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Thurman Center director shares broad view of race relations

By David J. Craig

Katherine Kennedy wasn't uninformed on the subject of African-American culture when she took a job as a BU development officer in 1991. A former journalist whose coverage of Boston's 1974 busing crisis earned her a Pulitzer prize, Kennedy was well-read in black history and previously had administered a fellowship program for minority journalists at the University of California at Berkeley.

Katherine Kennedy, pictured here in the Howard Thurman Room at Marsh Chapel, has made it a priority during her first year as director of BU's Howard Thurman Center to engage students in discussions about race. Photo by Kalman Zabarsky

But soon after arriving at BU, Kennedy realized there was a conspicuous gap in her knowledge of her own heritage. While visiting with Sargent College Dean Emeritus George Makechnie (SED'29,'31, Hon.'79), whose office was next to hers, she often was treated to stories about Howard Thurman (1900-1981), a former Marsh Chapel dean who was a mentor to Martin Luther King, Jr. (GRS'55, Hon.'59).

"I had to confess that I hadn't read Thurman's books and that I didn't know much about him," says Kennedy, who succeeded Makechnie as director of BU's Howard Thurman Center in November 1999. "Then, Dean George started giving me all sorts of things to read." Makechnie, SAR dean from 1945 to 1972, was a colleague and close friend of Thurman's. He founded the center in 1983 and is now its chair.

Moved by Thurman's passionate writing about the necessity for nonviolent resistance in fighting racism - and intrigued by the fact that a key figure in the civil rights movement was unknown to many African-Americans of her generation - Kennedy immersed herself in his work and spent hours with Makechnie, listening to firsthand accounts of Thurman's wisdom and his humble nature. Soon, Kennedy was volunteering to help Makechnie, now 94, organize the center's events, and was being groomed by Makechnie to replace him as director.

"What struck me about Thurman's outlook was his emphasis on knowing yourself and 'being true to the grain in your own wood,' as he called it," says Kennedy. For instance, Thurman was sometimes criticized for not being on the front lines of the fight for civil rights in the United States, she says, but "in his heart, Thurman knew that his place was as a spiritual resource behind the scenes of the movement, as the person to whom the other activists could come when they needed spiritual renewal."

On common ground

And in Thurman's lyrical writing, Kennedy says, she found a rare sort of humility. "The beauty of Thurman is that he wasn't trying to convert people to Christianity. Rather, he wanted people to see that there is a common ground we can reach by respecting one another's differences, while still holding onto those beliefs that are uniquely ours."

Now, Kennedy's goal as director of the Thurman Center is to share Thurman's vision with as many BU students as possible. She's made it a priority to encourage students to talk about things "that people often aren't comfortable talking about," she says, "like how they are similar to, and different from, one another."

During lunch on Tuesdays and Thursdays she can be found chatting with students in the Common Ground Lounge (the term is culled from the title of a Thurman book, which also inspired Jesse Jackson's catch phrase) in the GSU basement, where members of BU's large international student population often convene to meet new faces.

"I also show up in the Link to say hello to students from cultural groups who may be doing fundraising there. I just introduce myself and ask them if they'd like to have lunch," Kennedy says. "If we say we're here to support students, then I think it's important that it be more than just verbal. So I've really been getting out there and letting myself be known."

Another part of her goal, she says, is to bring an international spin to dialogues on race relations, and not to focus solely on issues regarding black-white relations in the United States. To that end, she's organizing an on-campus showing of Ben Kingsley's feature film Ghandi next semester with the assistance of the India Students Club, the Film Lovers and Philosophers Club, and the Associates in Search of Common Ground, a student club dedicated to preserving Thurman's ideals. The film will be followed by an informal discussion.

"I'm interested in setting up events like that because while I want students to be educated about Thurman, I don't want them to feel like this is another academic program to commit to," Kennedy says. "I want it to be fun. Howard Thurman always believed that it was the everyday experiences we share that enable us to find common ground."

In addition to working with students, Kennedy also regularly assists theologians, historians, and museum curators from other institutions who wish to access information about Thurman, whose papers are kept at BU's Special Collections in Mugar Memorial Library. The Howard Thurman Center's resources are available to all members of the BU community, and to the public, upon request. For more information, call 353-4745.

15 December 2000
Boston University
Office of University Relations