Wade Lee Hudson

Brief Bio

Wade has been an activist since 1962 and an organizer and writer since 1967. He pursues Truth, Justice, and Beauty, integrates the personal and the political, cultivates compassion and justice, and aims to help correct root causes of social ills.

Born in Little Rock in 1944, Wade was raised in Dallas by working-class parents. In 1962, he entered the University of California at Berkeley, where he studied political science and psychology, and then studied theology at the Pacific School of Religion. As a young adult, he became immersed in the movements associated with the Sixties. In 1967, he dedicated his life to community organizing, political activism, and mutual support for self-improvement. Since then, he has engaged in many community-based projects, had numerous articles published, and self-published several books.

After working for non-profits for 20 years, he became a part-time cab driver, did community activism as a volunteer, convened several workshops to explore how the progressive movement might be more effective, and conducted online dialogues about these issues.

Now retired, he lives in a senior housing complex in San Francisco, where he experiments with transformative models and edits the Compassionate Humanity Community website, which promotes holistic and systemic transformation rooted in co-equal partnerships and supportive, egalitarian community.

Longer Bio

      In 1962, a student housing co-op at the University of California, Berkeley introduced Wade Lee Hudson to the cooperative movement. In 1963, a James Baldwin lecture inspired him to become deeply involved in the civil rights movement. In 1964, working full-time for twelve months as an orderly in a psychiatric institution opened his heart even further. In 1965, meditation, massage, backpacking, psychodrama, LSD, Varieties of Religious Experience by William James, I and Thou by Martin Buber, and The Courage to Be by Paul Tillich led him into the human potential movement and spirituality. Ever since, he’s focused on integrating the personal, the social, and the political.

      In 1967 Wade dedicated his life to organizing communities of “faith, love, and action” and entered the Pacific School of Religion to prepare for “coffee-house ministries,” which were church-funded cultural centers. There he co-convened the New Seminary Movement, which helped the seminary become less isolated and more involved in the community. After two years, Glide Memorial Church hired him as an Intern Minister and he moved to San Francisco. Since then, he’s been a self-taught community organizer.

      In addition to engagement in numerous projects led by others, he’s initiated or played a major leadership role in these supportive, peer-to-peer communities:

  • Alternative Futures Community, which conducted weekend Urban Plunges designed to nurture personal and political transformation.

  • Network Against Psychiatric Assault, which opposed forced treatment, advocated for patients’ rights and facilitated mutual support.

  • Muni Coalition, which fought to stop a fare increase and improve public transit.

  • Other Avenues Community Food Store, a consumer-run co-op that nurtured community with square dances, clam bakes on the beach, and other enriching activities, and evolved into a workers’ cooperative.

  • District Eleven Residents Association, which did door-to-door precinct work for city-wide elections and ballot measures.

  • South of Market Grocery, a neighborhood food co-op that provided affordable food to low-income seniors.

  • Aarti Cooperative, a low-income housing co-op that empowered tenants.

  • 509 Cultural Center, which evolved into the award-winning Luggage Store Gallery.

  • The Tenderloin Times, a groundbreaking, multi-language neighborhood newspaper.

  • Tenderloin Self-Help Center, which served the low-income Tenderloin neighborhood.

  • Solutions to Poverty Workshop, which developed a ten-point program to end poverty in the United States and evolved into the Campaign to Abolish Poverty.

  • Internet Learning Center, which served low-income residents during the early days of the Internet.

  • San Francisco Progressive Challenge, which promoted the Fairness Agenda for America developed by the Institute for Policy Studies.

  • Reaching Beyond the Choir Project and What We Believe Network, which aimed to articulate core values and principles that could be broadly embraced.

  • Charter for Compassion Network, which aimed to advance the Charter throughout society with political action.

  • Iraq Peace Team, which opposed the Iraq War as witnesses in Baghdad during the invasion.

  • Occupy Be the Change Caucus, which pushed Occupy San Francisco to embrace deep nonviolence and experimented with mutual support methods.

  • Western Park Residents Council, which established a partnership with management to improve residents’ quality of life.

  • Two leaderless, self-perpetuating support groups with fellow Western Park residents — a monthly “spiritual support group” whose members rotate presenting a reading, and a weekly “coffee klatch” whose members share and discuss whatever’s on their mind.

      With these projects, underlying personal and spiritual values were often implicit. In 2004, Wade decided activists need to explicitly agree on their beliefs with regard to these values. Over the course of the next 15 years, he initiated a series of workshops to explore this issue: four Strategy Workshops, two Compassionate Politics Workshops, and a Gandhi-King Three-fold Path Workshop. He also participated in numerous workshops on related issues that were convened by others and has been active in the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples. From 2010-17 he published Wade’s Weekly, a blog. In 2018, he launched TransformTheSystem.org, now CompassionateHumanityCommunity.org.

      Wade has published four books:

and two booklets:

  • Promoting the General Welfare: A Campaign for American Values, 2004

  • The Compassion Movement: A Declaration, Charter for Compassion Network, 2010

For more: see My Story: Egalitarian Community Organizing

A COMMENT

I am writing to you from Greece, where I am developing a holistic network. I am a USA and Greek citizen, grew up in Georgia, studied...worked, worked, worked and now at 62 I am preparing for early retirement so that I would be able to commit to completing my journey as aware, fulfilled and free as possible.
I would like to thank you, because it's always easier to know in your heart that you have company, no matter how far away or for how long !
I am marching along the same path as you, maybe using some other words to describe the special plan that life has given to each one of us for the benefit of all living. My overall approach is ONE LIFE -DIFFEFENT WORLD PATHS -ONE START- SAME END .... being life itself. Something along the statement of. "...I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end". I am attempting to formulate the "Policy of Love" in all our doings for caring for one's self, their own and all the others. Actually, it is not that complicated although challenging enough in a divided world.
Again, thanks Wade
Love Always,
Your Greek-American friend

Wade: Wonderful. Great to hear from you. Can you tell us more about how you are developing a holistic network? Might you sign the Declaration by using the form on the bottom of this page?

Comment