Profiles in Black History is a project of our Justice Works Anti-Racism Team. A new profile will be spotlighted every day during Black History Month.
Howard Thurman (1899-1981)
"Howard Thurman" by On Being is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
“Howard Thurman grew up in Daytona, Florida and was raised by his grandmother, a former slave. As a child, Thurman complied with his grandmother’s request that he read the bible aloud to her, and he developed an interest in the text at a very early age. … After receiving a bachelor of divinity degree from Rochester Theological Seminary in 1926, he served as pastor of the Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Oberlin, Ohio. In the spring of 1929, Thurman studied mysticism at Haverford College under Rufus Jones, who was a Quaker. Mysticism came to figure prominently in Thurman’s theology. Indeed, Thurman evolved into a mystic who grounded all of his work in the idea that “life is alive” with creative intelligence. … In 1929, Thurman returned to the South to serve as Professor of Religion and Director of Religious Life at Morehouse and Spelman colleges. This marked the beginning of his role as a forerunner in theological education at black colleges and universities … In 1932, Thurman moved to Washington, D.C. to become Professor of Religion at Howard University, where he was appointed the first Dean of Rankin Chapel in 1936. Also during that year, he became the first person to lead a delegation of African Americans to India to meet with Mahatma Gandhi. … In 1943, A.J. Muste of the Fellowship of Reconciliation invited Thurman to recommend a student to help establish and co-pastor the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples (Fellowship Church) in San Francisco—the first major interracial, interfaith church in the United States. To Muste’s surprise, Thurman offered to co-pastor the church. … Through the establishment of Fellowship Church, Thurman brought together people of different faiths, races, and classes in common worship and fellowship. This church has been designated as a national historic landmark for its creative ecclesiology and pioneering social vision. The Gandhian ideas that Thurman developed in the years just before and during his tenure at Fellowship Church received a larger audience through the publication of his most famous work, Jesus and the Disinherited (1949), which deeply influenced leaders of the civil rights struggle.”
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Source: https://www.bu.edu/htpp/thurman/
Rebecca Riley is a writer and filmmaker who lives in North County San Diego.