"Howard-Thurman"(November 18,1899-April 10,1981)

Was an influential African American,author,philosopher,theologian,educator,and civil rights leader.He was Dean of Chapel at Howard University and Boston University for more than two decades,wrote 21 books,and in 1944 helped found a multicultural church.Howard along with Mordecai Johnson & Vernon Johns,was considered one of the three greatest African Americans preachers in the early 20th-century.


He was born in Daytona Beach,Florida and grew up in the segregated South.


In 1923,Howard graduated from Morehouse College as valedictorian.He was ordained a Baptist minister in 1925,after completing his study at the Colgate Rochester Theological Seminary (now Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School).Shortly after ordination,he pastored Mount Zion Baptist Church in Oberlin,Ohio from 1925-1928.He then pursued further study as a special of philosophy at Haveford College with Rufus Jones,a noted Quaker philosopher and mystic.


Howard was selected as the first dean of Rankkin Chapel at Howard University in the District of Columbia in 1932.He served there from 1932-1944.He also served on the faculty of the Howard University School of Divinity.


He traveled broadly,heading Christian missions and meeting with world figures such as Mahatma Ganddhi.When Howard asked Mahatma what message he should take back to the United States,Mahatma said he regretted not having made nonviolence more visible as a practice worldwide and suggested some American black men would succeed where he had failed.


In 1944 Howard left his tenured position at Howard to help establish the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco.It was th first racially integrated,interrated church in the United States.He served as co-Pastor with a white minister,Dr.Alfred Fisk.Many of their congregation were African Americans African Americans who had migrated to San Francisco from Oklahoma,Texas,and Arkansas for jobs in the defense industry.The church helped create a new community for many in San Francisco.


Dr.Thurman was then invited to Boston University in 1958,where he became the first African American dean of Marsh Chapel (1953-1965).He was the the first African American to be named tenured Dean of Chapel at a a majority-white university.In addition,he served on faculty of Boston University's School of Theology.Howard was also active and well known in the Boston community,where he influenced many leaders.During his tenure at Boston University,the the Marsh Chapel Experiment was conducted (though without his knowledge).


After leaving Marsh Chapel in 1965,Howard continued his ministry as chairman of the board and director of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust in Sn Francisco until his death.


He was a prolific author,writing 20 books of ethical and cultural critism.The most famous of his works,Jesus and the Disinherited (1949),deeply influenced Martin Luther King Jr.and other leaders,both African American & White,of the modern Civil Rights Movement.(Howard was a classmate and friend of Martin's daddy at Morehouse College.Martin Luther King Jr.visited Howard while he attended Boston University,and Howard in turn mentored his former classmate's and his friends).He served as spiritual advisor to Dr.Martin Luther King,Jr., Sherwood Eddy,James Farmer,A.J.Muste,and Pauli Murray.Reb.Zalman Schachter-Shalomi cited Howard as among the teachers who first compelled the the former to explore mystical trends beyond Judalism.


Howard was married twice.He had two children:Olive,by his first wife Kate Kelly Thurman (she died in 1930 of Tuberculosis),and Anne Spencher Thurman,by his second wife Sue Bailey Thurman.Sue was active in civil rights and the religious communities.Olive married Victor Wong.


Howard died in San Francisco.