Pauli Murray's Proud Shoes

In Pauli Murray’s Proud Shoes, tells the story of her family. It is one of great struggles and triumphs as she tells the lives of her grandparents, Robert and Cornelia Fitzgerald. Both hail from backgrounds of mixed race, which in the 1800s was an extremely rough road to navigate. Murray’s writing on her grandparents brings to light the role of gender and race during a time of great tension in the United States.

Throughout the book, Murray focuses on the hardships of the individual. Robert Fitzgerald wanted so badly to serve his country in the Civil War, but due to his race he was not allowed to initially. As a man who identified as a free man it is understandable that Robert struggled with the fact he was not allowed to serve his country in a war that would have a great impact on his race. Once the Attorney General made the statement that a free man of color was a citizen, times changed. Robert was able to serve in the Navy but not actual combat like he wanted so desperately. He was discharged shortly after joining due to an injury he had received working as a quartermaster. “The battle wound that was not regarded as official” (134) this shows how despite the men's service, the world they

lived in continues to discount their actions. Robert’s determination to serve shows readers a side of the Civil War often left out of the history books. The many African American men who served in the war are often skimmed over if they did not accomplish a feat of nature. By choosing to detail the story of Robert and his dream to fight in the war, Murray is able to help the reader understand the social context of the time.
In Murray’s grandmother Cornelia’s story, a theme is relationships. Cornelia is the child of a slave, which in most instances would result in her being brought up as a slave. Cornelia however established a very strong relationship with her father, Sidney Smith, a white man from the prominent Smith family of Chapel Hill. Cornelia’s relationship with her father was not common for the day. Despite the fact her father had raped her mother, and owned slaves, Cornelia remained devoted to the Smith family into her later years. The relationship Cornelia held with the Smiths goes beyond the social and political norm of the day. Although she still did work for the family, she had countless other privileges, many slaves could not imagine. Her status as a child of a slave and a white man resulted in Cornelia identifying more with the white people in her childhood. She and her half sisters attended church with their aunt, Miss Mary, and were even confirmed with the daughter of an ex governor (53). Murray is able to take the rather odd relationship held by the Smiths and Cornelia, and show the reader how important the bounds of family were even in the deeply segregated South.
The beginning of the book is primarily made up of Murray’s recounts memories of her grandmother Cornelia from when she was a child.

Most all of them feature Cornelia’s temper. One incident involving the neighbor's horse led to a spectacle for the neighborhood. It ends with the neighbors daughter calling Cornelia a “crazy old witch” (20). Although the neighbor’s daughter had been the one who had done wrong, it appeared to onlookers that Cornelia was simply a crazy woman. Cornelia was simply standing up for herself. Had Robert done the same, he would have been seen as asserting his power and protecting his property. Cornelia defied the current gender roles of the time, being the more strict of Murray’s two parents, while Robert was the more maternal figure in the

household.
Proud Shoes not only tells the story of a colored family in the times of slavery and segregation, but explores several deeper subjects. Murray explores the role gender has continued to play in the lives of women of color from pre Civil War to the mid 1900s. The roles of relationships, allow the reader to understand the time period with a new lens.