Howard Thurman Case
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Howard Thurman (November 18, 1900- April 10, 1981) was a minister, theologian, philosopher, statesmen, pioneer, and called by many the “Spiritual Father” of the American Civil Rights Movement. He was the first Dean of Rankin Chapel at Howard University. He would be appointed the first African American tenured dean at a predominantly white university becoming the Dean of Chapel at Boston University. A renowned author, Thurmans literature based on peace and community amongst all human beings would directly influence many prominent figures in the American Civil Rights Movement to include Martin Luther King, Jr. and James Farmer.
Early Life and Education
In 1900, Howard Thurman was born in Daytona Beach, Florida. Howard was the middle of three children born to the Thurman family with Henrietta, the oldest, and Madeline, the youngest. At the age of seven Thurmans father, Saul died of pneumonia leaving his mother to financially support the family. Thus, Howards mother would for long stretches of time, have to leave the home to perform domestic duties for white families. This left the raising of Howard and his siblings up to his grandmother, a former slave.
Pushed to pursue education by his grandmother, Howard would become the first Negro child in the town to receive an eighth grade certificate from the public schools. (
Using the work ethic taught to him by his mother and grandmother Howard Thurman would academically excel at Florida Baptist Academy. His academic success would earn him a tuition scholarship to Morehouse College in 1919. It was at Morehouse that Thurman decided he wanted to go into religion. While at Morehouse he preached his trial sermon his freshman year and became an ordained Baptist minister. It was also at Morehouse that his interest in philosophy was awakened by a young faculty member Benjamin E. Mays. During his junior year this interest pushed Howard to earn enough academic cash prizes to attend Columbia University to study philosophy. Howard Thurman would eventually graduate from Morehouse College as the valedictorian.
After graduation from Morehouse, Howard decided he wanted to attend seminary. In the spring of 1926 he enrolled at Rochester Theological Seminary in Rochester, New York. Rochester Theological Seminary offered Howard a scholarship as much for his academic prowess as for the need of the school to reach a Negro student quota. (
Career
“From my childhood I have been on the scent of the tie that binds life at a level so deep that the final privacy of the individual would be reinforced rather than threatened. I have always wanted to be me without making it difficult for you to be you. When I completed this manuscript, I was struck by the feeling that here I had set down the case in rather formal terms, for what reveals itself is my lifelong working paper.” (The Search for Common Ground, 1971)
Shortly after graduating from Rochester Theological, Howard Thurman was pastor at Mount Zion Baptist Church in Oberlin, Ohio from 1925-1928. At a religious conference, he read a small book written by Dr. Rufus Jones. After reading this book, Howard knew he had found the person to lead him further–Dr. Rufus Jones. Dr. Jones was a great Quaker mystic and leader of the pacifist Interracial Fellowship of Reconciliation. Dr. Jones was at that time teaching at Haverford College. The next year Thurman studied privately with Dr. Jones, in turn obtaining his first introduction to the history and study of mysticism. Here began Thurmans journey towards a philosophy that stressed an activism rooted in faith, guided by spirit, and maintained in peace.
When he left Dr. Jones, Thurman was under appointment to Morehouse and Spelman Colleges in Atlanta. He taught two classes at Morehouse and Spelman College, philosophy of religion and the Bible as living literature . After his wifes death in 1932, Thurman would take a sea voyage to find solace and restoration. While in Europe he would find healing of his innermost center and become ready for his journey ahead. (Thurman 1979, p. 82) Upon returning to America in 1932, Howard Thurman would become the first dean of Rankin Chapel at Howard University in Washington D.C. He served there from 1932-1944. He would also meet his second wife , Sue Bailey, while at Howard.
A New Community
The idea of an interracial church first came to Howard Thurman in 1935. In 1935, as guest of the Student Christian Movement to India, Burma, and Ceylon, Thurman would meet Mohandas Gandhi. God-given faith, Gandhi proclaimed, could be used to fight the oppression of white American segregation. He challenged Thurman to rethink the idea of Christianity as a religion used by whites to keep black “in their place” with images of a white Christ and ideas of a land of milk and honey in the great beyond. (www.pbs.org/thisfarbyfaith/people/howard_thurman.html: 2003, para. 8)
Ghandi would challenge Thurman to find the principles in Christrianity that would help African Americans achieve equality in America. Thurman