Howard Washington Thurman National Memorial
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Dr. Howard Washington Thurman is considered a "Twentieth Century holy man." Ebony and Life magazines identified him as one of the 10 greatest preachers in America.
Thurman's influence is seen upon the College's emergence as a center of the Ghandi-inspired strategy of nonviolent resistance. Under his tutelage, Morehouse became an early laboratory for the study of nonviolence as a tool for confrontation and change, ultimately impacting Dr. Martin Luther King's leadership in the civil rights movement.
Thurman is also considered a forerunner in the religious movement of celebrating the unity of all people, embracing a religious spirituality that was intercultural, interracial, interdenominational and international. His influence-which has touched the lives of countless chaplains, deans, imams, ministers, priests, preachers, rabbis and lay persons-continues.
A 1923 graduate of Morehouse College, he was a teacher and preacher to Morehouse and Spelman. He served as the first dean in Andrew Rankin Chapel at Howard University and Daniel Marsh Chapel at Boston University. Dr.Thurman was co-founder and pastor of the Church for the Fellowship of All People in San Francisco, which recently celebrated its 50th anniversary.
Dr. Thurman authored 23 books including Jesus and the Disinherited and The Inward Journey. He died in 1981.
