Third Baptist Church of San Francisco

Third Baptist Church of San Francisco is the oldest African-American Baptist congregation west of the Rockies (founded 1852). For nearly half a century — 1976 to 2025 — it was pastored by Rev. Amos C. Brown, a civil-rights leader and close advisor to Kamala Harris. Brown gave the convention prayer at the 2024 DNC. Harris has been a member for more than 20 years and worked for Brown's campaign for San Francisco supervisor in 2000; he was reportedly among the first people she called when Joe Biden suspended his 2024 campaign and she became the presumptive Democratic nominee. Rev. Devon Jerome Crawford succeeded Brown on July 1, 2025. Theologically the congregation operates in the progressive Black social-gospel tradition with heavy reparations and racial-justice framing; ABC-USA affiliation places it on the affirming end of Baptist polity. Per MOOP rubric this is RED; included for situational awareness about the home church of a recent Democratic nominee for President.