The Most Influential, Forgotten Woman in American History: Pauli Murray

Pauli Murray is the first person to address intersectionality issues relating to race and gender. Many years before Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Malcolm X and other well-known Black leaders were fighting in the Civil Rights Movement, Pauli had already fought, and won, those fights. She provided the blueprint for those leaders - or followers of Pauli. As Thurgood Marshall said, one of Pauli's books was the "bible" that the leaders used to navigate the Civil Rights Movement. She also provided the roadmap to Marshall and his team on how to overturn Plessy v. Ferguson and eradicate Jim Crow laws. 

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg flat out said that she was standing on Pauli's shoulders when she was pioneering women's rights in the 1960's and 70's. Ginsburg acknowledged that the civil rights leaders at that time weren't doing anything new; they were simply re-doing what Pauli had done but at a time when society was more ready to listen. 

Pauli was born in November of 1910 and died in July of 1985. During that time, she was instrumental in creating the arguments, and fighting the fights that ultimately lead to Black Americans obtaining civil rights, women gaining equality and society being more livable. 

She is also the most unknown, but most influential woman in American history.