From “What Makes You Come Alive: A Spiritual Walk with Howard Thurman” by Lerita Coleman Brown
Howard Thurman mentored many activists in the civil rights movement and would come to serve as its unofficial spiritual guide and adviser. Drawn to his presence and wisdom, many civil rights leaders – including Bayard Rustin, James Farmer, James Lawson, Jesse Jackson, and John Lewis – regularly sought Thurman for guidance and direction. Upon his retirement in 1965, he created and directed the Howard Thurman Educational Trust and served as minister emeritus at Fellowship Church. Thurman died in San Francisco in 1981, at the age of eighty-one.