The annual Howard Thurman Homily is the King & Faith Series' keynote address.
The Howard Thurman Homily is a significant annual service held at The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco, organized by the Northern California Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Foundation. This service pays tribute to the influential theologian and civil rights leader, Howard Thurman, known for his impact on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Over the years, this event has featured a distinguished roster of speakers, each sharing their insights on the intersection of faith, social justice, and the enduring legacy of Howard Thurman. Past speakers have included prominent civil rights activists, theologians, and community leaders who have drawn inspiration from Thurman's teachings. These speakers have eloquently addressed pressing issues of our time, invoking the spirit of Thurman and King in their calls for justice, equality, and unity.
The 2026 Howard Thurman Homily speaker is Dr. Sylvester A. Johnson, Ph.D., theologian, technologist, Chair and Professor of Black Studies Northwestern University. He was appointed to hold the 2024 Kluge Chair in Technology and Society at the Library of Congress’s Kluge Center. As a scholar of race, religion, and technology, Sylvester works at the intersection of technical and humanistic stakeholders to advance more democratic, inclusive outcomes for an innovation-driven society.
Sylvester is the author of The Myth of Ham in Nineteenth-Century American Christianity: Race, Heathens, and the People of God (Palgrave 2004), a study of race and religious hatred that won the American Academy of Religion’s Best First Book award; and African American Religions, 1500-2000: Colonialism, Democracy, and Freedom (Cambridge 2015), an award-winning interpretation of five centuries of democracy, colonialism, and freedom in the Atlantic world. Johnson has also co-edited The FBI and Religion: Faith and National Security Before and After 9/11 (University of California 2017) and Religion and US Empire (NYU Press 2022). He is a founding co-editor of the Journal of Africana Religions. Sylvester is currently writing a study of human identity in an age of intelligent machines and human-machine symbiosis.
Dr. Johnson is also a leading technologist. He is co-founder and CEO of the Corporation for Public Interest Technology in Washington, D.C., a public benefit corporation and leads the “Future Humans, Human Futures” project, which has been supported by the Henry Luce Foundation. This project engages the current and emerging challenges for ethical governance of technology by working across multiple societal sectors to cultivate socio-technical knowledge and skills.
The Howard Thurman Homily serves as a beacon of hope and a reminder of the enduring power of faith in the pursuit of social change, carrying forward the legacies of both Howard Thurman and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Howard Thurman Homily takes place annually on the Sunday before the Martin Luther King, Jr. federal holiday at the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples (Fellowship Church) in San Francisco and is a partnership between the NorcalMLK Foundation and Fellowship Church.
NOTES:
1. See Sylvester Johnson, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Northwestern University, https://blackstudies.northwestern.edu/people/faculty/sylvester-johnson.html. Sylvester Johnson, Corporation for Public Interest Technology, https://www.cpitpbc.com/people/sylvester-johnson.
Watch the 2025 Howard Thurman Homily address
by Dr. Willie James Jennings
