During the late 1930s, Murray returned to North Carolina, partly at the behest of her Aunt Pauline, with the intention of pursuing graduate work at the University of North Carolina. In 1938, Murray was declined admittance to UNC because of her race. Her unsuccessful effort to challenge the decision was the first of three pivotal experiences in her journey towards pursuing a career in law. The second occurred shortly thereafter, in 1940, when Murray and a friend were arrested for violating segregation statutes and for creating a public disturbance when riding a Greyhound bus through Petersburg, Virginia. On the coattails of her arrest and short prison term, Murray began to work for the Workers Defense League, specifically with the legal defense effort for Odell Waller, an African American sharecropper sentenced to death for the murder of his white landlord. Her work on this case was the third pivotal incident, and it led her to meet Leon Ransom, who arranged for her to attend Howard University on a full scholarship. During her years in law school at Howard University, Murray continued to pursue her interests in matters of racial justice; however, it was also during those years that she became acutely aware of gender discrimination. After her graduation, Murray pursued further education at the University of California, Berkeley, and worked briefly as the Deputy Attorney General of California before accepting a position with a law firm in New York. During the early 1960s, Murray traveled to Ghana where she helped set up a law school. In addition to describing her work there, she also offers a unique perspective on African politics during the early 1960s. After her return to the United States, Murray worked as a law professor at Brandeis University and continued her political involvement on the Civil and Political Rights committee of the President's Commission on the Status of Women and with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In 1973, she left her position at Brandeis in order to enter the seminary, in part because she believed that the civil rights and women's liberation movements had become too militant and that an emphasis on reconciliation would better result in equality. The remainder of the interview is devoted to a discussion of Murray's poetry, her book Proud Shoes, and her views on racial and class differences within the women's movement.