Harrel Tillman

Harrel Gordon Tillman Sr. (January 18, 1925 - June 19, 1998) was an actor who became an ordained minister and moved to Houston Texas where he also became a lawyer and judge. He was the first African-American judge in Texas.[1][2]

Tillman was born January 18, 1923 in Wadesboro, North Carolina. He grew up in Philadelphia and graduated from Livingstone College in Salisbury, North Carolina.[2] After college he moved to New York, where he had a brief stage career. Tillman then moved to Hollywood in 1947 where he appeared in a number of low budget films made with African American crews and casts including That Man of Mine, Love in Syncopation and The Fight Never Ends.

He left the movie business and joined the clergy of the African Methodist Episcopal church in New York City serving as an assistant pastor before becoming an ordained minister. In the early 1950s he was transferred to a church in Houston, and served as an ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, In Harlem he was an assistant pastor at Harlem's Church on the Hill and then he was the pastor at the Walls Chapel in Houston.[3] Tillman led a gospel music program on local radio and hosted a talk show on radio station KYOK in Houston.[4]

Tillman was admitted to the Texas bar in 1962 and in 1964 was named to the municipal court.[5] He served as a general counsel on the Texas Joint Legislative Committee on Prison Reform and as a delegate to the Texas Democratic Party convention. He was unsuccessful in a bid for a seat in Congress in 1978 and 1982.

Tillman was interviewed for the book Black Cinema Treasures.[6]

He died of cancer on June 18, 1998 in Houston, at the age of 73.[7]

Filmography

References
  1. Smith, Jessie Carney (December 2012). Black Firsts: 4,000 Ground-Breaking and Pioneering Historical Events. ISBN 9781578594252.
  2. Grant, Edmond (August 21, 1999). The Motion Picture Guide: 1999 Annual (The Films of 1998). CineBooks. ISBN 9780933997431 – via Google Books.
  3. Bradley, David Henry (1956). A History of the A.M.E Zion Church. Parthenon Press. p. 8.
  4. "Red River Valley Historical Review". Red River Valley Historical Association. August 21, 1981 – via Google Books.
  5. "Black Houston" (PDF). Texas Observer. May 13, 1966. Retrieved August 21, 2020.
  6. Jones, George William (August 21, 1991). Black Cinema Treasures: Lost and Found. University of North Texas. ISBN 9780929398266 – via Google Books.
  7. "Harrel G. Tillman, Former Judge, Dies at 73". New York Times. June 28, 1998. Retrieved August 21, 2020.

See also
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