In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day,  a special film event, “Backs Against the Wall: The Howard Thurman Story”  is coming to the Lincoln Theater, Sunday, Jan. 19 at 2 p.m. A post screening discussion will be held following the film.

As one of the most important African-American leaders of the 20th century, a man named “one of the greatest preachers of the 20th century” by Life magazine, and a mentor to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “Backs Against the Wall” highlights Howard Thurman’s influence with interviews from civil rights leaders including Jesse Jackson, Vernon Jordan, John Lewis and more.

The title for “Backs Against the Wall,” directed and narrated by Martin Doblmeier, comes from a phrase Thurman used to describe oppressed people, including African-Americans, and how Christianity could speak to them. “I would have to find out what was the word that the religion of Jesus had to say to the man with his back against the wall.”

Howard Thurman (1889 - 1991) was born in West Palm Beach, Florida, the grandson of a former slave. As a child he connected to God through quiet times with nature. As an adult he became a nature mystic – practicing what is now called a “contemplative spirituality.” Thurman simply believed that people can feel, talk to, love, experience, or worship God in a variety of ways. He was not interested in saving souls but focused on helping others move through life as fully realized human beings.

Thurman graduated as valedictorian from Morehouse College in 1923, was ordained in 1925 as a Baptist minister at First Baptist Church of Roanoke, Virginia and became a professor and the director of spiritual life at the college.

In the 1930s, Thurman traveled to India where he became the first black American to meet Mohandas Gandhi, who taught him the strategy of nonviolent resistance. A prolific writer of sermons, poems, and meditations, Thurman’s most well know book “Jesus and the Disinherited,” explained his theology to uplift the oppressed, and was considered “the Bible” of the Civil Rights Movement. He was a professor of theology at such renowned institutions as Howard University and Boston University, co-founded the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples, one of the first interracial and intercultural churches in the country (an incredibly radical idea at the time), and served as the first black Dean of Marsh Chapel at Boston University.

Lincoln Theater is located at 2 Theater St. Tickets are $6 and will be on sale at the door one hour before the screening. High school students with a student ID will be admitted for free. There are no advance sales for this event.