This, and other federal actions, have severely impacted the center and historic preservation organizations across the country. In this conversation, Angela Thorpe Mason, the center’s executive director, discusses the role the organization has played in one of Durham’s historically Black neighborhoods, how they are faring in the wake of the announcement, and how readers can offer their support.

What kinds of programs and resources does the Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice offer?

Almost anybody can find a point of entry to Reverend Dr. Pauli Murray's legacy and themes around history, creativity, social justice, activism, and education. For us, education looks like welcoming kindergarten through university students on field trips, and our Pauli Murray Social Justice Teaching Fellowship where we train local educators how to apply social justice and equity-centered teaching pedagogy in a way that allows them to retain their jobs. In North Carolina, teachers of certain grade levels can’t teach stories like Pauli’s, by law, without their jobs being compromised.

We also have our name and gender marker change clinics, where we partner with the North Carolina Bar Foundation to provide pro bono service to our queer community and support them in changing their names or gender markers and claiming an identity that is theirs. For us, that is a beautiful marriage of history and social justice as we understand Murray in terms of what they did as an attorney and how they navigated a gender expansive identity. This is us pulling a throughline from history to the present to offer a social justice service to the community.

The center recently announced that its $330,000 IMLS grant was unexpectedly cancelled by the federal government. How has the center been navigating the impact of that decision?

Paul Murray is somebody who, though they experienced a great deal of hardship and strife, didn't fall into despair, and they kept strategizing and moving forward and working. The termination of our federal funding is not something that we were completely shocked by. It didn't mean that the termination wasn't hard and that it wasn't a gut punch, but we had already begun proactively planning.

What we lost was roughly 16 percent of our operating budget for fiscal year 2025 and 20 percent of our operating budget for fiscal year 2026. It's been really important to me to amplify our being impacted so people understand what is at stake financially and in terms of programs and employment opportunities for our community.

In the absence of federal support, have you seen a community response?

It has been remarkable to see the community support us and I think some of what I'm learning is it's important to ask for what you need. We’ve raised over $50,000 over the last month, and the majority of those gifts have been less than $100, which really demonstrates a quote my board chair says that “shavings make a pile,” every gift counts.

We have also seen a significant increase in visitors since January. Oftentimes, you can tell that they are carrying something — oftentimes despair, confusion, a sense of hopelessness—and by the time they leave, they feel empowered and grounded because they can explore Pauli’s activist framework and the ways that Pauli coped with times that felt treacherous and impossible as well.

That certainly has been the work of a lifetime, to be able to use our space to provide healing, hope, and possibility to folks in what has been a really difficult time.