8. Anna Murray was the first African-American woman to be ordained as an Episcopal priest Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons This fiery woman exchanged letters with both Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt for many years and was considered one of Eleanor’s dear friends. Although her work has rather sadly faded from view, Murray’s expertise in law was a vital part of the Civil Rights movement. She worked closely with icons like Thurgood Marshall and Rosa Parks, and was appointed by President Kennedy to the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women in the 1960s, where her work focused on “Jane Crow”: how discrimination against black people particularly and deeply affected black women, and the ways in which sexism and racism combined to affect black women. Murray died of cancer in 1985. In the last decade or so, her work has been brought back to light through various efforts, including making her childhood home a National Historic Landmark, and a blockbuster dual biography of Murray and Eleanor Roosevelt, The Firebrand and the First Lady. 34
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