Systemic features such as scientific racism, long-standing distrust of the medical establishment, and overall neglect of African American healthcare concerns created challenging circumstances for blacks during the AIDS crisis. This, coupled with the stigma of being gay and black, rendered African Americans invisible and vulnerable during the AIDS epidemic from the 1980s to the 2000s in Oakland, California. The impact would have been more significant if not for the black community in Oakland, which rallied around itself to improve the plight of people of color living with the disease. Faith-based organizations, such as the black church, filled in gaps through community outreach, education, health fairs, and housing, which proved to be a “saving grace” to people of color in Oakland. Using oral interviews, local and black newspapers, broadcast media, newsletters, church, and AIDS organizations archives, academic articles, and books, this paper illustrates the effectiveness of the black church in advocating for those marginalized by HIV/AIDS during the late 1980s to the 2000s in Oakland, California. Due to their efforts, this paper demonstrate, the religious community eventually came to view healthcare as a civil right.