BREAKING NEWS: Civil rights activist Julian Bond dies at 75!
Julian Bond, the civil rights activist and former chairman of the NAACP, has died at age 75, the Southern Poverty Law Center said in a statement Sunday.
Bond, who was the SPLC's first president, died Saturday night in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, after a brief illness, the statement said.
In a post titled We've lost a Champion, the center's co-founder Morris Dees writes: "With Julian's passing, the country has lost one of its most passionate and eloquent voices for the cause of justice.
"He advocated not just for African Americans, but for every group, indeed every person subject to oppression and discrimination, because he recognized the common humanity in us all.
"Not only has the country lost a hero today, we've lost a great friend."
In a post on Twitter, the NAACP said it "mourns the passing of Chairman Julian Bond, civil rights titan and our brother. May he rest in eternal peace."
In a statement Sunday, President Obama called Mr. Bond “a hero and, I’m privileged to say, a friend.”
Horace Julian Bond was born Jan. 14, 1940, in Nashville, Tenn. His father, Horace Mann Bond, moved the family to Pennsylvania five years later, when he became the first African-American president of his alma mater, Lincoln University.
Julian Bond’s great-grandmother Jane Bond was the slave mistress of a Kentucky farmer. Julian’s grandfather James Bond, one of Jane Bond’s sons, was educated at Berea and Oberlin Colleges and became a clergyman. His son Horace Mann Bond expected his own son Julian to follow in his footsteps as an educator, but the young man was attracted instead to journalism and political activism.
At Morehouse College, he plunged into extracurricular activities, but paid less attention to his studies. The civil rights movement provided a good excuse to drop out of college in 1961. He returned in the early 1970s to complete his English degree.
Dozens of his friends went to jail during his time with S.N.C.C. But he was arrested only once. In 1960, after word of student sit-ins at lunch counters in Greensboro, N.C., spread across the South, Mr. Bond and a few of his friends at Morehouse organized protests against segregated public facilities in Atlanta. He was arrested when he led a sit-in at the City Hall cafeteria.
Mr. Bond devoted most of the 1960s to the protest movement and activist politics, including campaigns to register black voters.
He prospered on the lecture circuit the rest of his life. He became a regular commentator in print and on television, including as host of “America’s Black Forum,” then the oldest black-owned show in television syndication.
In later years, he taught at Harvard, Williams, Drexel and the University of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Bond published a book of essays titled “A Time to Speak, A Time to Act.” He wrote poetry and articles for publications as varied as The Nation, Negro Digest and Playboy.
He was made chairman of the N.A.A.C.P., in 1998. He remained active in Democratic Party politics and was a strong critic of the administration of President George W. Bush. He said Mr. Bush had chosen some of his cabinet officers “from the Taliban wing of American politics.”
Most of Mr. Bond’s poetry reflected the pained point of view of a repressed minority. But his most famous was perhaps a two-line doggerel that he dashed off after one too many overly concerned white students offended him by saying, “If only they were all like you.”
The verse:
Look at that girl shake that thing,
We can’t all be Martin Luther King.
In a statement, Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign, which works for equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, said: “Very few throughout human history have embodied the ideals of honor, dignity, courage and friendship like Dr. Julian Bond.
"Quite simply, this nation and this world are far better because of his life and commitment to equality for all people. Future generations will look back on the life and legacy of Julian Bond and see a warrior of good who helped conquer hate in the name of love. I will greatly miss my friend and my hero, Dr. Julian Bond."
He is survived by his second wife, Pamela Sue Horowitz, a retired lawyer, and five children, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
(h/t NYT, USA Today)
(h/t NYT, USA Today)
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