03/03/2025
Women’s History Month kicks off at SUNY Cortland with an event highlighting the legacy of a woman whose activism has inspired sources as varied as a Supreme Court justice and the U.S. Mint.
“Moving Forward Together! Women Educating & Inspiring Generations: Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray” will be Tuesday, March 4, at 5 p.m. in Brockway Hall’s Jacobus Lounge presented by the civil rights icon’s niece, Distinguished SUNY Cortland Alum Rosita Stevens-Holsey ’65.
Stevens-Holsey will discuss the decades Murray spent as a teacher, lawyer, priest and advocate for social justice in her talk, sponsored by SUNY Cortland’s Center for Gender and Intercultural Studies (CGIS).
“Pauli is such an inspiring figure in the history of our country when it relates to the intersections of race, gender and class that everyone ought to know about them,” said Bekeh Ukelina a professor in the History and Africana Studies departments and director of the CGIS. “They were an advocate of gender equality and used their legal career to dismantle systems of oppression.”
Among their many accomplishments, Murray was one of the founders of the National Organization of Women, served on President John F. Kennedy’s Presidential Commission on the Status of Women, and was the author of “States’ Laws on Race and Color,” a 746-page book that then-counsel for the N.A.A.C.P and eventual Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall referred to as “the Bible” for the Brown v. Board of Education case.
In 2024, quarters were released by the United States Mint that feature Murray as part of the mint’s American Women Quarters program, which honored notable American women.
“Pauli articulated the concept of “Jane Crow” long before the term intersectionality became a buzzword in academia,” Ukelina said. “Their legal scholarship provided a framework to challenge racial and gender discrimination. The work they did as their Yale Law thesis, “States’s Law on Race and Color” was an important tool that was used by civil rights lawyers.”
During last year’s Alumni Reunion, Stevens-Holsey got to talk with President Erik J. Bitterbaum and Provost Ann McClellan, starting the process that led to Tuesday’s presentation.
“She has brought her lived experiences to connect with students in ways that are deeper than just attending a lecture,” Ukelina said. “We are so humbled by her willingness to go to any classroom she is invited to, to speak with the students and to share her story.”
He added that events like this one show students that they’re getting more than an education at the university — they’re becoming part of a legacy.
“It is really empowering for us both, the faculty and students, to have her here on campus and be able to share both her own life and that of Pauli with us.”
Stevens-Holsey has had her own storied career, graduating with a bachelor’s in education from Cortland, earning a master’s in education from Boston University and teaching in New York state. She then became a systems engineer for IBM, one of the first Black professionals hired by the organization.
Later, she founded a management consulting and executive search firm in Atlanta, Georgia, becoming director of the Regional Minority Purchasing Council in partnership with the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and the Savannah Chamber of Commerce.
Along the way she founded Preserving Pauli Murray, LLC. Since retiring in 2022, Stevens-Holsey has dedicated herself to promoting the memory of Murray.
She will be available throughout the week and is happy to meet with students, faculty and groups, according to Ukelina. Those interested in hosting her during her visit to campus can contact the Provost's Office or CGIS.
“We want the audience to be inspired to take action,” Ukelina said. “We are living in very unsettling times, and many people are confused and not sure what tomorrow holds. Pauli navigated very difficult situations and changed our country for good. We can take inspiration from their story and that of Rosita, and work to bring about change.”