Civil Rights

Draft of Article/Letter from Donald Murray

Donald Murray Letter 1

Donald Murray Letter 2

About this item

Donald Murray was the first black student admitted to the University of Maryland Law School, in 1935. Charles Houston and Thurgood Marshall prosecuted Murray’s case for the NAACP. In this statement to Thurgood Marshall, Murray describes the events that occurred on the first day he attended classes and also expresses his views on integration and prejudice.

“I have enumerated these incidents because in no other way can I more clearly express the attitude of my class & to a lesser extent that of the remainder of the school. They have been kind, reasonable, and mature in their attitude of acceptance and several times I have found myself wondering if prejudice isn’t simply an unreasonable bias toward something one does not know—at least I am fairly sure this can be said of the more educated.”

Donald Murray. No Trials & Tribulations, ca. 1935, concerning Murray v. Maryland.
Holograph manuscr
ipt.
NAACP Records, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (081.00.00)
Courtesy of the NAACP
Digital ID # na0081p1

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