My Name Is Pauli Murray (2021)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Name Is Pauli Murray is a documentary film which premiered in 2021. It covers the life and work of Pauli Murray from the beginning in 1910 to the end in 1985.

 

Pauli Murray was a civil rights activist, a lawyer, a minister, and a poet, who made important contributions to the struggle for equality, freedom, and justice for all in the US. But until recently her name was not well-known among the general population.

 

When her name is mentioned, many people will ask: who is she? What did she do? When they are told she was a pioneer who did important work to promote civil rights in the US, many people will ask: if her work and her contributions were so important, why do I not know her name? Why did I not hear anything about her until now?

 

This film tries to answer these questions. It tells us what she did and how she did it. It discusses the numerous obstacles she had to face in her life. And it tries to explain why she was not given the credit and the recognition she deserved.

 

It is based on evidence Pauli Murray left behind, on interviews with people who knew her, and on interviews with historical and legal experts who have followed and studied her life and her work.

 

Here is some basic information about this film:

 

** Directors: Julie Cohen and Betsy West

** Writers: Julie Cohen, Talleah Bridges McMahon, Cinque Northern, and Betsy West

** Producer: Talleah Bridges McMahon

** Run time: 93 minutes

 

THE CAST

Here are the names of the people who are interviewed in the film (listed in alphabetical order):

 

** Patricia Bell-Scott – author of a biography: The Firebrand and the First Lady (2016)

** Dolores Chandler - former coordinator, Pauli Murray Center

** Brittney Cooper – associate professor of women’s and gender studies, Rutgers University

** Sonia Pressman Fuentes (born 1928) – an author and a lawyer - founding member of NOW (founded in 1966)

** Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933-2020) – lawyer, member of the US Supreme Court 1993-2020

** Tina Lu – Professor of East Asian Languages and Literature, Head of Pauli Murray College, Yale University

** Marghretta McBean - daughter of Adelene McBean who was Pauli's friend

** Ernest R. Myers – former student at Brandeis University

** Mary Norris – a friend

** Eleanor Holmes Norton (born 1937) – Yale School of Law 1964 - since 1991, she is a delegate who represents the District of Columbia (the capital) in the US House of Representatives

** Inez Smith Reid (born 1937) – a retired judge

** Rosalind Rosenberg – author of a biography: Jane Crow: The Life of Pauli Murray (2017)

** Karen Rouse Ross – Pauli’s grand-niece

** Reggie Sapp – former student at Brandeis University

** Chase Strangio – ACLU attorney

** Raquel Willis – writer, activist, MS Foundation

 

Archive footage is used between the talking heads. Archive footage is used to support and supplement the statements made by the talking heads. Archive footage makes it possible for the viewer to follow the life of Pauli Murray via old photos and video clips.

 

RATINGS AND REVIEWS

What do reviewers say about this film? Here are the results of three review aggregators:

 

62 percent – IMDb

73 percent – Meta

95 percent – Rotten Tomatoes

 

On IMDb there are five user reviews. Here are the ratings and the headlines:

 

80 – Finally

100 – Why?

100 – An unsung hero

100 – How did I not know this woman?

100 – A love story for democracy and equality

 

As you can see, these reviews offer ratings which are much higher than the average rating on the website. The average rating of these five reviews is 96 percent.

 

On Amazon there are at the moment 139 global ratings and 112 global reviews. The average rating is 4.6 stars, which corresponds to a rating of 92 percent.

 

Most reviews (89 percent) are positive. They offer four or five stars. But a few reviews (8 percent) are negative. They offer only one or two stars.

 

To illustrate the positive and the negative trend, I will list some of the headlines.

 

Here are some one star reviews on Amazon. They hate it.

 

** Worn out storyline

** All lies!

** Trash

** Overhyped

** Perfectly ridiculous

 

Here are some five star reviews on Amazon. They love it.

 

An excellent documentary

A story most people should know

Informative documentary

Phenomenal!

Genius; phenomenal documentary

I should have known… But I know NOW!

Well-done documentary

Inspiring

Very enlightening

Superb US history documentary

Wonderful documentary

A remarkable documentary

Relevant more than ever

A must for everyone

Brilliance

OMG I’m 70 and I’m just now learning about this woman?!

American legal history: The untold story of a pioneer

Very well done

Amazing

Awesome

Important

What a remarkable documentary

A great film

An inspiration

Extraordinary!

 

CONCLUSION

I understand the numerous positive reviews. I agree with them. Pauli Murray was an extraordinary pioneer in the field of civil rights. The story of her life and her work is important and deserves to be told. In this film it is done very well.

 

I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of five stars (100 percent).

 

PS. Julie Cohen and Betsy West are directors of RGB, a documentary film about the life and career of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which premiered in 2018.

 

REFERENCES

 

** Proud Shoes: The Story of an American Family by Pauli Murray (1956) (1999)

 

** Dark testament and Other Poems by Pauli Murray (1970) (2018)

 

** Pauli Murray: The Autobiography of a Black Activist, Feminist, Lawyer, Priest, and Poet (1989)

 

** Pauli Murray and Caroline Ware: Forty Years of Letters in Black and White edited by Anne Firor Scott (2009)

 

** The Firebrand the First Lady by Patricia Bell-Scott (2016)

 

** Jane Crow: The Life of Pauli Murray by Rosalind Rosenberg (2017)

 

** Beyond Respectability: The Intellectual Thought of Race Women by Brittney Cooper (2017)

 

** Pauli Murray: A Personal and Political Life by Troy R. Saxby (2020)

 

*****

 

Pauli Murray (1910-1985) 

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Julie Cohen - director

 

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Betsy West - director

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The FBI's War on Black America (1990)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The FBI’s War on Black America is a documentary film which premiered in 1990. The title explains the topic.

 

Here is some basic information about this film:

 

** Producers and directors: Deb Ellis and Denis Mueller

** Run time: 53 minutes

 

Several persons are interviewed in the film. Some of them are no longer alive today. Here are the names of the participants (listed in alphabetical order):

 

** Stokely Carmichael (aka Kwame Toure) (1941-1998) – a civil rights activist

 

** Kathleen Cleaver (born 1945) (married to Eldridge Cleaver 1967-1987) - former minister of information, the Black Panther Party

 

** Cortland Cox – former member of SNCC

 

** Jeffrey “Jess” Hass – People’s Law Office

 

** Pete McCloskey (born 1927) – a politician – member of the US House of Representatives 1967-1983 – a Republican from 1948 to 2007 – a Democrat since 2007

 

** Lutrelle “Lu” Palmer (1922-2004) – a journalist

 

** Elmer “Geronimo” Pratt (1947-2011) – former minister of defense, the Black Panther Party

 

** Bobby Rush (born 1946) – a politician

 

** Phillip Smith – professor of history

 

** Robert Starks – professor of political science

 

** Flint Taylor – People’s Law Office

 

Archive footage is used between the talking heads. Archive footage is used to supplement and support the statements made by the talking heads. Archive footage makes it possible for the viewer to see old clips of the following five persons who are no longer alive:

 

** Malcolm X (1925-1965)

** Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)

** Fred Hampton (1948-1969)

** Huey Newton (1942-1989)

** Eldridge Cleaver (1935-1998)

 

THE PLOT – PART ONE

The word COINTELPRO is mentioned many times in this film. This word is an acronym. The letters stand for three words: Counter Intelligence Program.

 

COINTELPRO was a secret and illegal program established by the FBI in 1956. The purpose of this program was to monitor, to infiltrate and ultimately destroy dissident organizations and movements which were regarded as an enemy by Herbert Hoover, who was for many years the director of the FBI.

 

Targets of COINTELPRO included the following organizations and movements:

 

** The anti-war movement

** The civil rights movement

** The women’s liberation movement

** The American Indian Movement (AIM)

** The Black Panther Party (BPP)

** The Socialist Workers Party (SWP)

** The Communist Party of America

 

In 1971, when the existence of the program was revealed to the public, it was officially terminated. The official statement could be true. Or it could be false. Some people believe the program was continued under another name.

 

In this film, the focus is on the Black Panther Party.

 

The five persons whose lives are partially covered by archive footage are no longer alive. Four of them were killed by an assassin. Only Eldridge Cleaver was not killed by an assassin. He died in 1998 at the age of 62.

 

Was the FBI involved in the death of the other four? Fred Hampton was killed in a raid organized by the FBI and the Chicago police. This is a fact. As for the other three, we cannot say that they were killed by the FBI, but the FBI did what they could to create a climate and an atmosphere in which a killer would feel justified when killing one of these persons.

 

THE PLOT – PART TWO

Several cases are covered in the film. One case is covered in great detail: the case of Elmer “Geronimo” Pratt, the former minister of defense in the BPP.

 

Why was he chosen for this post?

 

** Because he was a former soldier in the US army

** Because he had been stationed in Vietnam

** Because he knew about guns and ammunition

 

He was able to teach members of the BPP how to handle guns and ammunition. The BBP position on arms was something like this: 

 

“We do not want to attack anyone, but if we are attacked, we will defend ourselves in any way we can. This includes armed resistance.”

 

The FBI did not like Geronimo. A veteran of the US army was not supposed to join an organization such as the BPP. He was a target. The FBI wanted to arrest him and send him to prison in order to silence him. Since they did not have any real evidence against him, they decided to frame him for a real crime.

 

In 1970, he was arrested for a crime committed in Santa Monica in 1968. Two persons (a man and a woman) were attacked. The woman died, while the man survived.

 

In 1972, the case was tried in a court of law. What was the evidence against Geronimo?

 

# 1. An eyewitness identified him at the scene

# 2. His car was seen leaving the scene

# 3. His gun was used in the attack

# 4. A former member of the BPP claimed Geronimo had bragged about how he had committed this crime

 

Regarding items # 1 and # 2: eyewitness identification is unreliable. No matter if we have to identify a person or a car, the identification is unreliable. The witness may be honest and sincere, but the identification is still unreliable. 

 

When it is possible to verify an eyewitness identification, it often turns out to be false.

 

Regarding item # 3: Geronimo had a gun but, it was BPP property and it was often used by others.

 

Regarding item # 4: was the former member of the BPP honest and sincere? Or was he making the whole thing up?

 

How did Geronimo respond? He said he had an alibi. At the time when the crime was committed in Santa Monica, he was in Oakland, which is more than 300 miles from Santa Monica. Whatever an eyewitness might say or think, he was not there.

 

What happened at the end of the trial? The jury believed the prosecution. Geronimo was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

 

After the trial was over, it was revealed that the former member of the BPP who had testified against Geronimo was actually an FBI informant. Therefore, his testimony had little or no credibility. This witness was merely saying what the FBI had told him to say.

 

But this detail was not enough to change anything. In 1990, when this film was made, Geronimo was still in prison. When the camera pans out, we realize that he is behind bars!

 

In 1993, three years after this film was released, new information was discovered.

 

The FBI confirmed they had evidence which placed Geronimo in Oakland at the time of the crime.

 

According to the FBI, this evidence had been “lost” but now it had been found again!

 

In other words: the FBI had evidence which supported Geronimo’s alibi, but it had not been presented in court. It had not been turned over to the defense. It was kept secret.

 

In 1997, a second trial was held. This time, Geronimo was found not guilty, because the government had failed to disclose exculpatory evidence. He was released from prison.

 

In an amazing move, Los Angeles prosecutor Gil Garcetti appealed the verdict. The prosecution refused to admit the truth: they knew Geronimo was not guilty from the very beginning. He had been framed.

 

In 1999, the case was tried in the California Court of Appeal. The government lost. And the verdict of 1997 was upheld. Geronimo was declared innocent. He was exonerated.

 

He had served almost 27 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. He had been arrested and convicted of murder, even though the government knew he was innocent. This is a case of wrongful conviction. Based on false arrest and malicious prosecution.

 

RATINGS AND REVIEWS

What do reviewers say about this film?

 

On IMDb it has a rating of 64 percent, which corresponds to 3.2 stars on Amazon. There is one user review on IMDb.

 

This review offers a rating of 100 percent. The headline says: “Evergreen reminder that the roots of racism run deep.”

 

On Amazon there are at the moment 49 global ratings and 30 global reviews. The average rating is 4.4 stars, which corresponds to a rating of 88 percent.

 

Most reviews (87 percent) are positive. They offer 4 or 5 stars. But a few reviews (10 percent) are negative. They offer only one star.

 

Here are some headlines.

 

Positive reviews:

 

** Excellent

** Well done

** Ugly but true

** Very informative

** Solid documentary

** Absolute watch for all Americans

 

A negative review:

 

** Somewhat misleading or intentionally deceptive

 

CONCLUSION

This film covers a dark chapter of American history. The story of the FBI's war on Black America has been told in several books and articles since the existence of COINTELPRO was revealed to the public in 1971. In this film it is done very well.

 

In my opinion, the rating on IMDb is too low, while the rating on Amazon is more appropriate.

 

I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of five stars (100 percent).

 

PS # 1. Kate Coleman has written about the case of Geronimo Pratt in The New Republic (27 June 2011). In this article, she writes as follows:

 

“While Pratt was a victim of the government’s attempt to destroy the Panthers, he was also a victim of a schism within the Black Panther Party.

 

“Panther leader Huey Newton ordered members not to corroborate Pratt’s alibi that he was in Oakland meeting with Panther Central Committee members at the time the murder took place.”

 

PS # 2. This film is featured in the Howard Zinn Education Project. Supporting documents (related resources) include the following items:

 

** COINTELPRO by Ursula Wolfe-Rocca

** The FBI’s war on the civil rights movement

** This day in history: 8 March 1971 - The existence of COINTELPRO is exposed

 

PS # 3. The People's Law Office is based in Chicago (Illinois). The staff are civil rights lawyers who want to defend the constitutional rights of their clients. For more information about this law office, visit the website.

 

REFERENCES

 

# 1. Articles available online

 

** Dan Whitcomb, “Framed Black Panther spent 27 years in jail,” Reuters, 23 October 2000

 

** Rupert Cornwell, “Obituary: Geronimo Pratt: Black Panther leader who spent 27 years in jail for a crime he did not commit,” The Independent, 23 October 2011

 

** Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar, “The FBI’s War on Civil Rights Leaders,” The Daily Beast, 16 January 2017 (updated 11 February 2021)

 

** Alice Speri, “The FBI has a long history of treating political dissent as terrorism,” The Intercept, 22 October 2019

 

# 2. Books

 

** COINTELPRO: The FBI’s Secret War on Political Freedom by Nelson Blackstock (with an introduction by Noam Chomsky) (1976) (1988)

 

** FBI on Trial: The Victory in the Socialist Workers Party Suit Against Government Spying by Margaret Jayko (1988)

 

** Agents of Oppression: The FBI’s Secret Wars Against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement by Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall (1988) (2001)

 

** The COINTELPRO Papers: Documents from the FBI’s Secret Wars Against Dissent in the United States by Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall (1990) (2001)

 

** FBI Secrets: An Agent’s Exposé by M. Wesley Swearingen (with a foreword by Ward Churchill) (1995) (chapter 9 is about the BPP) (chapter 13 is about COINTELPRO)

 

** Last Man Standing: The Tragedy and Triumph of Geronimo Pratt by Jack Olsen (2000) (2001)

 

** The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther by Jeffrey Hass (2009) (2019)

 

** The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover’s Secret FBI by Betty Medsger (2014)

 

** COINTELPRO: An Oral History of the FBI’s Most Notorious Program by the Church Committee (volume 6 part 1) (2020)

 

# 3. Films

 

** Free Angela and All Political Prisoners - a documentary film which premiered in 2012

 

** The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution – a documentary film which premiered in 2015

 

** MLK/FBI – a documentary film which premiered in 2020

 

** Judas and the Black Messiah – a historical drama which premiered in 2021

 

*****

 

 Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt

(1947-2011)

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A secret FBI document

(a COINTELPRO memo)

about actress Jean Seeberg

who gave financial support to 

the Black Panther Party

 

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