Historic Childhood Home of Dr. Howard Thurman
Posted by: Groundspeak Premium Member Markerman62
N 29° 11.950 W 081° 01.293
17R E 497905 N 3230052
Located at 614 Whitehall Street, Daytona Beach
Waymark Code: WM1252R
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 02/29/2020
Published By:Groundspeak Regular Member Lat34North
Views: 11

Side 1
Born in West Palm Beach in 1899, Dr. Howard Washington Thurman spent much of his childhood in this house. Built circa 1888, the house was owned by Nancy Ambrose, Thurman's maternal grandmother, a former slave whose faith influenced his own. At the age of one, Thurman moved with his family to live with his grandmother in Daytona Beach. Family friend Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune was a mentor to Thurman, and her work in African American education influenced him greatly. While in Daytona, he was able to finish the 8th grade, an opportunity rarely afforded to African Americans in the area at that time. Thurman moved to Jacksonville to attend secondary school at the Florida Baptist Academy. He continued his education at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, and was graduated in 1923 as valedictorian. In 1925, he was ordained as a Baptist minister after completing seminary training at the Colgate-Rochester School of Divinity in New York. The school only accepted two black students per year. In the late 1920s, Thurman transitioned from student to teacher, working at multiple religious and educational institutions. In 1929, he returned to Atlanta to serve as the Director of Religious Life at Morehouse College.
(Continued on other side)

Side 2
(Continued from other side)
From 1932 until 1944, Thurman served as the first Dean of Rankin Chapel at Howard University, where he became one of the most influential early voices sharing the nonviolent philosophy of the modern Civil Rights Movement in America. In a 1935 pilgrimage to India, Thurman led the first African American delegation to meet with nonviolent resistance leader Mahatma Gandhi. This experience led him in 1944 to cofound the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco, California. It is an interracial and interdenominational Christian church, described by Thurman as "a pilot development of the integrated church movement in America." Thurman published his most famous book, Jesus and the Disinherited, in 1949, a work that would go on to influence a host of activists and leaders in the Civil Rights Movement, including a young Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1953, Harold C. Case, the president of the predominantly-white Boston University, appointed Thurman as the first black Dean of Marsh Chapel. He served in the position until 1965. As a result of Thurman's contributions to education, African American civil rights, and religious integration, this house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
Marker Number: F-1046

Date: 2018

County: Volusia

Marker Type: City

Sponsored or placed by: New Birth Corporation, Inc., and the Florida Department of State

Website: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
In your log, please say if you learned something new, and if you took any extra time to explore the area once you stopped at the historic marker waymark.

Please post a photo at the marker location.
Search for...
Geocaching.com Google Map
Google Maps
MapQuest
Bing Maps
Nearest Waymarks
Nearest Florida Historical Markers
Nearest Geocaches
Create a scavenger hunt using this waymark as the center point
Recent Visits/Logs:
Date Logged Log User Rating  
hart612 visited Historic Childhood Home of Dr. Howard Thurman 03/25/2020 hart612 visited it
Markerman62 visited Historic Childhood Home of Dr. Howard Thurman 03/04/2020 Markerman62 visited it

View all visits/logs