01/29/21 01/29/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracnow! >> my name is paiurray and myieldf concenation has been h and rice. myhole pernal hiory has been a suggle to mt standas of exclence in soety which has beedominate the ias thalacks we inrent inferiotohites andomen we inhently feri to men.

amy: "my name is pauli murray," a new documentary from the directors of "rbg" explore the remarkable life of pauli murray, a groundbreaking legal scholar who influenced ruth bader ginsburg and thurgood marshall, and a civil rights pioneer who was arrested before rosa parks for refusing to give up a seat on a segregated bus. pauli also became a priest and is now a saint in the episcopal church. pauli murray is viewed as a hero to many in the trans rights movement. we will speak to the academy award-nominated filmmakers julie cohen and betsy west, plus dolores chandler, a trans writer and social worker who is featured in the film. >> we have been taught to believe people le uson' ist. but when i ce to knoand

arn autauli mray, als az -- ias so azed. al, i was angryhat i fe in some ways i have been robbed of a part of my history. amy: pauli murray for the hour. all of that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. the united states reported another 4000 deaths from covid-19 thursday as a fast-spreading coronavirus variant first seen in south africa was detected in south carolina for the first time. daily u. infections have been on the decline after shattering world records earlier this month, but remain at extremely high levels of about 150,000 per day. disease experts worry new variants, coupled with fatigue

over masks and social distancing, could lead to another surge in cases. here in new york, attorney general letitia james said thursday governor andrew cuomo's administration undercounted covid-19 deaths at nursing homes by as much as 50%. just hours after james' announcement, new york health department officials added nearly 4000 nursing home deaths to new york's tally. drug maker novavax said thursday its covid-19 vaccine showed nearly 90% efficacy at preventing disease in patients in a large clinical trial in the u.k. but worryingly, the novavax vaccine showed only a 50% efficacy rate in a smaller trial in south africa where a new variant of coronavirus has been spreading rapidly. the novavax immunization is a protein-based vaccine that trains people's immune systems

to recognize the spike proteins that surround the coronavirus. several mutations in the south african variant led to changes in the spike protein that can help it evade immune responses. at the world healt organization, emergencies director dr. mike ryan said vaccine makers may have to tweak their formulas as the coronavirus continues to evolve. >> look at influenza. we change the vaccine composition twice a year for the northern and southern hemisphere, and we are able to issue vaccines very quickly to combat the predominant flu strains every year. there is no reason, even down the line if this piracy evolves to a point where the vaccines lose effectiveness, we can adapt the vaccines and i believe we can do so quickly. amy: president biden signed an executive order thursday restoring mandates of the affordable care act and medicaid

that were undermined under president trump. biden's order also adds a new special enrollment period for americans to purchase a healthcare plan through the federal insurance marketplace. that period runs from february 15 through may 15. pres. biden: there is nothing new we are doing here other than restoring the affordable care act and restoring the medicaid and the way it was before trump became president. amy: the u.s. economy shnk by 3.5% last year, the worst drop since 1946. the commerce department reports the economy grew by 4% in the last quarter of 2020, but that was not nearly enough to offset declines earlier in the year. another 847,000 u.s. workers filed new jobless claims last week with unemployment remaining historically high. on thursday, democratic leaders signaled they will attempt to

push biden's proposed $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package through congress by mid-march. an arkansas man who boasted to reporters about looting the office of house speaker pelosi on january 6 will remain behind bars while he awaits trial. on thursday, chief u.s. district judge beryl howell denied bail to richard barnett, who infamously posed for photos with his feet on pelosi's desk and later showed off mail he'd stolen from her office. judge howell blasted barnett as brazen, entitled, dangerous, and a braggart who showed a total disregard for the law and the u.s. constitution. she added -- "we're still living here in d.c. with the consequences of the violence in which this defendant is alleged to have participated. i can still see heavily armed national guard troops patrolling from my window." house speaker nancy pelosi slammed her republican counterparts for giving georgia freshman congressmember marjorie

taylor greene a seat on the education committee after she claimed that mass shootings were fake. >> assigning her to the education committee when she has mocked to the killing of little children at sandy hook elementary school, when she has mocked the killing of teenagers in high school at the rjory stoneman douglas high school, what could they be thinking? it is absolutely appalling. amy: this comes as more disturbing revelations about marjorie taylor greene have emerged from her social media history. in 2018, she falsely claimed a laser beam started the deadly camp fire in california. greene cited "rothschild inc" -- a common anti-semitic trope -- as being responsible. in fact, pacific gas & electric has pleaded guilty in the deaths of 84 people killed in the

wildfire. the qanon-supporting congressmemeber has also supported calls for violence against democrats, promoted other anti-semitic and anti-muslim conspiracy theories and made racist remarks. house republican minority leader kevin mccarthyignaled continuing loyalty to donald trump on thursday after a meeting with the former president at his mar-a-lago estate in florida. in a statement, congressmember mccarthy said trump would help a united conservative movement to elect republicans to the house and senate in 2022. mccarthy's visit came on the same day florida republican congressmember matt gaetz led a rally at the wyoming state capitol, calling on voters to reject republican congresswoman liz cheney during primary elections. cheney is the third-highest-ranking republican leader in the house and was one of 10 gop lawmakers who voted to impeach the president for inciting the january 6 assault on the capitol. >> if you want to prove that you

have the power to defeat this cheney in this upcoming election and wyoming will bring washington to its knees. amy: congressmember gaetz said he spoke with former president trump ahead of the rally, and donald trump, jr. joined the rally by speakerphone. in india, farmworkers taking part in a mass historic uprising called off a march to parliament next week following deadly violence during a protest earlier this week that left one person dead and hundreds injured. the head of the farmers union condemned the violence, which saw some farmers break off from the main protest and breach the historic red fort complex, some driving tractors. police pushed the farmers back with tear gas and batons. indian police are using facial recognition technology to identify suspects in the red fort breach. pakistan's supreme court ruled to release four men convicted of kidnapping and murdering wall street journal reporter daniel pearl in 2002. his attackers famously recorded

his beheading and sent the video to u.s. officials. the court cited insufficient evidence and inconsistencies in the case which was re-examined last year. the white house described the decision to release the perpetrators as "an affront to terrorism victims everywhere" and administration officials said they would seek to put one of the men, british national ahmed omar saeed sheikh, on trial in the u.s. president biden is expected to name robert malley, a former adviser in the obama and clinton administrations, as the u.s. special envoy on iran. malley was a key figure in negotiating the landmark 2015 iran nuclear deal, which trump unilaterally withdrew the u.s. from. russian authorities are cracking down on tiktok and other social media sites ahead of planned anti-corruption and anti-dictatorship protests being planned for the weekend. last weekend's rallies were met with extraordinary police

violence and nearly 4000 arrests after tens of thousands of people tk to the seets of cities across 11 time zos in some of the biggest protests ever to challee vladimir putin's rule. police have stepped up arrests and home searches targeting supporters of opposition nationalist politician alexy navalny, who was arrested upon his return to russia earlier this month after surviving an assassination attempt in 2020. navalny says the attack, using the soviet-era nerve agent novichok, took place on putin's orders. on thursday, a court in moscow ordered navalny to be jailed for 30 days ahead of his trial. navalny spoke by video link from jail. >> i want to say one more time, you will succeed in fighting us. in ft, we arthe majority. you won't managed to fight them minds of people who are robbed by those in power despite the fact those people who are now under arrest face hardships. amy: in germany, a neo-nazi who murdered regional political

official walter lübcke has been sentenced to life in prison. stephan ernst shot lübcke on the terrace of his house in 2019. lübcke had been targeted by far-right extremists over his support of chancellor angela merkel's immigration policies, which opened germany's doors to asylum seekers during the 2015-2016 refugee crisis. a dutch appeals court has ruled shell is responsible for oil spills in 2004 and 2005 in nigeria's niger delta and must pay damages. the case was brought by friends of the earth and nigerian farmers who were seeking compensation for the leaks that contaminated their land and deprived them of income. the ruling could lead to more cases against royal dutch shell. general motors said thursday it will stop manufacturing cars that produce tailpipe emissions by 2035 as part of a pledge to become carbon neutral by 2040. gm's move to all-electric cars could cause other major automakers to follow suit.

a recent report by the union of concerned scientists found electric cars generate half the emissions of the average comparable gasoline car, even when pollution from battery manufacturing is accounted for. lawmakers are demanding a congressional investigation into the trading app robinhood after it stopped allowing users to purchase stock in the video game retailer gamestop and other companies. gamestop's share prices have swung dramatically in recent weeks -- at one point surging by over 1800% -- after amateur investors reddit boosted its price, costing billions of dollars in losses to major hedge funds at were tting on its she price to fall. a class action suit brought thursday accuses robinhood of manipulating the open-market to benefit hedge funds at the expense of amateur traders. new york democratic congressmember alexandria ocasio-cortez tweeted in response -- "gotta admit it's really something to see wall streeters with a long history of treating our economy as a casino complain about a message board of posters also treating the market as a

casino." she added, "anyways, tax the rich." in media news, "the daily beast" reports "new york times" science and health reporter donald mcneil, jr. was under investigation over offensive and racist comments he allegedly made while leading a trip to peru with high school students in 2019. after the trip, several of the students told their parents mcneil had repeatedly made sexist comments and used the n-word. "new york times" executive editor dean baquet said the investigation concluded mcneil's "remarks were offensive and that he showed extremely poor judgment, but it did not appear to me that that his intentions were hateful." mcneil has been at the paper since 1976 and is now a top coronavirus correspondent. in more media news, two top executives at cbs were suspended earlier this week over accusations of sexist and racist behavior and following an

investigation by "the los angeles times" detailing how the two executives continuously bullied women journalists, blocked promotions for black journalists, and made racist comments. peter dunn, president of the cbs television stations, and david friend, senior vice president of news, have been placed on administrative leave while a third-party investigation is ongoing. in texas, the austin city council voted earlier this week to buy a hotel that will serve as permanent housing for dozens of chronically unhoused people and use money taken from the city's police budget to provide resources for the people who will live in the hotel. the council back in august voted to cut some $100 million from the police department's budget. a recurring $6.5 million payment from those cuts is being set aside to fund permanent supportive housing and other services for unhoused people. in georgia, at least six people were killed after a liquid nitrogen leak at a gainesville poultry processing plant thursday. nearly a dozen others were sent to the hospital. the plant is owned by the foundation food group.

mexican officials said at least two of the workers who died were from mexico. most of the workforce in gainesville's meat processing plants are latinx. in 2019, four in every 100 meat processing plant workers in the u.s. recorded a workplace injury and at least 12 people died at the workplace. and award-winning african american actress cicely tyson, who was born and raised in harlem, new york, has died at the age of 96. in 1974, sicily tyson won two emmy awards for perhaps her best known role as the lead character in the tv drama "the autobiography of miss jane pittman." tyson also had a supporting role in the 1977 television mini-series "roots." cicely tyson has played many acclaimed tv and movie roles, consistently portraying positive images of african american women.

in 2005, she spoke at a memorial service for the late rosa parks at the metropolitan ame church in washington, d.c. >> i do believe that the reason why rosa parks did not move when ordered to do so was because she knew that king jesus was her -- [applause] and she was not to move. she was like a tree planted by the water. and she was not to be moved. i tell you she was climbing jacob's ladder and she was not to be moved. climbing jacob's ladder and she was not to be moved.

i have to tell you, last night, yesterday when i viewed her body , i was stunned by the strength that came from her face even in death it was there. amy: the late cicely tyson speaking about rosa parks in 2005. democracy now! was there. cicely tyson has died at the age of 96. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. when we come back, we spend the rest of the hour with filmmakers behind the remarkable new documentary "my name is pauli murray," exploring the life of pauli murray, a groundbreaking legal scholar who influenced

ruth bader ginsburg, thurgood marshall, and their largely unexplored experience as a non-binary black person. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. one of president biden's first steps in his first week in office was to end the trump ban on transgender people serving in the u.s. military and issue an executive order to clarify protections fotrans people in the workplace, schools, in health care, and more. he also signed four executive orders to advance what the white house calls his racial equity agenda. the moves are steps on the long path toward equality, and today we spend the rest of the hour

looking back on of the post pivotal figures in this history of this struggle -- pauli murray, a trailblazing black, queer, feminist, poet, lawyer and legal scholar, and priest who was discriminated against from childhood because of their race or gender -- or both -- and went on to question systems of oppression and conformity with a radical vision ahead of their time that influenced landmark civil rights decisions and gender equality legislation that transformed our world. as a civil rights pioneer, pauli muay was arrested 15 years before rosa parks for refusing to give up a seat on a bus. pauli later helped found the national organization for women. pauli also became a priest and is now a saint in the episcopal church. pauli murray story is told in a new documentary premiering at

the sundance film festival that opens this weekend. it features never-before-seen footage and audio recordings of pauli murray in their own words. >> s-down. l down. lidown. [laughr] >> he hato be to erything. myame is pli murray and my elof conceration h been man righ. my who pernal hiory has been a struge to meethe andards excellee in a ciy whichas been dominated by the ideas ttlacks re hently infior to whites andomen we iereny inrior to n.

amy:ow infential w pauli murray ithe fighfor eqlity? th played key rolen velopinghurgood rshall's arguments that led to the unanimous 1954 supreme court ruling in brown versus board of education that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional. and they inspired ruth bader ginsburg's first argument before the supreme court as a lawyer that the equal protection clause that made it illegal to discriminate on the basis of race also made it illegal to discriminate on the basis of sex, a practice murray called "jane crow." pauli murray inspired so many people, yet their experience as a non-binary black person has often been overlooked. there role in all of these histories has been overlooked. in a letter to their aunt

pauline in 1943, pauli murray wrote -- upper cook i don't know whether i am right or whether society or some medical authority is right, i only know that how i feel and what makes me happy. this conflict rises up to knock me to outfit every apex i reach in my career. and because the laws of society do not protect me, i'm exposed to any enemy or person who may or may not want to hurt me." in a new documentary "my name is pauli murray," raquel willis and dolores chandler share how pauli murray is also a hero to many in the trans rights movement. >> is a earerson mixed-ce mysel i thought, thiss a feelg i know well. u have been taut to belie peopleike us d'txist. so wn i ca to know and len

abt pauli murra i w so az, i wanted to hold it so tightly and also i was angry. i was so angry that i felt in some ways i had been robbed of a part of my history. i identify th the turmoil somee who watrying tlive life as completeeing wh an tegrated by, mind, and spir. pauli mray we sitting here tod and iaid, pauli, what pnoundo you u? i don't ow wh pli mray woulay. >>einglack a que myself, i refeto paulis theyre mply pli t acknoedge their exnsive nder exrience. amy:hat is f colorle a dolos chandl in the wilm y name is pauli rray dolores joins us now fromac

durham, north carolina. we're also joined by the films directors and producers julie cohen and betsy west. they grew out of their documentary " "rbg." "i am pauli murray" is premiering at the sundance film festival, one of premiere film festivals in the world, which has just started and is taking place mostly online due to the pandemic. welcome all of you to democracy now! it is great to have you with us. betsy west, i want to begin with you. talk about how you learned about pauli murray and the trajectory that this film has taken following your critically acclaimed film "rbg." >> well, we learneabout pauli murray from rbg. as you mentioned, rbgredited pauli murray with ideas about using the 14th amendment to would equal rights for women. in fact, rbg put pauli murray's name on the coveof theirst

brief she wrote before the supreme court. julie and i heard the namand learned a little bit, but after the documentary "rbg" was finished, we started to do a little more investigating. it did not take long to realize this chapter in pauli's life was just one of an extraordinary sees of events. we just thought does well, fit of all, wow,hy did we ow about pauli murray? one amazing story, and would be possible to make a documentary about pauli? amy: i wanted to go to ruth bader ginsburg. shortly after the supreme court justice ruth bader ginsberg died last year, "time" magazine published a never before seen interview with rbg from 2017

talking about how pauli murray influenced her. >> the 14th mm it contains -- amendment contains deny any person equal protection of the laws. pauli had the idea we should interpret e text literally. is that any person, not any male person. she wrote this remarkable article called "jane crow" where she called attention to all the laws that restricted what women could do. review reid was the turni poinof the gende discminationase in t supre court. i wrotthe brief. i puon the cover pauli murr's me. polly had ready changed her

intere. shwas goin to vinity school she s into mistry, n lawying. t we knew we were writing that brief that we were standing on her shoulders. amy: that is none other than with nader bransford speaking to the -- ruth bader ginsburg speaking to the film makers into 17. julie cohen, if you can take us back. what is the stunning about this and i'm sure for many around the world who are watching or listening to this or reading about it right now, this is the first time they're hearing pauli murray's name yet named by rbg as one of her inspirations. then go back in time to thurgood marshall and before that as well. >> that's right. certainly, there is a growing awareness of progressives in the u.s..

episcopal people who lived in durham, north calina, pockets of street interest in academics who are interested in pauli murray. the fact is, most of us were not taught about pauli murray in our elementary school history classes as perhaps we should have been or later in our schooling and yet this is a person who influenced so many different movements in the u.s., not only as you're talking about the fight for gender equality, but also the fight for racial equality. when pauli murray was at howard law school in the early 1940's, uli wrote a paper making the argument that plessy versus ferguson should be oveurned, 1896 supreme court case separate but equal, the feeling of the civil rights movement at that point was, what we should be fighting for in the separate but

equal realm is to sort of, you know, improve the conditions in segregated institutions. pauli murray's argument was, no, no, no, this whole construct is faulty. separate but equal by definition is unfair. and by keeping people separate, or treating them unequally, you are creating a stamp or badge of inferiority, telling people people need to go into their own corners. pauli's teachers and classmates at howard law school. this idea to radical. there was laughter and mocking. pauli said, i think plessy is going to be overturned. one of her professors made a $10

wager say, no, absolutely no way. of course, 10 years later, 1954, the brown versus board of education supreme court ruling came out saying exactly that, separate but equal is unconstitutional. pauli's law professors were involved in that case. robinson, pauli's professor at howard, thurgood marshall, also teaching at howard like all the great civil rights icons, were very much circling around howard university. in fact, pauli's paper was used in developing the argument that would into the brown versus board of education brief. there are specific points that pauli makes that find their way into the formal brief and into the supreme court ruling. amy: i want to turn to another audio clip of pauli murray speaking at the 1966 harvard law

forum. >> nature does not -- rain, intellect. she simply scatters these with the combination. in some ways, i might have an disadvantaged to have been born a new grow in white america, a woman in a man's profession, left-handed and right-handed world, and i might throw in an orphan at an early age. but there were certain advantages in the status, which i did not see them but i see in retrospect. i therefore came to sex discrimination much later than i came to race discrimination. and having fought the battle of race discrimination, i began to see how integrally these two discriminations were. since i cannot split myself, since i had to be a unified human being, i decided it was

not that was wrong but society that was wrong and that any time society penalizes an individual because of a biological attribute -- whether it be race perse or sex per se -- that society is going to be challenge. amy: that was pauli murray speaking at a harvard law form. in the 1940's, pauli murray wrote a letter to harvard law school after being rejected for a further degree. at the time, the school only accepted men. pauli wrote -- doing "i would gladly change my sex to meet your requirements but since the way to such change has not been revealed to me, i have no recourse but to appeal to you to change your minds."

now, this is not a minor point. she is prevented from going to harvard law school because they said they would not accept women to harvard law school. she would go to the university of california berkeley they get another degree at yale. now a building is named for pauli murray, the first african-american named on a building -- a building is named for. betsy west, if you could talk about a lot of what is embedded in what pauli murray is saying -- now, pauli murray at the time referred to herself as "she," but this is at a time when she had asked protest ostrow treatment -- testosterone treatment. when they were asking doctors, could it be that a fact i am male when there was dependent

problem -- appendix problem, begging the doctor to do exploratory surgery to see if perhaps they had male genitalia inside. >> as you said, this was a struggle that pli went through privately. pauli wrote about civil rights, women's rights her fight for those things. at the same time as a young woman, expressing the feelings, hey, i am a man. in pauli's 30's and 40's, consulting a series doctors. it was extraordinary to read the letters that are in the library at harvard where pauli's archive resides in a folder that pauli

saved for posterity to read. her struggle to find an answer to the feelings that pauli had at the time. you have to remember in the 1930's and 1940's, there were -- there was no language, there were no words to describe the feelings pauli had from the time she was a little girl. and something that was a private struggle that now thanks to her saving all of this we know about. and many people in the trans community have identified with very strongly. he heard from dolores earlier. i ok forward to hearing from dolores. amy: i want to bring dolores into this conversation now. dolores chandler, you were the

project coordinator at the pauli murray project in durham. i want to read a quote from another person featured in the film, the well-known attorney who just had on this from the aclu, chase strangio, who tweeted -- "i hope everyone gets to learn about pauli murray, one of my heroes. i also think it is wrong to refer to pauli with she/her pronouns. i hope we move away from that. we owe pauli the respect to hold the capaciousness of pauli's experiences in the world." dolores, talk about how you learned about pauli murray, your feelings at the time not having grown up with her as here i use the term "her" because she herself earlier -- but in this day and age, as chase strangio says, did not use -- to not use those pronouns, your thoughts?

>> to go back to how i learned about pauli murray, i was really introduced to who pauli murray is and was in 2013 when i learned about the pauli murray project. i think for me, ai mentioned in the documentary, there was a real clear moment of recognition in the sense that here was this person -- and i think racquel willis uses the perfect word "expansive." here is this person so expansive in their being not just in terms of gender, but in terms of every -- a person who has become so

integral in almost every aspect of our culture. and to recognize somebody who is holding a sense of turmoil around something that is very integral to their being. what pauli talks about is the necessity to be -- to not fragment themselves and to be integral or integrated body, mind, and spirit. so i think to refer to pauli with gender neutral pronouns as opposed to with she/her pronouns is an act to acknowledge the complexity and the fullness and expansiveness of who pauli is a person. amy: talk about your thoughts when in your cash and your feelings when he first learned about pauli murray, how you came to be at the time the

coordinator, project coordinator at the pauli murray project in north carolina. >> i came to be in that position really through my field internship. i was in a social work program at unc at the time. i had been invited to participate in weekend long sort of discussion where there were people from disciplines relevant to pauli murray's life. so i spent the weekend with lawyers and priests and theologians. i also was showing up not just as a social worker, but a community organizer and performer and we were talking about the impact pauli murray had had on our lives and our eldon are disciplines -- and our field and are disciplines. forhe first time ever, i s

introduced to this person who not once ever really compromised who they were in order to achieve what they were trying to achieve in the world. in my social work program, i was at the time the only out gender nonconforming also clear person of color -- queer person of color in the program. when you are the only one of your kind in the space, it is very isolating and lonely experience. to then encounter someone like pauli murray and to recognize that there were people like me and people like us who had come before us but because of the way our society is constructed, our identities and the wholeness of

who we are is often treated as either irrelevant or lacking in value, the trans and gender nonconforming folks are forced to sort of in a lot of ways navigate this world with the belief that we are an aberration or anomaly or don't make significant contributions to culture, to society, or to policies. and to then turn around and find this person who experienced similar turmoil, i thought to myself, "oh, this is a lie to be treated as though trans people d't exist or trans people gender nonconforming are non-binary people are a problem or that their contributions are

of value only insofar as we brushed aside or we don't talk about the parts of that person that make us uncomfortable or we don't understand is -- forces that fragmentation and ultimately is a violence. what i learned about pauli murray, if i could have -- if that had been an in person meeting, i would have fully embraced pauli and hugged pauli so tell it to myself because that was a life-giving moment for me. amy: dolores chandler, we're going to go to break and come back to this discussion. dolores is a social worker and an equity facilitator and trainer. "my name is pauli murray." it is premiering at the sundance film festival this weekend. when we come back, not only a

pioneering legal scholar, but also an episcopal priest now saint. we will hear from michael curry. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now! i'm amy goodman. as we spend the hour looking at a person written out of history books, but was so pivotal in the history of the struggle for equal rights in this country pauli murray, the trouble i think black queer feminist poet, lawyer, and legal scholar and priest who influenced landmark civil rights decisions and gender equality legislation that

transformed our world. late in life come after being a tenured professor at brandeis university, pauli murray became a priest in the physical church -- now considered a saint. this is episcopal bishop michael curry speaking about murray's legacy in the fight for civil rights. >> long before, i was 10 years before rosa parks sat down and refused to give up her seat on that bus in montgomery, alabama, pauli murray sat down on a bus and refused to give up her seat, refusing to sit in the segregated section. she anticipated movements that would come years later. she sowed the seeds for change that would eventually happen. it was pauli murray who produced the seminal study of segregation laws throughout the united

states that formed much of the basis for the legal work of thurgood marshall and the naacp legal defense fund that went into the case of brown versus board of education. pauli murray did most of that legal research on civil rights -- on segregation laws that needed to be overturned. that was pauli murray. she anticipated change that would have -- would impact both civil rights but women's rights individually lgbtq rights. she anticipated all of those things in her legal work and legal writing. her friendship with the late eleanor roosevelt was a french of that was built on mutual commitment to values of humane and decent world. she worked assiduously for that kind of world even though she herself did not actually see it.

she wrote and worked for the equality of women and for equity -- in fact, there is a new commentary company article i saw the other day that has ruth bader ginsburg referring to pauli murray as one of her heroines come if you will, in the struggle and in the work. she is an unsung hero for the rights and equity of women. unsung hero for the rights and equality and equity of all people in this country. unsung hero for the rights of lgbtq people in this country. she saw it before it happened and she worked for something that she would never see, but she did it so some of us might actually see it. amy: that is bishop michael curry, the presiding bishop of the episcopal church talking about pauli murray, bishop craig became global when he gave the sermon at the royal wedding of

prince harry and meghan markle. as we continue with the directors of the new film "my name is pauli murray, julie cohen and betsy west, the new documentary premiering a sundance film festival this weekend and we're joined by one of the subjects in the film about pauli murray, jewelers chancellor, who is featured in that documentary, former coordinator of the pauli murray center in durham, north carolina, now a social work in equity facilitator and trainer. julie, the life trajectory of pauli murray, it is incredible. incredible that we in less and different worlds closer in those legal worlds, women's rights worlds, so many have not known about pauli murray. when pauli murray was rejected

by harvard for being a woman, they were doing that even though fdr, the president of the united states, wrote a letter to harvard to say that pauli murray should be accepted. pauli murray was a friend of eleanor roosevelt, who sent flowers to pauli murray when they graduated from howard law school. not only was pauli murray a professor at brandeis, but she also lived in ghana. if you could talk about that part of the trajectory and then deciding to become an episcopal priest in the later years. >> there's so much to this trajectory. it is hard to fit into the segment, hard to fit into a film. every single chapter more fascinating than the last. pauli was motivated to move, to

uproot and move to ghana in late 1950's. at the time, pauli was working as an associate at the prestigious new york law firm paul weiss. for the first time, despite making so many contributions come often pauli was struggling, enough money to pay the rent. finally, paul weiss making a great living, not billing usually fulfilled by the work that was intellectually engaged. in 1959, a man named matt parker was lynched in mississippi. a big national news story at the time. there would be this brutal lynching as late as 1959. it just shook pauli's world. that led to the thought of, you know what?

not only i want to change my career path, but i want to get out of the country for a while. pauli took up an offer to go to the forming new law school in ghana and was there for 18 months teaching constitutional law concepts to african law students. ran into some trouble with the not so interested in constitutional democratic principles government of ghana at the time i decided it would be safer to come back to america. that was when pauli got a doctorate at yale law school. moved into academics. pauli was also an unbelievable puished wrer of th memoi and ptry. ter becing aenur

profesr at randyes, madthe decisi -brandeis, me the decision at the co of erytng paulyad filed for through life, the activist struggles of the legal struggs,aybe polics and laword the best way to achieve -- or t the best way to achieve the huge money manual soetal shi that paulind hers in the vement were eking s up irituaty and god were e answers and that i wh led pauli tdivinity school. at the time pauli started divini school, the episcopal church was not ordaining women. porcelain, by the time pauli got the degree, was ordained as an episcopal priest. those who knew her, we interview

pauli's grandniece, becoming a priest really shifted pauly's perspective and turned pauli from a talker to a listener and mellowed pauli but not in a way that quieted pauly but like a mellowed activist. amy: what is so astounding and how much pauli murray accomplished, amazing memoirist, journalist. had relationships when they ended with women, fell apart. can you talk about overcoming all of this? >> pauli -- >> sorry. >> go ahead, julie.

>> it was the spirituality that helped pauli overcome loss and struggle. and i think that is where -- after the death of a 15 your partner irene barlow that pauli would to divinity school and found in the church -- from the lifelong struggle. amy: betsy, wanted to add? being institutionalized? also understanding their just talking to medil doctors alter this period. >> you can only imagine how incredibly frustrating and difficult it was for pauly to have this strong feeling of being a man and not getting any

kind of validation for this. s, pauli was in and out of institutions, sufferin breakdowns, basically, in the 1930's and into the 1940's. eventually, pauli did find this love relatiohip with irene barlow, which julie sai lasted for 15 years. i think that was a great sole for pauly. i also think pauli had always be religious, gone to this episcopal church, had found relationship with irene -- they shared a passion for religion. they went to church together. i so think it gave pauli space to dote herself to pauli's autobiography, which she spent the last for years of uli' writing very seriously. in one interview, we heard pauli

was introduced as a lawyer turned poet. she said, no, i am a poet turned lawyer. for pauli, brighton was probably the most impornt forof expression -- writing was probably the most important form of expression. she had written a family memoir, "proud shoes" like the precursor to "roots." extraordinary story of her own family, mainly in the 19th century. it went on to finish her autobiography, which was extremely iortant to pauli. amy: we have to leave it there, that people should begin to explore. betsy west and julie cohen there the award-winning directors of "my name is pauli murray." premiering at the sundance film festival virtually this we can. thank you to dolores chandler, former coordinator featured in the film.

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on vaccines raises tensions with the united kingdom. ♪ hello. you're watching "al jazeera." also coming up, the cost of covid. mexico reports its worst economic slump since the 1930's. and gamestop's continued surge causes concern on wall street. and why namibia's government is auctioning off elephants despite

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