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Theologian (1900 1981)
Reared by his illiterate grandmother who was a former slave, Howard Thurman was the first African American child to finish the eighth grade in Florida. He later became a celebrated minister and theologian. He was a key figure in introducing Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of non-violent protest to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who regularly carried one of Thurman's books, Jesus and the Disinherited, reading it in quiet moments before a civil rights march. Undaunted by the harsh times when African Americans weren't allowed to cross the Halifax River at night without permission, Thurman successfully pleaded for funds to go to high school from James N. Gamble of Proctor and Gamble. Ebony magazine called Thurman one of the 50 most important figures in Black American history while Life rated him among the 12 best preachers in the nation.
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