardcover
The Assassination of Leon Trotsky: Espionage, Scandal, and the Crime of the Century
Melton, H. Keith
West, Nigel
Hardcover
Finding the Third Way: Lessons in the Politics of Civility from My Journey Through History
Davis, Lanny J.
Hardcover
The Game Changer: How Harry Reid Remade the Rules and Showed Democrats How to Fight
Ralston, Jon
Hardcover
Slow Poison: IDI Amin, Yoweri Museveni, and the Making of the Ugandan State
Mamdani, Mahmood
Hardcover
Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice
Browder, Bill
Paperback
Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man
Trump, Mary L.
Paperback
Starting Somewhere: Community Organizing for Socially Awkward People Who've Had Enough
Douglass, Roderick
Paperback
Miss Major Speaks: Conversations with a Black Trans Revolutionary
Griffin-Gracy, Major
Meronek, Toshio
Paperback
King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation
Anderson, Scott
Paperback
The First Fascist: The Sensational Life and Dark Legacy of the Marquis de Morès
Luzzatto, Sergio
Hardcover
The Road to Unafraid: How the Army's Top Ranger Faced Fear and Found Courage Through
Struecker, Jeff
Paperback
The Power Broker (Pulitzer Prize Winner): Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
Caro, Robert A.
Hardcover
The Long Loneliness: The Autobiography of the Legendary Catholic Social Activist
Day, Dorothy
Paperback
Dreams of a White Snow Lion: The Remarkable Life, Vision, and Deeds of the Dalai Lama
Bianca, Mariateresa
Dhargye, Sherab
Hardcover
My Struggle: English Translation of Mein Kamphf - Mein Kampt - Mein Kampf
Murphy, James
Mein Kampf, Kamphf English Kampt
Hitler, Adolf
Paperback
The Architect of Espionage: The Man Who Built Israel's Mossad Into the World's Boldest Intelligence Force
Katz, Samuel M.
Hardcover
Glory, Grief, and the Gavel: An Inside Guide to Running for Speaker of the House
Leganski, John
Hardcover
Hey Yang, Where's My Thousand Bucks?: And Other True Stories of Staggering Depth
Yang, Andrew
Hardcover
Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill
Millard, Candice
Paperback
G-Man (Pulitzer Prize Winner): J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century
Gage, Beverly
Paperback
In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin
Larson, Erik
Hardcover
A Human Being Died That Night: A South African Woman Confronts the Legacy of Apartheid
Gobodo-Madikizela, Pumla
Paperback
Ni Venganza Ni Perdón: Una Amistad Al Filo del Poder / Neither Revenge Nor Forgiveness: A Friendship on the Edge of Power
Scherer Ibarra, Julio
Fernández Menéndez, Jorge
Paperback
One Man in: The Explosive Firsthand Account of the Lone Special-Ops Commando Who Fought Off a Major Terrorist Attack in Kenya
Craighead, Christian
Hardcover
Detenido: El Diario de Supervivencia Y Determinación de Un Niño
Esperanza, David
Morales, Gerardo Iván
Paperback
I Wish Someone Had Told Me . . .: The Best Advice for Building a Great Career and a Meaningful Life
Perino, Dana
Hardcover
The Afterlife of Malcolm X: An Outcast Turned Icon's Enduring Impact on America
Whitaker, Mark
Hardcover
With a Name Like Chief: Reflections on Recovery and Identity Through the Seven Sacred Teachings
Chief, Kevin
Slayen, Stu
Paperback
The Afterlife of Malcolm X: An Outcast Turned Icon's Enduring Impact on America
Whitaker, Mark
Paperback
This Cursed Beautiful Land: A Russian-American Story (Large Print Edition)
Gershkovich, Evan
Paperback
Mitos de la Historia Mexicana: de Hidalgo a Zedillo / Myths of Mexican History
Rosas, Alejandro
Paperback
Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Woman and the Struggle to Save the Redwoods
Hill, Julia
Paperback
Presidenta: La Victoria de Una Mujer En Un País de Hombres / Madam President: A Woman's Victory in a Country of Men
Zepeda Patterson, Jorge
Paperback