Celebrating Howard Thurman

Mentor to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The former Dean of Howard University’s Rankin Chapel, in stained glass perpetuity.

The Floridian I’m celebrating today is one of America’s most unsung heroes, Howard Thurman, who was born not too far from Mar-A-Lago in 1899, into a Southern society steeped in racism and replete with barriers designed to keep Blacks subdued, subjugated, and subservient.

In part owing to his profound effect on Dr. King—as a family friend, Boston University mentor, and author of King’s favorite book, Jesus and the Disinherited—Thurman arguably did more than anyone else to advance Civil Rights in the USA. He was an indefatigable pioneer, opener of doors, and guru. For example, when PhD student King was on the fence regarding whether to side with Mahatma Gandhi or Malcom X, Professor Thurman was the one who pulled King onto the side of peaceful—but creative and forthright—non-violent resistance.

Dr. King was far from the only one who sought out—and followed—Thurman’s counsel. Gandhi did as well, when Thurman led a “Pilgrimage of Friendship” delegation to India in 1935-36. Other Thurman fans and followers included Bayard Rustin, Eleanor Roosevelt and Rufus Jones, the renowned Quaker peacemaker behind the only religious organization ever to be awarded a Nobel Prize.

In today’s parlance, Thurman was an Influencer’s Influencer. At a time when there were very few Black students or faculty members, he was as highly respected at Harvard and Haverford as he was at Howard. He founded what most experts say was the country’s first truly interracial congregation, Fellowship Church in San Francisco. When he spoke in Chicago, hundreds of billboards blanketed the City, as if he were world heavyweight champ Joe Lewis.

One of the most striking things about this mystical Civil Rights revolutionary with the soulful baritone voice and captivating stage presence that held audiences every bit as rapt as Sir John Gielgud reprising Hamlet was that he almost never wrote or spoke about Civil Rights. Instead, as King learned to do, Thurman spoke about the content of one’s character; not the color of their (or his) skin. Though he was very proud of his African-American heritage, he never wanted to be known as a “Black leader.” Just a leader in service of the Greater Good, which to him included always behaving as if we were under what he called “Divine Scrutiny.”

Though he led several Christian congregations, his serious issues with all “institutional churches” made him a non-denominational leader in all Wisdom Traditions.

But he was a Follower, first. Most especially of the Beatitudes, as delivered in that famous Sermon on that famous Mount by that famous Nazarene peasant Thurman always called “The Master.”

In two days, as the USA rightly celebrates the life and teachings of a singular Civil Rights leader, I respectfully submit that it’s also right to celebrate the man who, more than anyone, influenced the great Rev. Dr. King.

It is therefore my pleasure to share the link to Martin Doblemeier’s terrific 2018 documentary of Thurman.

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