by Carol Verburg
As The Semaphore went to press, a celebration was in the works to honor one of Telegraph Hill’s most distinguished residents. Dr. Howard Thurman is known worldwide for his pivotal work in philosophy, religion, and social justice. As a mentor and inspiration to civil-rights leaders, Dr. Thurman authored many influential books, including Jesus and the Disinherited, a favorite of both Martin Luther King Jr. and Jesse Jackson.
In 2020, writing about the Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground at Boston University, Rich Barlow noted: “His life bridged eras: Born the grandson of a former slave in horse-and-buggy days, he died the year the IBM personal computer debuted. . .He preached a philosophy of Common Ground, which taught that humans need to seek an inner spiritual happiness that would lead them to share their experience in community with others.”
In 1944, Dr. Thurman cofounded San Francisco’s Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples, the first integrated interfaith religious congregation in the United States. Dr. Thurman reluctantly left Fellowship Church in 1953 to accept the position of Dean of Marsh Chapel at Boston University, the first Black dean of a mostly white university.
When he retired in 1965, he and his wife, Sue Bailey Thurman, returned to San Francisco. 2020-2022 Stockton Street, on the corner of Pfeiffer, housed their family and the office of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust until Howard Thurman’s death in 1981.
Eighty years after its founding, Fellowship Church chose “We’re Still Here!” as the theme for its annual Convocation on October 20, 2024. The church building at 2041 Larkin Steet on Russian Hill is now a San Francisco Historic Landmark. And on October 19, thanks to the efforts of neighborhood residents and a widespread coalition led by the Thurmans’ grandson Anton Wong, a Commemorative Street Marker was unveiled that designates the block outside 2020-2022 Stockton as Dr. Howard Thurman Way.
