Rev. Clyde Brooks
Founder, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
The Illinois Commission on Diversity & Human Relations (ICDHR) is recognized as a World Class professional organization committed to excellence and high standards. The Commission strongly believes that there is no excuse for being otherwise. The Commission, led by the Reverend Clyde H. Brooks, is an organization that believes that to resolve man's inhumanity to man, two things are needed by everyone. The first is repentance and the second, forgiveness. He believes that if mankind would commit itself to these two principles, the world would be better for everyone. Reverend Brooks points out that forgiveness is not the same as forgetting. Forgiveness requires adopting a new starting point in resolving conflict.
Reverend Brooks is recognized throughout the United States as a human relations building scholar. Having served as a National Board member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the only organization led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., National Director for Fair Labor and Equal Employment Opportunity for the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Associations, a representative to the White House Conference on Small Business, and a host of other national assignments, Reverend Brooks is sought after as a consultant, speaker, and advisor. His exceptional analytic skills have been used to identify potential problems before they become a problem.
Recipient of the Comcast "Voices of Civil Rights Movement Honor"
Reverend Brooks has helped to build a number of organizations designed to address the needs of many. These organizations included BRASS, (Behavior Research in the Social Sciences), an organization that used work as a therapy to move people from drug addiction. He founded the Minority Economic Resources Corporation and served as its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for more than 30 years. This 501 (c)(3) organization brought together thousands of minority employment applicants and minority and women owned businesses, and major corporations. During his thirty years at the helm of this organization, more than a half billion dollars in business transactions were conducted between and among these groups.
As the National Director of Equal Opportunity and Fair Labor for the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Associations headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, he directed the department responsible for ensuring that the 110 Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans across the United States were in compliance with federal EEO and Fair Labor Regulations. In this capacity, Reverend Brooks advised Chief Executive Officers regarding employment policies and regulations.
He also has a long history with law enforcement and corrections. In this regard, he was appointed by the Governor of Illinois to the Illinois Prisoner Review Board, The Illinois Commission on Human Rights where he helped to select administrative judges and rule on compliance to Illinois human rights regulations and served as a consultant to the Illinois Department of Corrections. Reverend Brooks has also been a probation officer, a law enforcement officer and after 20 years, retired as a Deputy Sheriff. He has also served as a member of the Mount Prospect Fire and Police Commission.
He served the City of Chicago as a member of the Chicago Commission on Youth Welfare as well as a schoolteacher and high school counselor. He has served as a consultant to the Scott Foresman Publishing Company, Marillac House on Chicago's west side, and other for profit and not-for profit entities.
Reverend Brooks has served on the faculty of Harper Community College and was the first African American to teach African American History at St Mary of the Lake Seminary. He is called upon by numerous community leaders and organizations throughout the United States for advice on the creation of human relations models that can serve as a guide for resolving conflicts and misunderstandings across racial and cultural lines.
His commitment to justice and equality are the direct result of his work with the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. when Dr. King and his family moved into a rundown apartment on Chicago's Westside to demonstrate the need for meaningful and affordable housing.
As a theologian and a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Reverend Brooks uses the scriptures to teach good health, economic principles leading to prosperity, justice, law and a host of other subjects and disciplines.
Reverend Brooks received his bachelor’s and master’s Degrees from Western Illinois University and has participated in and led many workshops designed to advance education, law enforcement, economic prosperity, and improve communities and is available for speaking and consulting.