While she did not actively protest during the Civil Rights Movement, she served as spiritual counselors to many on the front lines, and helped establish the first interracial, non-denominational church in the United States.

In 1979 she was honored with a Centennial Award at Spelman College, sharing the recognition with UNESCO director Herschelle Sullivan Challenor.

Du Bois, co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), complaining about conditions at the college under the predominantly white administration.

Although Bailey was suspected of writing the letter after Du Bois published it in the NAACP's journal The Crisis, she did not betray Thompson but instead invited Langston Hughes to Hampton for a poetry reading and moral support.

[8] On June 12, 1932, in the dining hall at Lincoln Academy, Kings Mountain, North Carolina, Bailey married Howard W. Thurman (1900–1981), a minister, who would become a social critic, writer and dean of several prominent US universities.

[14] This decision was remarkable for the period given that black women were often invisible members of society[15][16] and generally prohibited from authoritative roles in social welfare programs.

She finally agreed only after Tagore and Gandhi explained that to Asian Christians, negro spirituals were deemed to express the profound faith of people even in bondage and seemed more authentic than western hymns.

[22] Though they would remain Christians, the meeting with Gandhi led them to consider establishing a church free of prejudice, transcending racial, social, economic and spiritual boundaries.

After they returned to the United States, Howard received a letter from A. J. Muste on behalf of Alfred Fisk who was looking for someone to establish a church in San Francisco which crossed the racial and spiritual divides.

[23] Thurman established the Juliette Derricotte Scholarship in the late 1930s, which allowed African-American undergraduate women of high academic achievement to study and travel abroad.

[26] The following year the recipients of her scholarship were Elizabeth McCree from Boston, who attended Fisk University,[27] and Margaret Bush Wilson of Talladega College.

[1] On June 30, 1946, they held an archive drive, printing notices in newsletters and asking ministers, organizations, librarians and others to help them acquire photographs, books and mementos.

[7] She wrote several articles about their Asian trip,[11][12] analyzing information, discussing their meeting with Gandhi[30] and pressing for scholarship exchanges for negro students at Indian universities.

[31] It was from the Thurmans and their talks and writings that Martin Luther King Jr. learned of non-violent resistance as a means of social protest.

[32] While her husband assumed the pastoral duties, Thurman organized forums and lectures for the members to learn about other peoples such as Native Americans, Africans, Asians and their cultures, covering everything from the Jews to the Navajos.

After the event, Thurman published a report in the Chicago Defender on April 16, 1945, in which she questioned the limited role that people of color played in the proceedings and pointed out that the large populations of developing countries would become a force to be reckoned with.

[37] It was the second history of black Californians published—the first being The Negro Trail Blazers of California by Delilah L. Beasley in 1919—and filled a gap caused by a lack of academic interest.

[40] From the beginning, Thurman tried to create an inclusive environment, organizing monthly dinners for the Marsh Chapel Choir members and their friends.

[44] Among the papers of MLK were many letters from people such as Homer A. Jack,[45] who co-founded the Congress of Racial Equality; Lillian Smith,[46] author of the novel Strange Fruit; Glenn E. Smiley, national field secretary of Fellowship of Reconciliation,[47] as well as King's own acknowledgement, which credited their spiritual guidance.

[52] In 1962, they journeyed to Saskatchewan, Canada, to meet with tribal leaders about discrimination[53] and in 1963, they embarked on a trip that included Nigeria, Israel, Hawaii, and California.

The museum was created to save the site and provide a means to purchase other significant properties for preservation of African-American heritage in the area.

[58] While in Boston, in 1962, Thurman arranged for the sculptor Meta Warrick Fuller to create a commissioned "freedom plaque" for Livingstone College, of Salisbury, North Carolina.

[62] In 1979 she was honored with a Centennial Award at Spelman College, sharing the recognition with UNESCO director Herschelle Sullivan Challenor.

[8] There are additional collections of their writings and works at Oberlin,[7] Emory University[67] and several other institutions like the National Council of Negro Women's archives in Washington, D.C and libraries in Arkansas named for her mother, Mrs. Susie Ford Bailey.