Oakland faith community mourns J. Alfred Smith Sr., social justice pastor who led Allen Temple Baptist Church

Pastor Jacqueline Thompson remembers the very first time that she preacher James Alfred Smith Sr. Heard a sermon in Allen Temple Baptist Church.

She was 12 years previous and he preached from the ebook Matthew, chapter 28, verses 18 to twenty, spoke concerning the that means of discipleship and the way Christians ought to reside.

“It was about religion in motion,” Thompson, who’s now the Senior Pastor of the Church, advised the Oaklandside. “It was not nearly conviction, it wasn’t nearly church visits, however {that a} Christian was that it’s best to do one thing to enhance the world.”

Simply as all is Temple celebrating his 106th birthdayIt additionally mourns the lack of Smith, who died on September 19 on 94. Smith all led all Temple for nearly 40 years, from 1971 to his retirement in 2009. Throughout his time period of workplace, he grew the congregation of the church, welcomed world leaders corresponding to Desmond Tutu, wrote greater than a dozen books, testified within the public workplace. He additionally accompanied generations of church leaders.

He served as president of the Progressive Nationwide Baptist Conference, the denomination that was the house of Martin Luther King Jr. And from American Baptist Church buildings of the West. He argued for justice, whether or not it was the management of girls within the church, marching violence within the East -Oakland or referred to as to an finish to Apartheid in South Africa.

“His expression he would at all times say was:” We weren’t referred to as to be within the rocking chair of Lazy Faith, “stated Thompson.

In 2022, De Berkeley College of theology created the J. Alfred Smith Sr. Endowed Chair of theology within the Public Sq. in honor of him, and in 2019 town of Oakland renamed a road between the eighty fifth and 86th roads corresponding to J. Alfred Smith Sr. Approach to course of his contributions to Oakland.

On a church message that asserts his dying, Hundreds of commentators wrote about his affect on their lives and praised the methods through which he embodied the concept of ​​religion.

Mayor of Oakland Barbara Lee advised the Oaklandside that she has all referred to as Temple her church home because the Nineteen Eighties. “He was a warrior for peace and justice,” she stated about Smith.

A dedication to East Oakland

All Temple, situated on 8501 Worldwide Blvd., is the oldest black church within the East -Oakland based on church historical past. When Smith took over the helm in 1971, the Black Panther Social gathering was within the elevator in Oakland, and he didn’t shrink back from collaborating. He supported the free breakfast program of the Panthers and invited Bobby Seale to offer a burning reward at an occasion that organized the church, one Mock -burial for failed urban renewal projects In East Oakland.

The town council “tried to go the second mile to alleviate the troubles of the Hill Folks,” stated Smith in an article from 1973 concerning the occasion. “We within the Flatland consider that the council didn’t even go the primary mile as a result of they’re delicate to our worries.”

Within the Nineteen Eighties, the church acquired the previous headquarters of the Panthers on eighty fifth Avenue and Worldwide, the place the Household Levenscentrum of Allen Temple is in the present day. Greater than 2,000 individuals attended the funeral service for Huey Newton, the co -founder of Panthers, held within the church in 1989, the place Smith mourned Rouwenders to “step into the trenches, roll our sleeves and make this world a greater place.”

When Robert Shetterly, when the CEO of Clorox, was on the lookout for a location for a youth growth heart in East Oakland, Smith helped him discover one: a nook, not removed from all Temple, the place a gasoline station was at 82nd Avenue and Worldwide. Whereas the East Oakland Youth Growth Middle was below development, Allen Temple organized programming for the neighborhood youngsters.

“Folks advised me for years East Oakland was referred to as the homicide fields – a homicide hall,” stated Regina Jackson, who served for many years as CEO of the youth heart, from 1994 to 2021. “Senior Pastor didn’t see it. He noticed it as a hopeful and fruitful floor as anybody.”

Smith understood the significance of possession, particularly within the neighborhood within the church, which was predominantly black in these days, Jackson stated. In 1979, his Church Brak site for all Temple ArmsA senior housing neighborhood in East Oakland, one of many a number of senior residential complexes that the church constructed through the time period of Smith. The church was additionally going to construct Housing for people who live with HIV. As we speak, greater than 200 individuals have been housed in Allen Temple property, based on Reginald Lyles, the Kerk Deacon and a member of the church since 1970.

“I had a home within the East Oakland Hills, and I might come to all Temple to listen to this one preacher who was presently superior, preaching liberation theology,” Lyles advised the Oaklandside. “He preached that we had the correct not solely to realize entry to lodging, but in addition to the pursuit of happiness that we have been entitled to high quality schooling, well being care, meals and good housing.”

In August 1986, 1000’s of individuals stood in line to view the plush funeral procession for a drug king of Oakland, Felix Mitchell, who fueled shocked Newspaper heads. Smith reacted by organizing a ‘Mars for Justice’, the place a a lot bigger quantity – an estimated 12,000 individuals – from Allen Temple in Oost -oakland walked to the city corridor, protested in opposition to medicine and violence locally.

“There have been Muslims, Latinos, Asians, we had individuals who marched from West Oakland and North Oakland,” stated Lyles. “We had an increase that doubled their rise of the entire of Oakland. It was an try to say that our neighborhood has honorable values.”

A worldwide imaginative and prescient

Within the Nineteen Eighties, Smith additionally grew to become concerned within the anti-apartheid motion. When the South African bishop Desmond Tutu visited the Bay Space in 1985, whereas the US have been nonetheless engaged on a coverage of “constructive involvement” with the apartheid regime, he appeared in all Temple. Mayor Barbara Lee was then an worker for Rep. Ron Dellums, one Leading opponent of Apartheid Within the congress.

“The committee had not even considered bringing him to Oakland,” Lee recalled the Oaklandside. “I stated,” No, Bishop Tutu has to come back to Oakland. ” I referred to as Pastor Smith and he stated, “Sure, deliver him to all Temple.” ‘

1000’s of individuals gathered within the sanctuary to listen to Tutu converse. 4 years later, in 1989, Smith testified in opposition to Apartheid for the United Nations.

“My thoughts is consumed by reminiscences of Pastor Smith,” Mayor Lee advised the Oaklandside. She referred to as him ‘a giant theologian’.

“He knew what the Scripture he calls on individual and with everybody with me to assist us perceive what’s going down on the planet or our neighborhood or in our lives,” she stated. “I miss him very a lot.”

Smith’s Celebration of life Will happen this Thursday and Friday. His physique shall be in all Temple on Thursday 9 October from 2 p.m. to five p.m. At 6 pm a service begins in honor of the lifetime of Smith, which is streamed reside on the Fb and YouTube pages of the church. The funeral takes place on Friday, October 10 at 11 am in Allen Temple.

As a substitute of flowers, the Church asks that mourning individuals donate to the Center for Truth, Racial Healing and Recovery Justice by the Berkeley School of theology In honor of Smith.