Olive Schreiner and Howard Thurman: A Genuine Encounter

On this one year anniversary of the Virtues of Peace podcast, and the 120th anniversary of the observation of Peace Day (also known as "Hague Day") in the United States, we discuss a powerful trans-generational, trans-racial, trans-national and trans-gender encounter between feminist pacifist writer Olive Schreiner (1855-1920) and philosopher and theologian Howard Thurman (1899-1981). Thurman, who provided the philosophical framework for the non-violent wing of the Civil Rights Movement, first encountered Schreiner's ideas in 1925. He thereafter devoured everything he could by Schreiner, even naming his first daughter "Olive" (who later became Olive Wong). In 1973, Thurman published "A Track to the Water's Edge: An Olive Schreiner Reader". In this show, we discuss the encounter between Thurman and Schreiner, an important point of contact that highlights the intersection between the Peace through Law Movement, the Women's Movement and the U.S. Civil Rights Movement.