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Pauli Murray
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Proud Shoes: The Story of an American Family Kindle Edition

by Pauli Murray (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 144 ratings
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First published in 1956, Proud Shoes is the remarkable true story of slavery, survival, and miscegenation in the South from the pre-Civil War era through the Reconstruction. Written by Pauli Murray the legendary civil rights activist and one of the founders of NOW, Proud Shoes chronicles the lives of Murray's maternal grandparents. From the birth of her grandmother, Cornelia Smith, daughter of a slave whose beauty incited the master's sons to near murder to the story of her grandfather Robert Fitzgerald, whose free black father married a white woman in 1840, Proud Shoes offers a revealing glimpse of our nation's history.

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  1. Print length
    290 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Beacon Press
  4. Publication date
    June 25, 2024
  5. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A classic on the intertwining fictions of race and sex, the depth of their cruelty, and the strength that has defied them. Present-day America cannot be understood without true stories like the ones Murray tells."  —Gloria Steinem

"Pauli Murray is one of the founding leaders of the modern American women's movement, and I am glad to see her wonderful book in print again." —Betty Friedan

"Moving and remarkable.… Proud Shoes traps the beast of American slavery, in particular, the strange and tragic domestic struggle between master and slave, and the ironic 'gift of white blood' that still nourishes and suffocates many Americans." —Jack Hicks, The Nation

"A significant contribution to our understanding of the black experience in America.… Fascinating." —Publishers Weekly

About the Author

The Reverend Dr. Pauli Murray (1910–1985) was a lawyer and civil-rights activist, America's first black woman Episcopalian priest, and a founder of NOW.

Patricia Bell-Scott is professor of family and child development and women's studies at the University of Georgia. She was founding editor of SAGE: A Scholarly Journal on Women and has been a contributing editor to Ms. Magazine. She has published several books, including Life Notes: Personal Writings by Contemporary Black Women, Double Stitch: Black Women Write About Mothers and Daughters, and Flat-footed Truths: Telling Black Women's Lives (with Dr. Juanita Johnson-Bailey).

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07QVGZGFV
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Beacon Press; Reprint edition (June 25, 2024)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 25, 2024
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 290 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 144 ratings

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Pauli Murray

Pauli Murray

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Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
144 global ratings
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2 Stars
Missing pages
My review isn’t for the content of the book but for a printing mistake. My copy is missing page 45 and 46. If someone would just send me a PTF of those pages then I will change the rating.
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Top reviews from the United States

Portia Coyne
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant!
Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2022
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Proud Shoes is a brilliantly written historical/sociological/personal exposition of three generations of Pauli Murray’s immediate family, from slavery to post Reconstruction. She was a highly talented person who seemed to excel at whatever she undertook, and this excellent exposition of her family and the contexts they lived their lives in is deeply researched, deeply felt, beautifully written, and fascinating.
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M LaFleur
5.0 out of 5 stars A Memoir That Reads Like a Novel
Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2022
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I really enjoyed this book. What a history lesson! Pauli Murray was an extraordinary woman who carefully researched her family history. I gained an insight into the African-American contribution, bravery and sacrifice during the Civil War, the difficulties of living in the Jim Crow South, and the horrors of the Ku Klux Klan. People who are familiar with Durham, Hillsborough, and Chapel Hill will recognize landmarks, and enrich their knowledge of the history of the area.
2 people found this helpful
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Cynthia H. Grossman
5.0 out of 5 stars American History
Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2018
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Proud Shoes: The Story of An American Family, Pauli Murray. This book was originally published in 1956, and is republished as a Scholar Select. It is most interesting. It begins when our narrator is a small child living with her grandparents and two aunts in Durham, NC. She tells the history of her grandparents' trials and tribulations of being mulattos. Grandfather had many occupations, mostly as an educator; he also served in the Union Army. Grandmother looked more like her white father and was raised by his sister. Grandfather was a Fitzgerald from Pennsylvania; grandmother was a Smith from Chapel Hill.
I learned some history of my area of North Carolina, told from a different perspective. I found this story to be most thoughtful, and I highly recommend it.
7 people found this helpful
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Holly
5.0 out of 5 stars African Americans still struggle over 100 years after their freedom from slavery!
Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2020
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Do not read the Foreword first! I did and then set the book aside for months. Finally went back and started the second time only with Chapter 1. It is hard to put down the book! Incredible! Begin with Chapter 1 and at sometime later go back and read the Foreword. Excellent report of one person’s personal experiences and those of her family! Heartwarming and uplifting! We, Americans, still have along way to go, unfortunately! Why are we so dense?
One person found this helpful
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MS. Butchie
4.0 out of 5 stars LOVE IT
Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2021
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LOVE IT
One person found this helpful
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greydog
5.0 out of 5 stars Heroine
Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2016
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Truly extraordinary stuff by an excellent writer.
This woman wrote up background briefs for Thurgood Marshall when he was still with the NAACP, she organized the first restaurant sit-in's (in DC in early 1940's), she got the Army, during WWII, to make a first step toward placing segregated restaurants off limits for all personnel. She was a co-founder of NOW.
None of the above is in this book, it's the story of her family. If was not well received when published as miscegenation was a crime until the '70's in some places.
But it is an important book for today what with the interest in Jefferson's black descendants and the rediscovery that the Civil War was truly about slavery.
It would be a wonderful addition to University social justice curricula.
11 people found this helpful
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Elliot S! Maggin
5.0 out of 5 stars You should know more about Pauli Murray
Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2013
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Dr. Pauli Murray was a hero. One of my heroes, as it happens. This is the true story of her family's journey from enslavement to moral, intellectual and economic success. These are the people who, today, are becoming America. When Dr. Murray, a recent Yale Law School grad, applied to the Massachusetts bar she had to account for an arrest she had in another state in the 1940's. It seemed she was protesting civil right violations when Martin Luther King was in high school. Any laws she broke at the time - and she did - had since been rescinded or repealed. She was admitted to the bar, as well as to several university faculties, and eventually to the Episcopal priesthood. This is a significant historical figure about whom we all should know more.
10 people found this helpful
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J. Alyssa
5.0 out of 5 stars This woman deserves more notoriety
Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2020
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A must read for lovers American History. Pauli Murray should be required reading; she is one of her greatest figures of the 20th century.
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Top reviews from other countries

Camila Esteves
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing!
Reviewed in Canada on September 30, 2018
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One of the best books I’ve read so far this year. The characters are complex and the story just grips you from the beginning. Worth every page!
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