Howard Kester (1904–1977) was an American preacher, organizer, and activist based in the South. He is noted for his work organizing the Southern Tenant Farmers Union (STFU) beginning in 1934. His work was inspired by a radical version of Christianity called the Social Gospel, influenced by Reinhold Niebuhr among others, as well as a Marxist critique of the Southern economy. A white Southerner, he believed that it was important to end racial strife by uniting poor black and whites around a common cause.