Sue Bailey Thurman

{{For|British Paralympic table tennis player|Sue Bailey (table tennis)}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Sue Bailey Thurman

| image = Sue_Bailey_Thurman.jpg

| alt =

| caption = Thurman in 1953

| birth_name = Sue Elvie Bailey

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1903|08|26}}

| birth_place = Pine Bluff, Arkansas

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1996|12|25|1903|08|26}}

| death_place = San Francisco, California

| nationality = American

| other_names =

| occupation = Writer, lecturer, historian, civil rights activist

| years_active = 1926–95

| known_for =

| notable_works =

}}

Sue Bailey Thurman (née Sue Elvie Bailey; August 26, 1903 – December 25, 1996) was an American author, lecturer, historian and civil rights activist. She was the first non-white student to earn a bachelor's degree in music from Oberlin College, Ohio. She briefly taught at the Hampton Institute in Virginia, before becoming involved in international work with the YWCA in 1930. During a six-month trip through Asia in the mid-1930s, Thurman became the first African-American woman to have an audience with Mahatma Gandhi. The meeting with Gandhi inspired Thurman and her husband, theologian Howard Thurman, to promote non-violent resistance as a means of creating social change, bringing it to the attention of a young preacher, Martin Luther King Jr. While she did not actively protest during the Civil Rights Movement, she served as spiritual counselors to many on the front lines, and helped establish the first interracial, non-denominational church in the United States.

Thurman played an active role in establishing international student organizations to help prevent foreign students feeling isolated while studying abroad. She organized one of the first international scholarship programs for African-American women. She studied racism and the effects of prejudice on various people throughout the world, making two round-the-world trips in her lifetime. She wrote books and newspaper articles to preserve black heritage, and initiated the publishing efforts of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) by founding the Aframerican Women's Journal. In addition to writing the second ever history of black Californians, in 1958 Thurman published a cookbook laced with historical information about black professional women at a time when African Americans had few civil rights. Recognizing that there was little academic interest in black women's history at the time, Thurman used the marketing ploy of food to report on the lives of black women who were not domestics. She participated in international peace and feminist conferences, and in 1945 attended the San Francisco Conference for the founding of the United Nations as part of an unofficial delegation. Thurman also established museums such as the Museum of Afro-American History in Boston in 1963.

Thurman and her husband retired in San Francisco in 1965. She worked with the San Francisco Public Library in 1969 to develop resources for black history of the American West. In 1979 she was honored with a Centennial Award at Spelman College, sharing the recognition with UNESCO director Herschelle Sullivan Challenor. After her husband's death in 1981, Thurman took over the management of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust, which funded research for literary, religious and scientific purposes and assisted in scholarships for black students. On her death in 1996, she left the couple's vast archives to numerous universities.

Early years

File:OberlinArchSmall.jpg]]

Sue Elvie Bailey was born on August 26, 1903, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, to Reverend Isaac and Susie (née Ford) Bailey.{{cite web|title=Sue Bailey Thurman|url=http://www.bu.edu/thurman/about/dr-thurman/sue-bailey-thurman/|website=Boston University|access-date=August 4, 2015|location=Boston, Massachusetts |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170708135019/http://www.bu.edu/thurman/about/dr-thurman/sue-bailey-thurman/ |archive-date=July 8, 2017}} She attended primary school at Nannie Burroughs' School for Girls in Washington, D.C. In 1920, she graduated from the college preparatory school, Spelman Seminary (now Spelman College) in Atlanta, Georgia.{{cite journal|title=Sue Bailey Thurman, Pioneering Activist, Dies at 93|journal=Jet|date=January 20, 1997|volume= 91|issue= 9|page=17|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LTsDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA17|access-date=August 4, 2015|publisher=Johnson Publications|location=Chicago, Illinois|issn=0021-5996}} She continued her education at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, graduating in 1926 with bachelor's degrees in music and liberal arts. Despite citations that Sue Bailey Thurman was the first black student to earn a music degree from Oberlin,{{cite book|last1=Harman|first1=Kristyn|title=Black Firsts 4,000 Ground-Breaking & Pioneering Historical Events.|date=2013|publisher=Visible Ink Press|location=Canton, MI|isbn=978-1-578-59424-5|page=125|edition=3rd|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=93SDBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA125|access-date=August 4, 2015}} the music program's first black graduate was Harriet Gibbs Marshall in 1889.{{cite book|author= |date=1909 |title=...General catalogue of Oberlin college, 1833 [-] 1908. Including an account of the principal events in the history of the college, with illustrations of the college buildings |url=https://archive.org/details/generalcatalogue00oberrich/mode/2up |location=Oberlin, OH |publisher=Oberlin College |page=366}} While a student at Oberlin College, Bailey developed a friendship with Louise Thompson, who would become a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance movement, and encouraged Langston Hughes, inventor of jazz poetry, to read poetry there.{{cite book|last1=Rampersad|first1=Arnold|title=The Life of Langston Hughes: Volume I: 1902–1941, I, Too, Sing America|date=2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York, New York|isbn=978-0-199-88226-7|page=202|edition=2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZXYsx3vjs0UC&pg=PT202|access-date=August 9, 2015}} She traveled with a quintet giving concerts in Cleveland, New York, and Philadelphia, as well as London and Paris.

Early career

After graduating, Thurman took a post as a music teacher at the Hampton Institute in Virginia, but did not enjoy the work. One of the issues at Hampton was that her friend, Louise Thompson, also a teacher there, had written anonymously to W. E. B. Du Bois, co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), complaining about conditions at the college under the predominantly white administration. Although Bailey was suspected of writing the letter after Du Bois published it in the NAACP's journal The Crisis, she did not betray Thompson but instead invited Langston Hughes to Hampton for a poetry reading and moral support. Nevertheless, she left Hampton in 1930 to become a traveling National Secretary for the Student Division of the YWCA.{{cite web|title=RG 30/353 – Rev. Howard W. & Sue B. Thurman(1900–1981, 1901–1996)|url=http://www.oberlin.edu/archive/holdings/finding/RG30/SG353/biography.html|website=Oberlin College Archives|publisher=Oberlin College|access-date=August 4, 2015|location=Oberlin, Ohio|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924054639/http://www.oberlin.edu/archive/holdings/finding/RG30/SG353/biography.html|archive-date=September 24, 2015}} She lectured throughout Europe and established the first World Fellowship Committee of the YWCA.{{cite web|title=The Legacy Begins: Howard & Sue Bailey Thurman at Boston University|url=http://hgar-srv3.bu.edu/web/howard-thurman/the-legacy-begins-howard-sue-bailey-thurman-at-boston-university|publisher=Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University|access-date=August 4, 2015|location=Boston, Massachusetts|archive-date=April 17, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190417163022/http://hgar-srv3.bu.edu/web/howard-thurman/the-legacy-begins-howard-sue-bailey-thurman-at-boston-university|url-status=dead}} On June 12, 1932, in the dining hall at Lincoln Academy, Kings Mountain, North Carolina, Bailey married Howard W. Thurman (1900–1981), a minister, who would become a social critic, writer and dean of several prominent US universities.[https://www.proquest.com/docview/226142760/800372A6CE414551PQ/19 "Nuptial Set for Thurman-Bailey"] New York Amsterdam News (May 25, 1932): 4.[https://www.proquest.com/docview/492329601/800372A6CE414551PQ/45 "Y. W. C. A. Secretary Pretty Bride of Howard Thurneau"] Chicago Defender (July 2, 1932): 6. At the time of their marriage, he was serving as Dean of Rankin Chapel and Professor of Systematic Theology at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Asia

File:Tagore Gandhi.jpg and Mahatma Gandhi]]In 1935, the couple embarked upon a six-month trip through southern Asia, visiting Burma, Ceylon and India, culminating in a "Pilgrimage of Friendship" to the International Student Conference in India. Her husband led the American delegation, lecturing at more than forty universities, while Thurman herself was asked to meet with journalists and students, to discuss race relations and evaluate the parallels between the situation with Indians and the British and the African Americans and white Americans.{{cite news|last1=Thurman|first1=Sue Bailey|title=The Indian Press on Race Question|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2945011/pt_1/|access-date=August 4, 2015|work=The New York Age|date=June 27, 1936|location=New York, New York|page=6|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}{{cite news|last1=Thurman|first1=Sue Bailey|title=The Indian Press on Race Question|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2945017/pt_2/|access-date=August 4, 2015|work=The New York Age|date=June 27, 1936|location=New York, New York|page=6|via =Newspapers.com}} {{open access}} Initially, Howard had turned down the opportunity and his wife was not included in the offer, but when the trip was finally agreed, both were participants.{{cite book|last1=Dixie|first1=Quinton H.|last2=Eisenstadt|first2=Peter|title=Visions of a Better World: Howard Thurman's Pilgrimage to India and the Origins of African American Nonviolence|date=2011|publisher=Beacon Press|location=Boston| isbn=978-0-807-00046-5|page=117| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R-66dWE0t84C&pg=PT117|access-date=August 10, 2015}} Thurman was not chosen simply as the wife of Howard Thurman but, in the words of the committee, because she was one of "four persons best able to do this particular job".Dixie & Eisenstadt (2011), p. 137. This decision was remarkable for the period given that black women were often invisible members of society{{cite book|last1=O'Brien|first1=Jodi A.|title=Encyclopedia of Gender and Society|date=2009|publisher=SAGE| location=London|isbn=978-1-452-26602-2|page=913|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lr91AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT965}}{{cite web|title=Civil Rights Pioneer Gloria Richardson, 91, on How Women Were Silenced at 1963 March on Washington|url=http://www.democracynow.org/2013/8/27/civil_rights_pioneer_gloria_richardson_91|work=Democracy Now|access-date=August 28, 2015|date=August 27, 2013}} and generally prohibited from authoritative roles in social welfare programs.{{cite book|last1=Mjagkij|first1=Nina|title=Organizing Black America: An Encyclopedia of African American Associations|date=2001|publisher=Garland|location=New York|isbn=978-1-135-58123-7|pages=388–389|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=56KH2aisL_UC&pg=PA388|access-date=August 28, 2015}} Thurman lectured during the trip on negro women and the organizations to which they belonged, as well as internationalism and culture.Dixie & Eisenstadt (2011), p. 147. During their meeting with Rabindranath Tagore in Santiniketan she presented a paper "The History of Negro Music", though initially she had been reluctant to discuss slave music. She finally agreed only after Tagore and Gandhi explained that to Asian Christians, negro spirituals were deemed to express the profound faith of people even in bondage and seemed more authentic than western hymns. Thurman both sang and taught songs to local choirs.Dixie & Eisenstadt (2011), pp. 131, 153. She also commented on art, having acquired knowledge on the subject during an earlier trip to Mexico.Dixie & Eisenstadt (2011), p. 140.

The couple met with Mahatma Gandhi, becoming the first African Americans to have an audience with him. When Thurman asked him to take his message to the United States, he demurred as his work in India and his personal quest there were not finished.Dixie & Eisenstadt (2011), p. 179. One important aspect of the meeting was a discussion of how non-violent resistance could be used as a means of creating social change. The meeting had a profound effect on the couple, changing the direction of their lives.Dixie & Eisenstadt (2011), p. 178. Though they would remain Christians, the meeting with Gandhi led them to consider establishing a church free of prejudice, transcending racial, social, economic and spiritual boundaries. After they returned to the United States, Howard received a letter from A. J. Muste on behalf of Alfred Fisk who was looking for someone to establish a church in San Francisco which crossed the racial and spiritual divides. Muste was hopeful that Rev. Thurman might know of a divinity student interested in the position. Instead, Howard decided to take up the challenge himself, securing a leave of absence in order to found the church. Thurman went with him bringing their two daughters, as she strongly believed in the cause.{{cite web|last1=Burden|first1=Jean|title=Howard Thurman|url=http://www.nathanielturner.com/howardthurman.htm|publisher=Nathaniel Turner|access-date=August 11, 2015|archive-date=March 13, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190313132500/http://www.nathanielturner.com/howardthurman.htm|url-status=dead}}

Mid-career

=Scholarly work and San Francisco=

Thurman established the Juliette Derricotte Scholarship in the late 1930s, which allowed African-American undergraduate women of high academic achievement to study and travel abroad.{{cite web|last1=DiMauro|first1=Susan|title=The Juliette Derricotte Scholarship: From the Desk of Margaret Bush Wilson|url=http://wulibraries.typepad.com/bears_repeating/2013/03/the-juliette-derricotte-scholarship-from-the-desk-of-margaret-bush-wilson.html|website=Washington University Libraries|publisher=Washington University|access-date=August 4, 2015|location=St. Louis, Missouri|date=March 27, 2013}} The first two recipients of the scholarship were Marian Banfield of Howard University and Anna V. Brown of Oberlin College.{{cite news|title=Derricotte Committee Awards 2|url=http://fultonhistory.com/Newspapers%2023/Pittsburgh%20PA%20Courier/Pittsburgh%20PA%20Courier%201939/Pittsburgh%20PA%20Courier%201939%20-%200220.pdf|access-date=August 13, 2015|work=Pittsburgh Courier|date=March 11, 1939|location=Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania}} Banfield was a goddaughter of Howard Thurman.{{cite news|last1=Gibson|first1=Larry S.|title=Sondra Elise Banfield Dailey|url=http://www.afro.com/sondra-elise-banfield-dailey/|access-date=August 13, 2015|work=AFRO-American Newspapers|date=March 3, 2011|location=Baltimore, Maryland}} The following year the recipients of her scholarship were Elizabeth McCree from Boston, who attended Fisk University,{{cite news|title=At the End of World Tour|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3005043/at_the_end_of_world_tour_the/|access-date=August 13, 2015|work=The Pittsburgh Courier|date=February 3, 1940|location=Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania|page=10|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}} and Margaret Bush Wilson of Talladega College.

File:Mary McLeod Bethune Council House.jpg]]

In 1940, Thurman founded the Aframerican Women's Journal, the first publishing vehicle of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), which she edited from 1940 until 1944. In 1941, an archive committee was formed to design a plan for collecting works about the achievements of African-American women. Though their plans focused primarily on written records and professional accomplishment and would thus reflect middle-class life, the committee initiated work on collecting historical records of black women. In 1944, Thurman became the committee's chair and her mother donated $1,000{{cite book|last1=Jardins|first1=Julie Des|title=Women and the Historical Enterprise in America: Gender, Race, and the Politics of Memory, 1880–1945|date=2003|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|location=Chapel Hill|isbn=978-0-807-85475-4|pages=242–244|edition=[Online-Ausg.]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=421zwtw_OaAC&pg=PA350|access-date=August 10, 2015}} toward creating the National Council of Negro Women's National Library, Archives, and Museum. On June 30, 1946, they held an archive drive, printing notices in newsletters and asking ministers, organizations, librarians and others to help them acquire photographs, books and mementos. They opened the first facility of the library at what is now the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site.{{cite book|last1=Dubrow|first1=Gail Lee|last2=Goodman|first2=Jennifer B|title=Restoring Women's History Through Historic Preservation|date=2003|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|location=Baltimore|isbn=978-0-801-87052-1|page=71|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R0s8SvjuVkIC&pg=PA71|access-date=August 14, 2015}}

In 1943, Thurman and her husband moved to San Francisco. She wrote several articles about their Asian trip, analyzing information, discussing their meeting with Gandhi{{cite news|title=Woman to Tell of India Visit|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2944610/woman_to_tell_of_india_visit_reading/|access-date=August 4, 2015|work=Reading Times|date=November 8, 1937|location=Reading, Pennsylvania|page=3|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}} and pressing for scholarship exchanges for negro students at Indian universities.{{cite news|title=Sue Thurman to Speak Here|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2945032/sue_thurman_to_speak_here_harrisburg/|access-date=August 4, 2015|work=Harrisburg Telegraph|date=February 8, 1939|location=Harrisburg, Pennsylvania|page=5|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}} It was from the Thurmans and their talks and writings that Martin Luther King Jr. learned of non-violent resistance as a means of social protest.{{cite book|editor-last1=Hill|editor-first1=Ruth Edmonds |title=The Black women oral history project: from the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe College|date=1991|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|location=Berlin, Germany|isbn=978-3-110-97391-4|page=105|edition=reprint|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=syOABwAAQBAJ&pg=RA2-PA105|access-date=August 9, 2015}} By 1944, the church which they had envisioned after their meeting with Gandhi became a reality when they, along with Fisk, opened the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples. It was the first interracial, non-denominational church in the United States. While her husband assumed the pastoral duties, Thurman organized forums and lectures for the members to learn about other peoples such as Native Americans, Africans, Asians and their cultures, covering everything from the Jews to the Navajos.

File:Pioneers of Negro Origin in California.JPGIn 1945, Thurman attended the San Francisco Conference for the founding of the United Nations as part of an unofficial delegation. The official African-American delegation included W. E. B. Du Bois, founder of the NAACP; Walter Francis White, Executive Secretary of the NAACP; and Mary McLeod Bethune founder of the National Council of Negro Women, but Bethune insisted on sending three additional observers from the NCNW, which included Thurman. After the event, Thurman published a report in the Chicago Defender on April 16, 1945, in which she questioned the limited role that people of color played in the proceedings and pointed out that the large populations of developing countries would become a force to be reckoned with.{{cite journal|last1=Ramdani|first1=Fatma|title=Afro-American Women Activists as True Negotiators in the International Arena (1893–1945)|journal=European Journal of American Studies|date=2015|volume= 10|issue= 1|pages=10–11|doi=10.4000/ejas.10646|doi-access=free|hdl=20.500.12210/63477|hdl-access=free}} Thurman, as a representative for the NCNW, attended the Primer Congreso Interamericano de Mujeres held in Guatemala City, Guatemala, in 1947.{{cite news|last1=Graves Jr.|first1=Lem|title=NCNW Program Boosts International Relations|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2944588/the_pittsburgh_courier/|access-date=August 4, 2015|work=The Pittsburgh Courier|date=November 22, 1947|location=Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania|page=20|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}} The congress addressed many of the issues she supported such as women's rights, internationalism, and peace initiatives.{{cite web|last1=Flores Asturias|first1=Ricardo|title=Las Mujeres no Votan Porque Sí: Congreso Interamericano de Mujeres, 1947|url=http://politicaysentidocomun.blogspot.com/2011/06/las-mujeres-no-votan-porque-si-congreso.html|website=Politica y Sentido Comun|publisher=Ricardo Flores Asturias|access-date=August 4, 2015|location=Guatemala City, Guatemala|language=es|date=June 6, 2011}} In 1949,{{cite book|last1=Thurman|first1=Howard|title=With Head and Heart: The Autobiography of Howard Thurman|date=1979|publisher=Harcourt Brace Jovanovich|location=New York|isbn=978-0-547-54678-0|page=179|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Aos1iJ9YfRwC&pg=PT179}} she led a delegation of members from the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples to Paris for the Fourth Plenary Session of UNESCO.

After researching black history in California, Thurman wrote eight articles for the San Francisco Sun Reporter as part of a series entitled "Pioneers of Negro Origin in California". Using the same title, she published the articles in book form in 1952.{{cite book|title=Pioneers of Negro origin in California|date=January 1952 |url=https://www.amazon.com/Pioneers-origin-California-Bailey-Thurman/dp/B0007E7C3C|publisher=Amazon|access-date=August 4, 2015}} It was the second history of black Californians published—the first being The Negro Trail Blazers of California by Delilah L. Beasley in 1919—and filled a gap caused by a lack of academic interest.{{cite web|last1=Daniels|first1=Douglas Henry|title=Pioneer Urbanites|url=http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft2r29n8f6&chunk.id=d0e9183&toc.depth=1&brand=ucpress|website=California Digital Library|publisher=UC Press E-Books Collection, 1982–2004|access-date=August 14, 2015|location=Berkeley, California|page=220|date=1991}} History in America, at the time, was written about men and almost exclusively about white men.{{cite book|last1=Bower|first1=Anne L.|title=African American Foodways: Explorations of History and Culture|date=2009|publisher=University of Illinois Press|location=Urbana|isbn=978-0-252-07630-5|page=155|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gF8NCxGHyMMC&pg=PA155|access-date=August 14, 2015}} Neither of the women who wrote about the history of blacks in California was a native Californian.

=Boston=

File:The Historical Cookbook of the American Negro.JPGIn 1953, Howard Thurman became the Dean of the Boston University School of Theology and, after ten years in California, the couple moved to Boston. The move was prompted by the desire to share their ideas of outreach and inclusion in a university setting, though they were aware that the arrival of the first black pastor in a white university would lead to difficulties.{{cite book|last1=Thurman|first1=Howard|title=A Strange Freedom: The Best of Howard Thurman on Religious Experience and Public Life|date=2014|publisher=Beacon Press|location=Boston|isbn=978-0-807-01080-8|pages=6–7| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8HYkBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA7|access-date=August 14, 2015}} From the beginning, Thurman tried to create an inclusive environment, organizing monthly dinners for the Marsh Chapel Choir members and their friends.Thurman (1979), p. 185. Shortly after they arrived, a Japanese student committed suicide leaving a note that she had no friends. Not only was she not known well at the university, finding her family to notify them was difficult.Thurman (1979), p. 184. In response, Thurman organized the International Student Hostess Committee to keep international students from feeling isolated. By 1965, the committee was serving 500 international students at Boston University.{{cite news|title=International Hostess Committee|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2944620/the_pittsburgh_courier_pittsburgh/|access-date=August 4, 2015|work=The Pittsburgh Courier|date=July 3, 1965|location=Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania|page=5|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}} The Thurmans were at times criticized by those who felt they should be visibly active in the Civil Rights Movement, but they believed their commitment was to addressing the spiritual needs of those who were visible, rather than participating in marches, protests and demonstrations.{{cite web|title=Howard Thurman Film|url=http://www.howardthurmanfilm.com/story.txt|website=Howard Thurman Film|access-date=August 14, 2015}}{{dead link|date=March 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Among the papers of MLK were many letters from people such as Homer A. Jack,{{cite book|last1=Carson|first1=Clayborne|title=The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr: Rediscovering precious values, July 1951 – November 1955 Volume 2|date=1997|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley, California|isbn=978-0-520-07951-9|page=178|edition=1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4ysIWgsSr9AC&pg=PA178|access-date=August 18, 2015}} who co-founded the Congress of Racial Equality; Lillian Smith,Carson (1997), p. 170. author of the novel Strange Fruit; Glenn E. Smiley, national field secretary of Fellowship of Reconciliation,Carson (1997), p. 19. as well as King's own acknowledgement, which credited their spiritual guidance.Carson (1997), pp. 20, 177.{{cite web|title=Thurman, Howard|url=http://www.thekingcenter.org/archive/theme/4231|website=The King Center|publisher=Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change|access-date=August 18, 2015|location=Atlanta, Georgia}}

Thurman continued her writing work in Boston. In 1958, she published The Historical Cookbook of the American Negro, which not only gave recipes but included black history. It retold stories of professional women and history to counter the belief that all black women were maids and domestics at a time when African Americans were excluded from basic civil rights.{{cite web|last1=Ruggirello|first1=Samantha|title=Creating a 'Palatable History': African-American Cookbooks as Political Texts|date=2014|page=12|url=http://www.american.edu/cas/american-studies/food-media-culture/upload/2014-Samantha-Ruggirello.pdf|access-date=August 4, 2015|publisher=American University|location=Washington, DC |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160727042904/http://www.american.edu/cas/american-studies/food-media-culture/upload/2014-Samantha-Ruggirello.pdf |archive-date=July 27, 2016}} She recognized that in order to tell their history, a new approach was needed as there was no market for histories of the African Americans. In the preface to her book, she explained she was creating "palatable history", testifying to her shrewd marketing ability.Bower (2009), pp. 155–156.

File:African Meeting House.jpg]]During the 1960s, the Thurmans traveled widely, making various trips to study racial barriers that prohibited creation of community. A two-year sabbatical granted from Boston University made their travels possible.{{cite news|title=Dr. Howard Thurman Retires After 11 Years at Boston University|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3014752/the_pittsburgh_courier/|access-date=August 14, 2015|work=The Pittsburgh Courier|date=July 3, 1965|location=Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania|page=5|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}} In 1962, they journeyed to Saskatchewan, Canada, to meet with tribal leaders about discrimination{{cite news|title=The Well-Known Sue Bailey Thurman|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2211&dat=19621020&id=kNMmAAAAIBAJ&pg=7019,4195066|access-date=August 14, 2015|work=The Afro American|date=October 20, 1962|page=7}} and in 1963, they embarked on a trip that included Nigeria, Israel, Hawaii, and California.{{cite news|last1=Phillips|first1=B. M.|title=Thurmans Abroad|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2205&dat=19631001&id=SJklAAAAIBAJ&pg=1622,4020266|access-date=August 14, 2015|work=Baltimore Afro-American|date=October 1, 1963|location=Baltimore, Maryland|page=20}} In Nigeria, Howard Thurman lectured at the University of Ibadan. The couple's second round-the-world tour took them to Japan, the Philippines and Egypt.

File:Boston African-American Heritage Trail.JPGIn 1963, Thurman founded the Museum of Afro-American History in Boston.{{cite news|last1=Wallace|first1=Bill|title=OBITUARY – Sue Bailey Thurman|url=http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/OBITUARY-Sue-Bailey-Thurman-2954906.php|access-date=August 4, 2015|work=San Francisco Gate|date=December 28, 1996|location=San Francisco, California}} Interested in history, she had discovered a settlement where free blacks had lived prior to the Civil War and their 1808 African Meeting House, which housed both Boston's first black church and the first segregated public school in the United States. The museum was created to save the site and provide a means to purchase other significant properties for preservation of African-American heritage in the area. Thurman also created a map of important African American historical sites in Boston with the help of her daughter, Anne Chiarenza, which she called "Negro Freedom Trails of Boston".[https://www.proquest.com/docview/371642812/800372A6CE414551PQ/16 "Mrs. Howard Thurman and Daughter: Team Charts Boston Freedom Trails"], New Pittsburgh Courier (February 8, 1964): 11. The map highlighted twenty-two points of interest to black history within the city of Boston{{cite journal|title=President Harold C. Case of Boston University|journal=The Crisis|date=March 1964|volume=71|issue=3|page=203|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-VsEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA203|access-date=August 14, 2015|publisher=NAACP|location=New York}} and was in part created to give black school children a sense that they were part of the history of the city.{{cite news|title=Rights Backer Draws Boston Freedom Trail|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2209&dat=19640128&id=t5grAAAAIBAJ&pg=7226,2600102|access-date=August 14, 2015|work=Nashua Telegraph|date=January 28, 1964|location=Nashua, New Hampshire|page=14}} What is today known as the Black Heritage Trail was adapted from Thurman's original idea.{{cite book|last1=Petronella|first1=Mary Melvin|title=Victorian Boston Today: Twelve Walking Tours|date=2004|publisher=Northeastern University Press|location=Boston|isbn=978-1-555-53605-3|page=264 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qg_uLLXLY5kC&pg=PA264|access-date=August 10, 2015}}

While in Boston, in 1962, Thurman arranged for the sculptor Meta Warrick Fuller to create a commissioned "freedom plaque" for Livingstone College, of Salisbury, North Carolina. Bailey was an invited speaker at Livingstone in 1963 and at that time, in honor of United Nations Day, she donated a collection of dolls representing the member nations to the college.{{cite news|title=Sue Bailey Thurman Gives to Livingstone|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3014731/the_pittsburgh_courier/|access-date=August 14, 2015|work=The Pittsburgh Courier|date=November 9, 1963|location=Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania|page=5|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}} As far back as the 1930s, Thurman had collected ethnic dolls and given them to universities to promote understanding of cultural differences. In 1967, Livingstone awarded her with an honorary doctorate.{{cite news|title=Husband and Wife Honored|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2238&dat=19670613&id=l50lAAAAIBAJ&pg=630,2495815|access-date=August 14, 2015|work=Washington Afro-American|date=June 13, 1967|location=Washington, DC|page=17}}

San Francisco return

Howard Thurman took retirement from Boston University in 1965 and the couple moved back to San Francisco. Thurman continued to pursue historic preservation. She worked with the San Francisco Public Library in 1969 to develop resources for black history of the American West.[https://www.proquest.com/docview/369625843/800372A6CE414551PQ/38 "History of Black America Launched at Library"], Sun Reporter (June 14, 1969): 13. In the 1970s, the couple took a trip to the Pacific basin.{{cite news|title=Morehouse Pays Tribute to Dr. Thurman|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2211&dat=19700103&id=ECEmAAAAIBAJ&pg=912,67354|access-date=August 15, 2015|work=The Afro American|date=January 3, 1970|page=14}} In 1979 she was honored with a Centennial Award at Spelman College, sharing the recognition with UNESCO director Herschelle Sullivan Challenor.[https://www.proquest.com/docview/370698658/E9FC90BE9F5B41FEPQ/3 "Sue Bailey Thurman Cited"], Sun Reporter (May 10, 1979): 21.

After her husband's death, in 1981, Thurman took over the management of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust, which funded research for literary, religious and scientific purposes, endowed scholarships for black students and assisted charitable projects. Thurman was the mother of Anne Spencer ThurmanChiang, Harriet, [http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Anne-Spencer-Thurman-writer-2914341.php "Anne Spencer Thurman"], San Francisco Chronicle (June 4, 2001). and stepmother to Olive Thurman, her husband's daughter with his first wife.[https://www.proquest.com/docview/369405509/E9FC90BE9F5B41FEPQ/2 "Sue Thurman, Widow of Noted Theologian Howard Thurman"], Los Angeles Sentinel (February 19, 1997): A21. Olive was the first wife of actor Victor Wong.Pulley, Michael. [https://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/last-days-of-victor-wong/content?oid=9103 "The Last Days of Victor Wong"], Sacramento News & Review (October 18, 2001).

Thurman died on Christmas Day, 1996, at the San Francisco Zen Buddhist Hospice Center.

Legacy

After her death in 1996, she and Howard's vast archives were donated per their wishes to numerous universities. The largest collection of their documents is housed at Boston University. There are additional collections of their writings and works at Oberlin, Emory University{{cite web|title=I.G. Bailey and Thurman family papers, circa 1882–1995|date=February 28, 2005 |url=http://findingaids.library.emory.edu/documents/bailey807/|publisher=Robert W. Woodruff Library, Emory University|access-date=August 4, 2015}} and several other institutions like the National Council of Negro Women's archives in Washington, D.C and libraries in Arkansas named for her mother, Mrs. Susie Ford Bailey. The collection at Emory University includes the correspondence between the Thurmans and Mrs. Bailey, their personal libraries, and nearly one thousand photographs.{{cite book|last1=Higginbotham|first1=Evelyn Brooks|title=The Harvard Guide to African American History|date=2001|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|isbn=978-0-674-00276-0|page=55|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DCmt2sqJI_YC&pg=PA55|access-date=August 10, 2015}}

References

Thurman, Howard (1979). With Head and Heart: The Autobiography of Howard Thurman. New York: Harvest/HBJ Book. {{ISBN|0544313259}}. {{OCLC|911271871}}.