In a narrative that has urgent significance for every church congregation facing the racial dilemma of mid-twentieth century America, Howard Thurman tells the dramatic story of the founding of the first fully integrated church in the United States--the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco. Dr. Thurman, cofounder and long time minister, gives a complete and intimate picture of the beginnings of Fellowship Church, its early problems, experiments, and successful attainment of complete interracial unity. In simple, moving terms he describes the everyday events of church life--worship services, choir practice, church school, etc. - against the background of a multiracial congregation. Through his genius the reader experiences the anxious moments of forming new patterns of organization, the thrill of new and unexpected allies, of vistas opening into the future.

Howard Thurman (1900-1981) was an African American theologian, pastor, and civil rights leader. He served as the dean of the chapel at both Howard and Boston universities and was a founder and co-pastor of the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco, California. Thurman's many books include Jesus and the Disinherited (1949) and Disciplines of the Spirit (1963).