The Reverend Howard Thurman, Blackness, and Vassar College: Student Panel and Presentations
On February 15, 2024, four students presented their original research on the legacy at Vassar College of the Black theologian the Reverend Howard Thurman, and offered their perspectives on the role that Thurman played in shaping the Vassar of the past, present, and future.
The students had developed their research in their Fall 2023 Intensive on Reverend Thurman. Reverend Thurman, who was a mentor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Bayard Rustin, and Pauli Murray, gave over a dozen sermons at Vassar College between 1928 and 1952. His daughter, Olive Thurman ’48, was one of the first Black students to graduate from Vassar. The student panel was moderated by Professor Jonathon Kahn, Director of Engaged Pluralism.