Cora Pulley survives a hard road

By Marcus McClain

NEA Town Courier

Before leaving office, former governor Asa Hutchinson announced 42 pardons on Dec. 6. And with the help of one former state representative, one of those pardons reached back to Blytheville in 1981.

Now residing in Memphis, Cora McCray Pulley’s record held a Class B theft felony for numerous years. The conviction left her holding 10 years of probation. But on Jan. 20, Pulley received paperwork confirming the pardon and cleaning the slate of her one and only offense.

“State Representative [Monte Hodges] really helped me and went to bat for me. I didn’t have to call him much at all. When I did, he would say, ‘Yes ‘ma’am, I know who you are!’ I told him what I was trying to do and he got on it for me. I thought this day would never come,” Pulley said.

“It’s so much to it with all the paperwork they ask you to get. It’s a lot to do before even sending it to the parole board. But I’m so thankful and happy that [Hodges] worked on it because I was told [Hutchinson] had a pile of pardons on his desk and he was getting ready to leave office. That’s when Monte stepped in, and it was a long time coming, but thank God a change has come.”

Even prior to her ‘81 conviction, Pulley lived a life with several hurdles to overcome. As an eighth grade student, her older sister passed away during childbirth. Her parents worked throughout the day and operated a cafe in the evening, leaving a void of care for Pulley’s seven nieces. As a result, Pulley dropped out of school to help fill the need. As a young teenager, she carried the responsibilities of cooking and cleaning for both households.

“If momma would come home and the [house wasn’t clean], I would get beat down. My daddy never really knew how I got treated at home and I never told him. But it was bad, so I just prayed a lot. I danced with the broomstick and I danced with the bedpost because I was always cleaning and doing chores,” Pulley said.

“Because I was looking for love in all the wrong places, I came up pregnant. And I was forced to get married. They pushed our age up like I was 18 and he was 20, but that wasn’t the case. After so long, I followed him to Kansas City and got a job working at a restaurant washing dishes because I knew I couldn’t handle the money.”

However, Pulley was one day asked to open the restaurant. Consistently giving away excessive change, she was fired and eventually found her way back to Blytheville.

“I was praying and asking God for a job. And He told me to go to Montgomery Ward and I would get a job there. So I went there with no education and told the man God sent me there for a job. He was a Christian man, but I didn’t know it at the time. He just took my name and number and put it under the telephone,” Pulley said.

And one day, she got the call.

“When a position came open, he called me and said they had an opening. He said, ‘Just come and fill out the application and you’re going to get the job.’ I went up there and everything was going well for me. I had finally got a good job, even with no education. They put me with a woman named Gale and she taught me how to count and run the register. She was the greatest. She taught me a lot and I got good at my job,” Pulley said.

As she continued to work, she gained more and more respect for her co-workers and eventually built herself into a managerial position. But once a new supervisor was hired, trouble followed.

“He was fond of me, too fond. I was sexually harassed by him after not complying with his advances. He became verbally degrading and humiliating in front of the one other female employee. He cut my hours making it hard for me to survive with my five children at the time,” Pulley said.

After confronting him directly, Pulley was faced with even more degrading. She detailed the racist comments and actions she was forced to deal with as a result.

“After that I was just angry and I lost sight of who gave me the job, which was God. I had never had a white person talk to me like that before. Once things got bad for me and my children, I started stealing, I own that. To this day that’s something I most regret.”

To that point, Pulley had been in legal trouble throughout her life. Stealing $250 worth of merchandise, she was arrested, spent one night in jail and received a 10-year probation. These were her penalties for a crime that she had witnessed supervisor allowing white people to commit.

“There was no ‘Me Too’ movement or anything like that back in those days where I could get some help,” Pulley said.

“I hate that I had to deal with all of that but I handled it wrong. I always prayed to God about everything and I should have prayed to him about that man. But I got angry and anger is not of God.”

Despite the trials she was faced with and lack of support at the time, help came as the possibility of a pardon arose. Numerous letters of support were sent to the state on her behalf from fellow minister Curtis Smith, her daughter Ashunta McCray, apostle Lizzie Sanders, Gwendolyn Barr and a host of others.

Since then, Pulley has thrived as a minister, author and singer. She’s sang with the Tennessee Mass Choir, at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, at the Titanic Relief Exhibit, numerous places in the city of Memphis and even back at the Ritz Civic Center in Blytheville.

“I thank God I made it through because it was a long hard road,” Pulley said.