April 22, 2025

Durham's Pauli Murray Center loses $300,000+ federal grant; NC architect reflects on challenges facing Smithsonian museum she helped design

38 minutes

The Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice in Durham is a historical site dedicated to the commemoration of the life and work of Reverend Doctor Pauli Murray, a queer, Black human rights and social justice advocate, priest, poet and organizer from Durham. The museum opened to the public in 2024 and is located in and around Murray’s childhood home.

Last week, the Center lost a federal grant of over $300,000 from the Institute for Museum and Library Services. Just weeks earlier, Pauli Murray’s biography page was removed from the National Park Service and the page for the Pauli Murray House was scrubbed of words like “queer” and “transgender.”

Due South's Leoneda Inge talks with Angela Thorpe Mason, the Executive Director of the Pauli Murray Center.

Then, a White House Executive Order “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” cites content from the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) as an example of how the “Smithsonian Institution has, in recent years, come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology.”

The NMAAHC has deep ties to Durham, where the late Phil Freelon, the museum’s architect of record, built his career. Architect Zena Howard worked with Freelon for many years and was senior project manager for building the museum. Howard joins Due South’s Leoneda Inge to reflect on the impact of the NMAAHC and the challenges that it, and many other public spaces focused on history, face today.

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