Sanctuary for the Revolution: Glide Church and the Religious Infrastructure of Bay Area Activism

Under the leadership of Rev. Cecil Williams, Glide Memorial Methodist Church emerged as vibrant center for progressive social activism in San Francisco. Various radical social groups, from the Daughters of Bilitis to the Black Panthers, found a home at Glide, and Glide lent its theological and institutional support to such organizations’ work. Building on archival work with the Glide Historical Records, this paper considers Glide as a node within a larger network of radical social activism within the San Francisco Bay Area. This paper centers the early ministry of Rev. Cecil A. Williams and the connections he, and other religious leaders, built with Black Power activists such as Angela Davis and Bobby Seale, and argues that our understanding of radical American politics during the Black Power era must consider the role churches played in creating sanctuaries for the revolution.