Rev. L. Tyrone Crider, a naionally renowed
pastor and activist, will be the keynote speaker at Chicago State University's
335th Commencement Exercises on Saturday, January 6, at 10 a.m.
at the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC) Pavilion, 5356 south Racine
Avenue. Approximately, 700 students will receive their bachelors and master's
degrees at the ceremony.
CSU President Elnora Daniel said Crider
was chosen as commencement speaker because he exemplifies many of the qualities
of success and service which young graduates need.
'Crider has distinguished himself not only
as a pastor and activist, but as a magazine publisher and a person who
diligently works with youth to develop their potential for success,' Daniel
said.
Crider, who is pastor of the New Hope Community
Baptist Church in Chicago, accepted his call to the ministry and preached
his first sermon in 1978 while a student at Moorehouse College in Atlanta,
Georgia. Following his graduation in 1982, he became youth director for
the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington D.C.
Crider later moved to Chicago to head the
National PUSH for Excellence Program. In 1983, he coordinated the youth
voter registration campaign that led to the election of Chicago's first
Black Mayor, Harold Washington. He also led the national youth voter registration
drive for Rev. Jesse Jackson's historic presidential.
He later served as director of Admissions
and associate Dean of Students at Central State University, Ohio for four
years. In 1990, he was appointed national executive director of Operation
PUSH. In addition to pasturing a church, he is the publisher of the Gospel
Tribune Magazine, founder of the Pastors network and executive director
of the Institute for African American Youth Development.
Born in 1959 in Maywood, Illinois be graduated
from the Walter Lutheran High School in 1997. He and his wife, Regina Leslie,
have four children.