Julian Bond, civil Rights Activist and leader, is gone

Kobina "boyo" Annan, Jr.

August 17, 2015
 

Julian Bond has left his memories and legacy with us. He left to join the ancestors this weekend.

 

Horace Julian Bond, born on January 14, 1940 and known as Julian Bond, was an American social activist and leader, politician, professor, and writer in the Civil Rights Movement.

The African- American Civil Rights Movement, of which he was a prominent activist, encompassed social movements in the United States whose goals were to end racial segregation and discrimination against black Americans and to secure legal recognition and federal protection of the citizenship rights enumerated in the Constitution and federal law.

 

The movement was characterized by major campaigns of civil resistance. Between 1955 and 1968, acts of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience produced crisis situations and productive dialogues between activists and government authorities. Federal, state, and local governments, businesses, and local governments, businesses, and communities, often had to respond immediately to these situations that highlighted the inequalities faced by African Americans. Many African and African American leaders strived to shed light on the injustices being forced on black people and the culture of that era.

Bond was born at Hubbard Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee , to parents Julia Agnes (Washington) and Horace Mann Bond . His father was an educator, former president of Lincoln University His mother, Julia, was a former librarian at Clark Atlanta University . At the time, the family resided on campus at Fort Valley State College , where Horace was president. The house of the Bonds was a frequent stop for scholars and activists and celebrities passing by, such as W. E. B. Du Bois and Paul Robeson .

 

In 1945 his father was offered the position as the first African-American president of Lincoln University , and the family moved North. In 1957, Bond graduated from George School , a private Quaker preparatory boarding school near Newtown in Bucks County , Pennsylvania.

During the early 1960s, he helped to establish the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Bond was elected to four terms in the Georgia House of Representatives and later to six terms in the Georgia Senate , having served a combined twenty years in both legislative chambers.

 

From 1998 to 2010, he was chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the first president of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

He served as the communications director of SNCC from January 1961 to September 1966, when he traveled around Georgia , Alabama, Mississippi , and Arkansas to help organize civil rights and voter registration drives.

 

Bond left Morehouse College in 1961 to work on civil rights in the South. From 1960 to 1963, he led student protests against segregation in public facilities and the Jim Crow laws of Georgia. He returned in 1971 at age 31 to complete his Bachelor of Arts in English. With Morris Dees , Bond helped found the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a public-interest law firm based in Montgomery, Alabama.

 

Bond became the first president of the Southern Poverty Law Center in 1971. He served until 1979, remaining a board member and president emeritus for the rest of his life.

In 1965, Bond was one of eleven African Americans elected to the Georgia House of Representatives after passage of the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act of 1965 had opened voter registration to blacks. By ending the disfranchisement of blacks through discriminatory voter registration, African Americans regained the ability to vote and entered the political process.

Bond ultimately ran and was elected as a Democrat , the party of President Lyndon B. Johnson, who had signed the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act. From 1967 to 1975, Bond was elected to four terms in the Georgia House, where he organized the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus.

In January 1967, Bond was among eleven House members who refused to vote when the legislature elected segregationist Lester Maddox of Atlanta as governor of Georgia over the Republican Howard Callaway . Callaway had led in the 1966 general election by some three thousand votes. The choice fell on state lawmakers under the Georgia Constitution of 1824 because neither major party candidate had polled a majority in the general election. Former Governor Ellis Arnal polled more than fifty thousand votes as a write-in candidate, a factor which led to the impasse. Bond would not support either Maddox or Callaway, although he was ordered to vote by Governor Peter Zack Geer.

In 1998, Bond was selected as chairman of the NAACP. Bond was an outspoken supporter of the rights of gays and lesbians. He has publicly stated his support for same-sex marriage .

Bond hosted Saturday Night Live(SNL) on April 9, 1977, becoming the first black political figure to host the show. The famous segment from this appearance is the "Black Perspective" skit with then-SNL cast member Garrett Morris . Bond explained perceptions of white and black IQ differences by noting, tongue-in-cheek, the "fact" that "light-skinned blacks are smarter than dark-skinned blacks."

In 1978, Bond played himself in the miniseries King. also had a small appearance in the movie Ray(2004).

From 1980 to 1997, Bond hosted America's Black Forum. He remained a commentator for the Forum, as well as radio's Byline, and for NBC 's The Today Show. He authored the nationally syndicated newspaper column Viewpoint. He narrated the critically acclaimed PBS series Eyes on the Prize in 1987 and 1990.

After leaving politics, Bond taught at several universities in major cities in the North and South, including American, Drexel, Harvard, and the University of Virginia, where he taught until 2012.

Bond died on August 15, 2015, after a brief undisclosed illness, in Fort Walton Beach, Florida , aged 75. survived by his wife, Pamela Horowitz, a former SPLC staff attorney, his five children, a brother and a sister. Bond was an Emeritus member of the Southern Poverty Law Center Board of Directors at his death.

 

Kobina "boyo" Annan, Jr.

August 17, 2015