| Reilly began in earnest to go to work, thus demonstrating again a focus on social justice issues, coupled with a strong work ethic. In 1967, he organized fellow seminary students to spend a summer working with Father Clarence Howard of St. Patrick's Church in Oakland - at the time the only African American priest in Northern California - to rebuild the West Oakland Recreation Center. Reilly also took an active role in recruiting fellow seminarians to help out with community building efforts in their diocese.
Soon, Reilly's activism with his fellow seminarians began to attract the attention from more than just his fellow seminarians and clergy. In 1968, Clint organized fellow students at St. Patrick’s to study race relations in San Francisco. Modeling their efforts after President Johnson's national Kerner Commission, the “Little Kerner Commission,” as it became known, issued its own report on the status of race-based poverty in the Bay Area.
The report generated a significant amount of media coverage, much to the dismay of incumbent political leaders. San Francisco Mayor Joe Alioto suggested that the students “go back to their studies” Others, however, took notice, and the report had an impact on the burgeoning social movements at the time.
Clint Reilly soon found that he was drawn more and more to direct public service, and realized that his true calling was no longer as a member of the clergy but elsewhere. Thus, in 1969 he decided to leave the seminary, and enter the world of politics.
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