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In honor of Black History Month, I have been profiling notable African-Americans from Georgia throughout February. To read our first profile of the first African-American Congressman from Georgia, Jefferson Long, click here. To read our second profile about the desegregation of the University of Georgia click here. Our third profile is on civil rights activist and my former colleague, Julian Bond.

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Horace Julian Bond was born on January 14, 1940 in Nashville, Tennessee. As a college student at Morehouse College, Mr. Bond helped organize the Committee on Appeal for Human Rights and co-founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Shortly after taking a seminar co-taught by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Dr. Samuel Williams, Bond dropped out of Morehouse in 1961 to work full-time as the communications director for SNCC. Through the SNCC he protested the prevalence of Jim Crow laws and the segregation of public facilities in Georgia and the Southeast.

After the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 made major strides in the enfranchisement of African Americans, Julian Bond was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives representing Georgia’s 136th district. Soon after Bond’s election, the SNCC released a statement opposing the Vietnam War. Consequentially, 75 House members petitioned that Mr. Bond be denied his right to take the oath of office. The United States Supreme Court concluded in the 1966 court case Bond v. Floyd that Bond’s freedom of speech had been violated and established precedent for generations of public representatives to express themselves freely regarding state and national policy.

In 1971, Bond returned to Morehouse College, and became the first president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a non-profit group that served disenfranchised minorities and surveyed the actions of hate groups. Mr. Bond would return to the Georgia General Assembly as a State Senator in 1974, a position which he held for 12 years. Bond would go on to become the first African-American chair of the Fulton county Senate delegation. I enjoyed a close relationship with Julian in the State Senate. As a State Senator, myself, I shared an office suite with Senator Bond and Senator Paul Coverdell.

After his service in the State Senate, Bond was appointed as the Chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). After stepping down in 2008, the NAACP awarded its highest honor, the Spingarn Medal, for his service as chairman as well as his continuous activism. Mr. Bond passed away in August, 2015, leaving behind a legacy of passion, service, and equitable justice.

Source Material

Image Courtesy of USATODAY.COM

"Board Member: Julian Bond." Board Member: Julian Bond. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Web. 16 Feb. 2016.
"Julian Bond Biography Government Official, Educator, Civil Rights Activist." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television. Web. 16 Feb. 2016.
Roady, Jennifer. "Julian Bond (1940-2015)." New Georgia Encyclopedia. 24 August 2015. Web. 16 February 2016.
"Julian Bond Biography." - Life, Family, Children, Death, Wife, School, Young, Information, Born, College. Web. 16 Feb. 2016.
"Bond, Julian." Bond, Julian. Martin Luther King Research and Education Institue of Stanford University, n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2016.
Farias, Cristian. "The Story Behind An Iconic Picture Of Civil Rights Leader Julian Bond." Huffington Post, n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2016.
"Julian Bond's Name Placed in Nomination for Vice Presidency." History.com. A&E Television Networks. Web. 17 Feb. 2016.