MLK and Howard Thurman

You might figure I'd reflect on the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. today, this being an American holiday and all. There is no question that King was a giant of the 20th century and arguably a Christian martyr and saint.

However, I'll bring your attention to another African-American Christian whose influence on MLK and others in the Civil Rights movement was profound. Howard Thurman's name was vaguely familiar to me, but a recent article about a new documentary on this preacher and theologian was eye-opening. The doc is called Backs Against the Wall: The Howard Thurman Story, and will be shown on PBS stations during February.





Thurman was instrumental in founding an interracial and intercultural congregation in San Francisco, The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples, in 1944. According to John Lewis, another key civil rights figure, it was Thurman who provided Dr. King with a spiritual basis for nonviolence after visiting Mahatma Gandhi in India, shaping King’s strategy for resisting Jim Crow laws in the American South of the 1950s. Lewis offers that Thurman “came back (from India) speaking and talking about the philosophy and the discipline of nonviolence and he would preach and teach at colleges and universities, would give these unbelievable lectures. It influenced Dr. King a great deal. He painted a picture. He made it real.”

The film’s director, Martin Doblmeier, said that when King arrived at Boston University as a doctor of theology student, he was already aware of Thurman. Thurman, who was on the faculty at the university and served as dean of its chapel, had attended Morehouse College with King’s father, Martin Luther King Sr.

What’s most important, I think, historically is not just the personal friendship but the fact that Martin Luther King Jr. would come and sit in those homilies and those lectures that Howard Thurman gave, He took voluminous notes because he really did believe that Howard Thurman had a lot to say and then would go on oftentimes and quote Howard Thurman in his speeches over the course of the next many years.

Not only do I appreciate learning about Howard Thurman, and look forward to this film, it is an important reminder that we are all shaped by those who have gone before us, for bad and for good. Thank God for the witness of Howard Thurman and MLK.

Oh yes, a full-length film is on the way as well. http://www.howardthurmanfilm.com/

Here is my Groundling howl about the Wolf Moon last night
https://groundlingearthyheavenly.blogspot.com/2019/01/a-super-night-to-howl.html