Pauli Murray Murals &
Community Monuments
Five Pauli Murray murals were created between 2007 and 2009 as a part of the Face Up: Telling Stories of Community Life collaborative public art project in Durham, North Carolina. More than 1,500 people participated in a series of events that fostered new connections and dialogue, expanded awareness of local history, and lifted up the life and legacy of Pauli Murray. In total, the Face Up project resulted in the creation of fourteen permanent public monuments. The project was led by artist Brett Cook who has more than 20 years of experience with collaborative community-based artmaking.
The murals are now installed on the exterior walls of businesses, schools, and other publicly accessible places in downtown and Southwest Central Durham, and reflect the creative involvement of children, students, professors, neighborhood residents, and elders.
Face Up: Telling Stories of Community Life is a project of the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University in association with the Southwest Central Durham Quality of Life Project and the Duke University Office of Community Affairs.
Pauli Murray True Community
Location: 313 Foster Street
Text in mural: “True community is based on upon equality, mutuality, and reciprocity. It affirms the richness of individual diversity as well as the common human ties that bind us together.”
Pauli Murray, A Youthful Spirit
Location: 2520 Vesson Avenue
Text in mural: Pauli Murray (1910-1985)
Pauli Murray Roots & Soul
Location: 1101 West Chapel Hill Street
Text in mural: “It has taken me almost a lifetime to discover that true emancipation lies in the acceptance of the whole past, in deriving strength from all my roots, in facing up to the degradation as well as the dignity of my ancestors.” - Pauli Murray from Proud Shoes
Pauli Murray & the Virgen de Guadelupe
Former Location: 2009 Chapel Hill Road
Pauli Murray in the World
Location: 117 S. Buchanan Boulevard
Credits
Face Up was supported by the North Carolina Arts Council with funding from the state of North Carolina and the National Endowment for the Arts. Other major supporters and partners are the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation; the Mary D.B.T. Semans Foundation; the Council for the Arts, Office of the Provost, Duke University; the Visual Studies Initiative, Duke University; the Department of Art, Art History, and Visual Studies, Duke University; the Office of the Senior Vice President for Public Affairs and Government Relations, Duke University; the Lehman Brady Visiting Joint Chair Professorship in Documentary Studies and American Studies at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; TROSA (Triangle Residential Options for Substance Abusers); Greenfire Development; the Durham Food Co-op; Lakewood Elementary School; the Chameleon; the Azteca Grill; the Institute for Southern Studies; and the Lakewood-Tuscaloosa Neighborhood Association.