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Profiles in African-American Chaplaincy

Credit: Boston University, licensed under Creative Commons (see below).
Credit: Boston University, licensed under Creative Commons (see below).

Howard Thurman

Dean of Marsh Chapel, Boston University and Author

Born: November, 18, 1899 (or 1900), Daytona Beach, Florida

Died: April, 10, 1981, San Francisco, California

Field of chaplaincy: higher education

  • Thurman was ordained in 1925 as a Baptist minister while completing his studies at Rochester Theological Studies, where he graduated as valedictorian.
  • In 1932, Thurman was selected as the first dean of Rankin Chapel at Howard University.
  • Thurman cofounded the Interracial Fellowship Chuch for All Peoples in San Francisco in 1944, which was the first interracial and interfaith congregaton in the United States.
  • In 1949, one of Thurman’s most influential books, Jesus and the Disinherited, was published.
  • Thurman became the first Black dean at Marsh Chapel, a predominantly white institution in 1953.
  • During the American Civil Rights era, Thurman was deeply involved with nonviolent social movements and influenced many social action leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr.

Image credit: Boston University via OnBeing / Flickr, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Citations:

Luther E. Smith Jr., Howard Thurman: Essential Writings (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 2006), 13-33.

Howard Thurman, With Head and Heart: The Autobiography of Howard Thurman (San Diego: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1979), 227.

“Howard Thurman — Britannica Academic.” Accessed July 12, 2021. https://academic.eb.com/levels/collegiate/article/Howard-Thurman/487424.