Pauli Murray: In the Heart of the Struggle

Reflections inspired by Glenda Gilmore’s “Am I a ‘Screwball,’ or a ‘Pioneer?’ – Pauli Murray’s Civil Rights Movement.”

According to Glenda Gilmore, Pauli Murray “never won elective office. She never became famous. She never made enough money to stop worrying about making ends meet.” Gilmore characterizes Murray with “indomitable persistence and relentless self-invention;” traits that allow her to keep fighting in the face of hardship and to keep leading despite the bumps along the way.

In our discussions of Northouse, we might say that Pauli Murray was not a “successful” leader. However, it is more than possible that she was what we, and Northouse, would call an “effective” leader.

In class on Friday, I wondered if it was possible that a position of successful leadership hindered the motivation of leaders to be effective, following visions and influencing changes. Successful leaders are to given a title, and with that title, a label of leadership – whether or not the leader is leading or simply staying the course. If one has title and power and things are running smoothly, why change? Why innovate? The goals have already been set, and the goals are being met – it seems that leadership becomes easy and monotonous in these types of positions; it seems to relate to what William Deresiewicz called “hoop-jumping.”

Effective leadership, on the other hand, exists when times are hard and the waters are troubled – when a change needs to be enforced and a fight must ensue in order to do so. Again returning to Deresiewicz, he discussed the idea that the best writers have the hardest time writing because the difficulty forces them to think and plan harder than those to whom writing comes easily. In this same sense, leadership is the strongest in those leaders who are forced to struggle along the way – they are forced to work harder for what they believe is right, required to be passionate and dedicated to their causes, drawn to develop a stronger strategy to achieve their goals and visions. The best leaders are not those to whom leadership is handed, not those for whom leadership is cultivated – but they are those who discover leadership within themselves.

As Glenda Gilmore states, referring to Pauli Murray, “leaders aren’t just the few famous people who dominate the news or find their place in history books. They don’t always represent the majority. They aren’t always popular. They don’t always win, and they aren’t always remembered. Leaders such as Pauli Murray, brave and obscure men and women who act on their convictions even though they fail time and time again, sometimes change the course of history.”