Howard Thurman: Moral anchor to the Civil Rights Movement

Past Events

October 04, 2023 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM Weekly On Wednesday Until October 18, 2023

Online Via Zoom

Howard Thurman was arguably the most important 20th century African American religious leader before Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and is universally acclaimed as the moral anchor to the modern Civil Rights Movement. This minicourse introduces participants to Thurman in the contexts of African American religious and cultural activism. It explores his relationships with pivotal 20th century actors including Mahatma Gandhi, Reinhold Neibhur, Abraham Heschel, Olive Schreiner, Rufus Jones, Paul Robeson, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mary McCloud Bethune, demonstrating Thurman as connector and convener, who engineered spiritual reform and an inward journey towards common ground and interfaith work in America.

Class 1: Up From Slavery—Introducing Howard Thurman in Historical Context

Class 2: Mentoring the Movement

Class 3: Searching for Common Ground and the Beloved Community

View Course Resources

About the Instructor

Fatimah Fanusie, Ph.D., ICJS Program Director for Justice Leaders

Fatimah Fanusie is a historian of 19th- and 20th-century American religion whose research is an evolving reappraisal of the study of African American Islam, the modern Civil Rights Movement and Islam in the West. She is also a lecturer in the Islamic Studies department at Johns Hopkins University and a Historian Consultant for the Howard Thurman Historical home in Daytona Beach, Florida. She received her B.A. in History and Arabic from Lincoln University, her M.A. in American History from Tufts University, and her Ph.D. in American History from Howard University.