Unit 5: Selection Vocabulary 4

She wrote the book Thurgood Marshall referred to as the bible of the civil rights movement and her work on sex discrimination inspired Ruth Bader Ginsburg to cite her in the first legal brief Ginsburg argued before the Supreme Court.

Eventually, UNC avoided having to admit Murray or other African American students when it made provisions for what it deemed an equivalent program in Durham, North Carolina, and so satisfied the court’s ruling.

The writing she generated throughout the experience, however, demonstrates the developing nonviolent resistance strategies she espoused.

Murray went against the grain of historical precedent that relied almost exclusively on legal arguments, and used psychological and sociological evidence to argue that race was an arbitrary classification, and therefore racial segregation was unconstitutional.

Murray’s memo helped convince skeptics in the White House and Congress that the provision regarding sex was not just an add-on, and in fact, was necessary to achieving the bill’s goals.

The instructor said,
Go home and write
a page tonight.
And let that page come out of you—
Then, it will be true.

I wonder if it's that simple?

Breathe deep even if it means you wrinkle
your nose from the fake-lemon antiseptic

of the mopped floors and wiped-down
doorknobs.

Your teacher means well,
even if he butchers your name like

he has a bloody sausage casing stuck
between his teeth, handprints

on his white, sloppy apron.

And when
all those necks start to crane, try not to forget

someone once lathered their bodies, once patted them
dry with a fluffy towel after a bath, set out their clothes

for the first day of school.

And when
all those necks start to crane, try not to forget

someone once lathered their bodies, once patted them
dry with a fluffy towel after a bath, set out their clothes

for the first day of school.