NEW YORK (AP) — When the pressure gets intense, law student Jasmine Marchbanks-Owens likes to wander the hallways of Howard University, examining the faded, framed photos of prominent Black graduates of decades past.Howard Uni - proud new home of Nikole "1619" Hannah-Jones
"It’s just really inspiring to be able to see people that look like me that attended this university and became attorneys," says the first-year student, whose great-great grandmother was born into slavery. "So, when I get stressed out, I like to walk down here and look at all the names and see all the faces."
Most of the faces are men. But Marchbanks-Owens stops by the photo of one prominent woman, Pauli Murray, a 1944 graduate whose legal theories influenced the landmark school desegregation case Brown vs. Board of Education, argued by future Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall. In 1971, Murray also wrote then-President Richard Nixon, mostly tongue in cheek, to suggest Nixon make her the first woman on the high court.