By Lee Hubbard
When Devon Jerome Crawford stood behind the pulpit at Third Baptist Church, he had an assertive look on his face. The 32-year-old new pastor looked on as Reverend Amos Brown, the retired pastor whom Crawford succeeded, watched with pride.
Brown, the longtime pastor, stepped down from the church after 49 years of leadership.
“I am repositioning myself, and I will still be engaged and involved in the struggle,” said Reverend Brown. “I first came to Third Baptist Church in 1956 with Medgar Evers at a National NAACP conference. I then came back as a preacher and pastor in June of 1976, from St. Andrews Church in Minneapolis.”
In the 172-year history of the church—one of the oldest in California—Brown holds the distinction of being the longest-tenured pastor at Third Baptist. Now, Reverend Devon Jerome Crawford follows in that tradition.
“I don’t look at it like I am replacing him,” said Reverend Devon Jerome Crawford. “I am standing on the foundation of his legacy. He replaced Frederick Haynes Jr. and took it higher, and I plan on trying to do the same thing.”
Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, Crawford is a graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta and the University of Chicago Divinity School. After graduating from Divinity School, he went on to work at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government as the staff director for the William Monroe Trotter Collaborative for Social Justice. The Trotter Collaborative is a think tank that helps students address social justice issues.
Crawford led the organization for four years, during which time it supported several Massachusetts and national campaigns that advanced voting rights, transformed criminal legal systems, spearheaded reparations research, and advocated for Black Americans. At the same time, he served as associate minister at Myrtle Baptist Church in Newton, Massachusetts.
Crawford has long been involved in social justice work. In addition to his longtime work with the NAACP, after leaving the Trotter Institute he went on to work for Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia—the spiritual home of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the current church led by U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock. At Ebenezer, Crawford served as the National Executive Director of the Multifaith Initiative to End Mass Incarceration.
“This is a multi-faith coalition dealing with mass incarceration,” said Devon Jerome Crawford. “The country we live in leads the world in mass incarceration, with 2.3 million people in jail—one million of whom are Black. This does not include people on probation and parole. We are working with churches, synagogues, and mosques—people of faith—to help change public policy. There needs to be a strong faith voice lending its voice to the issue.”
It was Crawford’s activism that intrigued Reverend Brown during the search for a successor. He said the church has “a certain criteria and standard for leadership.”
“Anyone who will be the pastor of this church, Third Baptist, has to have a prophetic social justice view of the church,” Brown continued. “Reverend Devon Jerome Crawford comes out of the same soil.”
“He is a man of God that was sent, and we accepted him after he was embedded,” Brown added. “The congregation was—and has been—excited about him. He can sing and preach. He is a thinker, an administrator, and an educator. He has all the letters and the spirit.”
While he officially assumed the role of Senior Pastor at Third Baptist this month, Reverend Devon Jerome Crawford has been at the church since February, learning about San Francisco, the Black community, and the church itself. It has been a healthy transition from Reverend Brown to Reverend Devon Jerome Crawford, and since his arrival, he said church attendance has increased.
“Third Baptist has always been a prophetic ministry,” said Reverend Devon Jerome Crawford. “We are a Black church, and we don’t shy away from the issues affecting people. We are going outside of the walls and to the people.”
There are many issues affecting Black people in the Western Addition and the greater San Francisco area—from increasing the Black population in the city by building more affordable housing, to job creation, to supporting new and existing Black-owned businesses. People come to Third Baptist from all over San Francisco, as well as from Oakland, Vallejo, Antioch, and throughout the Peninsula.
“As a pastor, I have a moral voice in the city and the Bay Area to speak to the needs of the community,” said Reverend Devon Jerome Crawford. “Our people are deeply suspicious of political and civic leaders. Pastors have a moral voice, as we witness the lack of normalcy in this country. We need more public services for the least of these. We need a revolution of values.”
