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Amos Brown, pastor to Kamala Harris, known for civil rights, reparations activism
(RNS) — Vice President Kamala Harris has praised Brown, ‘my pastor,’ as a man who also has long been her mentor.
The Rev. Amos Brown speaks during a rally in support of reparations for African Americans as Supervisor Shamann Walton, left, listens outside City Hall in San Francisco, on Sept. 19, 2023. San Francisco's supervisors offered a formal apology to Black residents for decades of racist laws and policies perpetrated by the city. All 11 supervisors signed on as sponsors of an apology resolution to be voted on Feb. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)
Jack Jenkinsand
Adelle M. Banks
July 23, 2024
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(RNS) — The Rev. Amos Brown, a longtime pastor of Third Baptist Church of San Francisco, was specific when he described Vice President Kamala Harris’ connection to his church.
“She’s an old-timer” at the church, he told Religion News Service in an interview on Monday (July 22).
In fact, as he
told RNS in 2023, she’s also “a dues-paying member too.” That might help explain why, when Harris met with Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh leaders in Los Angeles the previous year to discuss
abortion rights and other issues, Brown was in attendance.
Or why, when she spoke of him that same year, she praised “my pastor” as a man who also has long been her mentor.
“For two decades now, at least, I have turned to you,” Harris said in
remarks at the 2022 Annual Session of the National Baptist Convention, USA. “I have turned to him. And I will say that your wisdom has really guided me and grounded me during some of the most difficult times. And — and you have been a source of inspiration to me always. So thank you, Reverend Brown, for being all that you are.”
And the long-standing connection between the two might be why Harris turned to Brown again this week, reaching out to him over the phone after President Joe Biden abandoned his reelection bid and endorsed the vice president. She asked for prayer, and Brown happily obliged.
RELATED: Kamala Harris’ multi-religious identity is a mapof the future
Brown and his wife prayed that Harris “would receive the thing that Micah 6:8 records in the Bible, the fulfillment of what the Lord requires: to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with her God,” Brown told RNS.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at an event May 1, 2024, in Jacksonville, Fla. She’s already broken barriers, and now Harris could soon become the first Black woman to head a major party’s presidential ticket after President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid. The 59-year-old Harris was endorsed by Biden on July 21 after he stepped aside amid widespread concerns about the viability of his candidacy. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)
He also prayed Harris would move forward in her campaign “in the spirit of our ancestors.” Brown recited lines from “
Lift Every Voice and Sing,” a hymn sometimes referred to as the “
Black national anthem”: “God of our weary years, God of our silent years, Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way; Thou who hast by Thy might, Led us into the light, Keep us forever in the path, we pray.”
“That’s what this nation needs,” Brown said, later noting that he endorses Harris for president in his personal capacity. “That’s what this vice president and, hopefully, president, will be elevated to be: To bring this nation out of darkness. The darkness of incivility. The darkness of lying. The darkness of injustice. The darkness of irresponsible behavior — and that goes at all levels, from the local community up to the national government.”
Brown, 83, explained he and Harris also have a shared political history: Harris served as Brown’s campaign manager when he ran for reelection to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1999, and Brown joined his wife in praying over Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, immediately before the 2021 inauguration ceremony.
“She was very close to our church family,” Brown said.
Brown’s history with Harris extends to her family as well. A Jackson, Mississippi, native and civil rights activist who was taught by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in a class at Morehouse College in the 1960s, Brown mentioned meeting Harris’ mother, Shyamala Gopalan, along with others who participated in civil rights activism.
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Sofukking wild... a woman who was raised by an indian mother and lived in india now claim she was raised in a black church?!?! 
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