Conrad Tillard

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Reverend Conrad Bennette Tillard Sr. is an American clergyman (faith leader)and theologian, and civil rights leader in the African-American consciousness movement tradition. He is an author, educator, youth advocate, community activist, radio talk show host and public theologian, born on September 15, 1964, in St. Louis, Missouri, he grew up in Washington DC and Atlanta, Ga.,.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]} Today, he is the Senior Minister of Flatbush Tompkins Congregational Church, a 120-year congregation located in the historic Ditmas Park section of Flatbush, Brooklyn. The Church is affiliated with the National Association of Congregational Christians Churches. Tillard is also and adjunct professor in the Black Studies Department at The City College of New York, where he teaches on Harlem, Hip Hop and the Black Power Movement. He is the Immediate past Sr. Minister, of the Nazarene Congregational United Church of Christ in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn NY. Prior to that, he was the Interim Senior Minister, at the Eliot Congregational Church in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood. He is affiliated with the National Baptist Convention, USA, The American Baptist Church, the United Church of Christ, and the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches. Licensed to preach and ordained at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, he has been a community activist for over 30 years.

A former member and minister of the Nation of Islam and a minister with Mosque No. 7 in Harlem. He was 19 when he joined the National of Islam. While with the Nation of Islam he was known as Conrad X, Conrad Muhammad, and then Minister Conrad Muhammad. He is known for his youth ministry and activism and was dubbed by Village Voice reporter Peter Noel, The Hip hop Minister while with the Nation of Islam.^[12] Formerly considered as the heir apparent to leadership of the Nation of Islam,^[13] he was removed from being the Minister of Mosque No. 7 by Minister Louis Farrakhan in 1997.^[14] Subsequently, he became a Christian minister.^{[15][16][17][18][19][20][21]}

He is a radio host for WHCR-90.3 FM radio in New York City, where he hosts the program "Conversations with Conrad."^[22]

He organized a Day-of-Atonement after the death of Tupac Shakur.^[23] In 2001 Conrad organized a Hip-Hop summit to address negative imagery and the promoting of gangsterism in hip-hop music, and called for hip-hop to clean up its act. He organized a hip-hop summit in Harlem in 2002.^[24] In 2004 he became Reverend Conrad Tillard, and was Sr. Pastor at Nazarene Congregational Church, a United Church of Christ (UCC) in Brooklyn. He was Interim Pastor, for The Eliot Church Of Roxbury, Massachusetts.^[25]

Early life[]

Conrad was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He grew up in Washington, D.C. His biological father was a tailor and part-time jazz musician and when his parents divorced his mother married a Baptist minister and Civil Rights leader. He grew up in a Baptist church^[26] He attended Middlebury College in Vermont. He attended for one year and transferred to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At University of Pennsylvania Tillard majored in African American studies.

He received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania's College of Arts and Sciences in Philadelphia and in African American studies. At Penn, Tillard was elected to the Presidency of the Black Student League in 1986 and he was inducted into the universities oldest honor society Sphynx. He attended Harvard's Divinity School and the John F. Kennedy School of Government. He left Harvard to study under James cone, the father of Black liberation Theology at Union Theological Seminary. He earned a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, where he studied under theologian James H. Cone, the father of Black Liberation Theology. He is an alumnus of Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey, where he was awarded the Master of Theology degree.

Career[]

In 1984 he worked with the Rev. Jesse Jackson's campaign for U.S.A. presidency. After working with Jesse Jackson's campaign he joined the Nation of Islam and became Conrad X.

He became a student leader at the University of Pennsylvania, when he was elected to the Presidency of the Black student League in 1986. He was later that year elected to a citywide student leadership position as President of the Philadelphia Inter-Collegiate Black Student Union. His leadership grew nationally as he led the effort to organize the National Student Unity Conference and Congress, that hosted its inaugural conference of over 700 from across the nation from over 80 colleges and university at the University of Pennsylvania in 1986–87. The conference featured national 60 speakers spanning the ideological spectrum in black America, from Kwame Toure (formerly Stokely Carmichael) to Ronald Reagan supporter, and Black conservative Robert L. Woodson. Both Jesse Jackson and Louis Farrakhan were keynote speakers. Jackson called the conference, "the most significant gathering of students since the founding of SNCC in 1960. The conference would take place in 1987-88 at Howard University in Washington DC and at Columbia University in New York City, in 1988–89.

In 1988 Tillard, would be invited to the White House to meet with President Ronald Reagan as the Student delegate of the Council for an Economic Agenda, a group of Black conservatives that included Woodson, then Harvard Economics professor Glen Lowery, New Jersey Minister Buster Soaries.

In 1995 Tillard, then known as Conrad Muhammad, the Nation of Islam's New York representative, and minister of the Nation of Islam in Harlem was a facilitator for a fundraiser to support Quibilah Shabazz (Malcolm X's Daughter). Quibilah had admitted to her involvement in a plot to kill Louis Farrakhan. The event was at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. The event was organized to address a 30-year rift between the Shabazz family and the Nation of Islam.^[27]

In 1988, he was named the National Student Minister of the Nation of Islam and assigned to New York City and Harlem's Mosque Number Seven. In 1991, he was named Minister of the legendary Mosque, from that base he became a leading Minister in the nation, lecturing at over 100 colleges and universities, frequently representing the NOI at churches, meetings rally's and on radio and television. In 1993 he settled a rap war between A Tribe Called Quest and Wreckx-N-Effect. He provided tremendous diplomacy during the East Coast, West Coast rap wars during the 1990s.

In 1996 after the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur, Conrad who was at the time was known within the Nation of Islam as the 'Hip-hop minister', A Tribe Called Questorganized "Day of Atonement", to address issues of violent themes in hip-hop music. The Rappers summit invited key rappers. Its goal was to initiate a truce a peace summit between East Coast-West Coast rap rivalry. Invited were Rap group A Tribe Called Quest, Chuck D with Public Enemy (group), Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, model Bethann Hardison, and actor Malik Yoba. Bad Boy Records president Sean Combs, and his protege, rapper The Notorious B.I.G., so was rapper Tupac Shakur.^[28]

In 1997 he matriculated to the Harvard Divinity School to pursue a Master of Theology degree, there he discovered and became intrigued by the theological writings of Howard Thurman. Thurman was an African-American theologian, civil rights advocate, author, philosopher, and educator.

In the 1990s he started (CHHCHANGE), A Movement for Change, was said to focus on “conscious hip hop activism", and social empowerment for black youth.^[14] Conrad also hosted a popular radio talk show in the late 90s into the new millennium on New York City's African-American owned Inner-City Broadcasting, owned by one of his mentors Percy Ellis Sutton. He hosted New York Roundtable daily on WLIB and on the weekends Sunday Night Live on the networks flagship station WBLS.

May 2001 -Conrad organized a hip-hop summit in Harlem at the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building on 125th Street to address critical and negative issues with Hip-Hop and to find ways to clean up rap music. Music industry executives were invited such as; Elektra, Motown, and rappers included was Fat Joe and Afrika Bambaata.^[24]

Conrad was outraged when he felt that Reverend Al Sharpton had taken his idea, and that Al Sharpton the leader of the National Action Network in Harlem along with David Mays of The Source magazine were to "use the moral cover of the civil rights movement", said to divert from criticizing that rap is not in good taste, and lacks decency. Taking the Rap an article written by Peter Noel for the Village Voice on January 9, 2001, stated that Conrad was infuriated that Sharpton and the other black leaders did not address Sean Combs or Shyne Barrows both who were at the time symbols of gangsta rap. Conrad stated that the Hip hop summits organized by Al Sharpton were shams. Combs, Barrow and Anthony "Wolf" Jones were about to go on trial in New York supreme court in Manhattan for a shooting at Club New York in New York City that took place in December 1999. Conrad is quoted as saying "I'm challenging the civil rights establishment, who essentially have become hired guns". Muhammad is also quoted as saying "Is the civil rights movement for rent, for sale, to the highest bidder?"^[29]

Russell Simmons did not support Conrad Muhammad's Hip-Hop summit. He organized a counter-summit hosted by Louis Farrakhan. Farrakhan who had ousted Conrad from Mosque No. 7 in Harlem. Russell Simmons at the time was considered to be rap's premier mogul. Simmons was quoted as saying, “I urge that you do not support open and aggressive critics of the hip-hop community (i.e. C. Delores Tucker, Bob Dole or Conrad Muhammad)".

Conrad Muhammad is quoted as saying a New York Post article, “It is our community,” says Muhammad, “that is most hurting from the excesses of this music". “Contemporary rap has brought back ‘pimp’ style,” Muhammad told The Post. “Contemporary rap has brought back ‘pimp’ style,” Muhammad told The Post. He was outspoken against the use of the "N word" and quoted as saying Second, he decries the ubiquitous use of the “N”-word in commercial rap.

“We have reinstitutionalized a word that the black community had fought to make persona non grata. Today, it is more popular than ever".^[24]

In 2002, he ran for Congress, challenging veteran Democrat Congressman Charles Rangel, predicting that Harlem was becoming unaffordable for its longtime residents.

Also in 2002, Conrad returned to his birth name Conrad Tillard. that same year, deeply influenced by Baptist theologian, Howard Thurman and several influential Christian ministers, including Bishop Frank M. Reid of the AME Church, Rev. William James, a legendary Harlem United Methodist Minister and Dr. Calvin o. Butts III, Tillard returned to Christianity.He is currently working on a book about his early life and ministry, his memoir, "In My Father's House: The Spiritual and Political Memoir of the Man Once Known as the Hip Hop Minister, Conrad Muhammad". He says about his book, "It was the golden age of Black Hip Hop. All the groups and things the youth like now I was right there in the middle of it and I can't wait to share my story through this book," said Rev. Tillard.^[26]

Conrad co-wrote and hosted Culture Shock a one-hour television program for WPIX channel 11 in New York City. A program that addressed negative imagery in the media in youth programming. The program won various awards, the National Council on Family Relations First Place Media Award, Platinum Best “Show Award”, and the “Aurora Award".^[9]

In Bedford Stuyvesant, Conrad was a very socially and community-oriented Minister. As the Senior Minister, at The Nazarene Congregational United Church of Christ, he served on the Community Advisory Board, for the historic Boys and Girls High School. He funeralized police brutality victim Kiel Coppin, a Bedford Stuyvesant teenager with developmental issues, who was shot to death by police holding a hairbrush. He also worked to end violence among youth in the central Brooklyn, fair wages for NYC workers and in 2013 he made a spirited run for New York City Council in the 36th Council District. He was a key early clergy supporter of Barack Obama's historic 2009 campaign for president.

During his tenure at Nazarene, the pulpit featured nationally renown Ministers, politicians, civil rights leaders and cultural icons. Dick Gregory, Wynton Marsalis, Harvard Law School professor Charles Ogletree, NAACP President Ben Jealous, Howard University Divinity School Dean, Yolanda Pierce and journalist George Curry are some of the individuals who came to Nazarene, during Conrad's tenure. He constantly said to his members, "I want to expose my people to the best minds, I want the youth of Bedford Stuyvesant to see that they can be rappers, but they can also be anything they want to be, they can be the best". Rev. Tillard is featured in several films including Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes, and the 2017 and 2020 films Digging for Weldon Irvine and Storm Over Brooklyn respectively.{https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2570862/}

Films[]

• 2006 – appeared in Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes
• 2017 – appeared in Digging for Weldon Irvine

Honors[]

• 2005 & 2006 by Beliefnet.com noted as one of “Leaders”, in the United States^[30][31]
• 2007 NAACP Community Service Award
• 2009 Koob Collaboration Award Winner
• 2009 - Iowa Legislature Community Service Award
• 2009 - KBBG Citizen of the Year Award
• 2009 - "Pastor of the Year" in Brooklyn, New York by Church Women United
• 2007 NAACP Community Service Award
• 2005 & 2006 by Beliefnet.com noted as one of “Leaders”, in the United States^[30][31]
• 2005 & 2006 by Beliefnet.com noted as one of “Leaders”, in the United States^[30][31]
• 2009 - "Pastor of the Year" in Brooklyn, New York by Church Women United
• 2013 - Distinguished Public Service Award KBOL Radio and Social Action Inc.
• 2014 - From the Heart: Gift of Legacy National Philanthropy Day
• 2015 - Culvert News's Humanitarian Community Leadership Award
• 2015 - received the Ecumenical Leadership Award by the Community Council of Medgar College CUNY
• 2015 - 100 Outstanding African-Americans of 2015;^[32]

References[]

External links[]

• Conrad Tillard at IMDb
• The Impact of Popular Culture - Tillard on C-Span
• Student Minister Conrad Muhammad Tillard
• Reverend Conrad B. Tillard - 09-29-09 Air date
• African American Legends: The Hip-Hop Minister
• KING Talks Ep8 | Rev. Conrad Tillard
• KING Talks Ep 9 | Table Talk on Rev. Conrad Tillard Part 1
• Hip Hop Media Foundation