Pioneers of Negro Origin in California
San Francisco: Acme Publishing Co., 1952.
First edition, first printing. A fantastic association copy signed by Sue Bailey Thurman in the year of publication and warmly inscribed "For Alfred G. Fisk, native son and pioneer, for whom I am indebted for my deep love of California." Alfred G. Fisk was the catalyst for Sue Bailey Thurman's time spent living in California. Fisk, a white philosophy professor at San Francisco City College (now SF State) and a local Presbyterian minister, started to meet with colleagues to discuss how they could best bridge the divide “of understanding among the varied races, cultures, and faiths presented in American society.” He envisioned a church where both black and white could pray together seamlessly as equals and reached out to Sue Bailey Thurman's husband Howard, a Black theologian who was the Dean of Chapel at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Fisk asked if Thurman could recommend a student or colleague for a co-pastor role at the church he was envisioning. “We don’t want [the church] to be in any sense run by whites ‘for’ Negroes,” Fisk wrote to Howard Thurman on Oct. 15, 1943. “It should be of and by and for both groups. [...] We are committed to a real equality between the races in all aspects of church organization,” Fisk continued. “The boards of the church, the choir, the Sunday School and its staff will all be of mixed character. The co-pastors will have absolutely equal status and will alternate Sundays in preaching and in taking other parts of the service.” Ultimately, it was Howard himself who filled that role as preacher at what would be called The Church For the Fellowship of All Peoples. And it was with his prominence that the church quickly gained popularity, and even gained members from afar who couldn’t attend services, including former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. While in San Francisco, Sue Bailey Thurman led the church’s Intercultural Committee and co-led a delegation to one of the earliest UNESCO conferences, convened in Paris in 1949. Publisher's original comb-bound yellow stiff wraps printed in brown. Near Fine with light wear and toning to wraps.
Price: $4,500