Amos Brown
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Amos Cleophilus Brown (born February 20, 1941) is an African American pastor and civil rights activist. He is the president of the San Francisco branch of the
NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...
, and has been the pastor of the Third Baptist Church of San Francisco since 1976. Brown was one of only eight students who took the only college class ever taught by Martin Luther King Jr. He serves on the board of the
California Reparations Task Force The California Reparations Task Force is a non-regulatory state agency in California established by California Assembly Bill 3121 in 2020 to study and develop reparation proposals for African Americans, especially those who are descendants of pe ...
.


Early life and education

Brown was born in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1941. His great-grandfather was born a slave in Franklin County, Mississippi. Brown's father worked as a rural church pastor and janitor. In 1955, Brown organized the NAACP's first youth council. He first met Martin Luther King at the 1956 NAACP national convention in San Francisco, which he attended at the invitation of Medgar Evers, who drove Brown there personally. In 1959, Brown criticized segregated schools in an interview with the '' Cleveland Plain Dealer''. In response, he was barred from returning for his senior year at the then-segregated
Jim Hill High School Jim Hill High School is a public high school in Jackson, Mississippi, United States, hosting the state's first International Baccalaureate Diploma (IB) program. It hosts Advanced Placement courses, a JROTC, and a SOAR program. History Jim Hill ...
. Medgar Evers, then field secretary of the NAACP, intervened, threatening a lawsuit to force desegregation of a nearby white high school. Brown was let back into Jim Hill, but was no longer allowed to be president of the student council (which was demolished), nor to hold the positions of senior class president or valedictorian that he was elected to by his fellow students. Brown attended
Morehouse College , mottoeng = And there was light (literal translation of Latin itself translated from Hebrew: "And light was made") , type = Private historically black men's liberal arts college , academic_affiliations ...
, graduating in 1964, and then entered Crozer Theological Seminary. Martin Luther King wrote one of Brown's recommendation letters, and served as an "unofficial dean" of the black students at the school, his own alma mater. Brown attended a seminar in social philosophy that King co-taught with college minister
Samuel Woodrow Williams Samuel Woodrow Williams was a Baptist minister, professor of philosophy and religion, and Civil Rights activist. Williams was born on February 12, 1912, in Sparkman (Dallas County) then grew up in Chicot County, Arkansas. An African American, ...
. Brown was one of only eight students hand-selected for the class. After earning a master of divinity (M.Div.) from Crozer, Brown later went on to receive a doctor of ministry from United Theological Seminary.


Career and activism

Brown became senior pastor of the Third Baptist Church of San Francisco in 1976. He has served as national chairman for the NAACP Youth and College Division and the National Baptist Commission on Civil Rights. He is president of the San Francisco branch of the NAACP. He is also on the board of directors of the NAACP. In 1991, Brown testified at the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination hearings on behalf of the
National Baptist Convention of America The National Baptist Convention of America International, Inc., (NBCA Intl or NBCA) more commonly known as the National Baptist Convention of America or sometimes the Boyd Convention, is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is ...
, the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., and the
Progressive National Baptist Convention The Progressive National Baptist Convention (PNBC), incorporated as the Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc., is a mainline predominantly African-American Baptist denomination emphasizing civil rights and social justice. The headquarte ...
. He stated that the votes of the conventions were virtually unanimous in their opposition to the nomination of Thomas. Brown served on the
San Francisco Board of Supervisors The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is the legislative body within the government of the City and County of San Francisco. Government and politics The City and County of San Francisco is a consolidated city-county, being simultaneously a c ...
from 1996 to 2001. He was originally appointed by Mayor Willie Brown in 1996, then elected to a two-year term in 1999. While a member of the Board of Supervisors, he proposed an ordinance that would prohibit standing on a street corner for more than five minutes, with
loiterers Loitering is the act of remaining in a particular public place for a prolonged amount of time without any apparent purpose. While the laws regarding loitering have been challenged and changed over time, loitering is still illegal in various j ...
facing a $250 fine and up to six months imprisonment. He failed to win re-election to the board in the year 2000. Brown said in an interview that the origins of the student sit-in movement has been "romanticized... or mis-stated". According to Brown, the first organized "sit-down movement", as it was then referred to, was in Oklahoma City in August 1958, led by the NAACP Youth Council. In 1961, Brown was arrested along with Martin Luther King Jr. at a lunch counter sit-in. He also joined the
Freedom Riders Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated Southern United States in 1961 and subsequent years to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court decisions ''Morgan v. Virginia' ...
that year. Brown is a supporter of LGBT rights. He spoke in favor of the California gay rights bill in 1991. After the September 11 attacks, Brown attracted attention for comments he made during a September 17, 2001 memorial service at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium for victims of the attack. Brown said: "America, America, what did you do -- either intentionally or unintentionally -- in the world order, in Central America, in Africa where bombs are still blasting? America, what did you do in the global warming conference when you did not embrace the smaller nations? America, what did you do two weeks ago when I stood at the world conference on racism, when you wouldn't show up?" U.S. Representative
Nancy Pelosi Nancy Patricia Pelosi (; ; born March 26, 1940) is an American politician who has served as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives since 2019 and previously from 2007 to 2011. She has represented in the United States House of ...
, a Democrat representing San Francisco in Congress, was the only politician to condemn Brown, stating: "the act of terrorism on Sept. 11 put those people outside the order of civilized behavior, and we will not take responsibility for that." He faced criticism from some black ministers for his support of same-sex marriage and opposition to Proposition 8 in California in 2008. In 2012, he joined the NAACP National Board in voting overwhelmingly in favor of supporting marriage equality. Brown supports the legalization of marijuana, and has called for more African Americans to have a voice in the
medical cannabis Medical cannabis, or medical marijuana (MMJ), is cannabis and cannabinoids that are prescribed by physicians for their patients. The use of cannabis as medicine has not been rigorously tested due to production and governmental restrictions ...
industry. Brown has called for
reparations Reparation(s) may refer to: Christianity * Restitution (theology), the Christian doctrine calling for reparation * Acts of reparation, prayers for repairing the damages of sin History *War reparations **World War I reparations, made from G ...
to be paid to black people, to aid in economic empowerment and compensate for deficiencies in education. Brown volunteered for
Operation Crossroads Africa Operation Crossroads Africa (OCA) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization working to build links between North America and Africa. It was founded in 1958 by Presbyterian clergyman James Herman Robinson. OCA annually sends groups of young vol ...
in 1964, spending over two months on the west coast of Africa. He has visited the continent over 20 times since then. Under his leadership, the Third Baptist Church has sponsored many African refugees, and enabled 80 children from Tanzania to receive heart surgery in the United States.


Awards and recognition

* Martin Luther King Jr. Ministerial Award


References


External links


San Francisco NAACP

Third Baptist Church of San Francisco
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Amos 1941 births African-American activists African-American Baptist ministers Baptist ministers from the United States Living people Morehouse College alumni NAACP activists People from Jackson, Mississippi United Theological Seminary alumni Freedom Riders Religious leaders from the San Francisco Bay Area Baptists from Mississippi Baptists from Maryland