Read The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Social Justice for Free Online

theYWCA, who was now escorting newcomers around thesite. Margaret “Pee Wee” Inniss was an immigrant from Trinidad and one of the earliest recruits. Though she had only a married half brother in the United States and no college training, she dreamt of running her own interracial camp for children. An indomitable spirit, she availed herself of every free course and training opportunity she could find. Pee Wee, who was a prankster, was well liked; she directed plays, organized sports teams, and served as circulation manager for the camp’s biweekly bulletin, Tera Topics . She also made a practice of writing frank letters about her concerns to public officials, including Eleanor Roosevelt.Murray was impressed by both Pee Wee’s audacity and the fact that thefirst lady wrote back. Murray wouldone day wage her own “confrontation by typewriter,” she called it, with ER and the president.
    Murray and Pee Wee might have been assigned to the same room in an old wooden cabin because they were among a handful of black enrollees. The “narrow cubicle” they shared held their cots, footlockers, and a dresser. Ordinarily, any hint of racialsegregation raised Murray’s ire. However, she was ill and lonely, and it pleased her to have the company of a friend.
    Surrounded by the smooth, red-brown cliffs ofBear Mountain, stands of mountain laurel and hemlock, the glistening waters of Lake Tiorati, and a congregation of birds, chipmunks, deer, and rabbits, Murray felt a serenity she had never before known. There were no work requirements other than keeping herpersonal space and the common areas clean. Even as a child, she had not had this kind of leisure.
    Life at Camp Tera reflected Eleanor Roosevelt’s belief that exercise in the open air enhanced one’s overall well-being. Here, Murray could choose activities from hiking, swimming, canoeing, and relay racing to ice-skating, tobogganing, and horseback riding. She could participate in dramatic skits, discussion groups, and songfests. She could play an assortment of ball, board, or card games and take art, crafts, and dance classes.
    Murray’s favorite pastimes were hiking and curling up in a corner to read and write. She had no aptitude for or interest in the domestic arts. She had not learned to cook, and she never would. More comfortable “with a pen than a needle,” she hated sewing. Athletic and tomboyish, she preferred outdoor work, like chopping wood, to housekeeping.
    The food at Camp Tera was wholesome and plentiful, and Murray’s appetite was insatiable. For breakfast, there was fruit, cereal, eggs, toast, and coffee; for lunch and dinner, ham or frankfurters, sauerkraut, scalloped potatoes, cabbage, bread and butter, cocoa, and tea.Thanks to the first lady, the residents enjoyed turkey, dressing, and holiday sweets at Thanksgiving and Christmas.
    Food, shelter, exercise, and rest brought Murray nearly to full strength in a month.Her sense of well-being got an additional boost from a new friend, Margaret “Peg”Holmes.Peg was a round-faced, golden-haired camp counselor from an upper-class family in Putnam County, New York. She was athletic, fun-loving, and popular. Residents affectionately nicknamed her “the second Babe Ruth.” Peg taught English and dance. She also supervised outdoor sports and Tera Topics . She and Murray were close in age. They liked to hike and readpoetry together.
    The friendship with Peg and the verdant landscape stirred Murray’screative juices. Her poem“Poet’s Memo,” which appeared in the 1934 Christmas issue of Tera Topics , was replete with romantic phrases like “Your face, beloved,” sensual imagery such as “wavelets sighing,” and allusions to the Greek myth ofPan, the half-human, half-goat god said to watch over all wildlife. That Pan was also known for his seductive powers and that Murray referred to Peg privately as Pan suggests that this poem was perhaps an homage to Peg as well.
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    ON THE SUNDAY ELEANOR