Julian Bond
Julian Bond was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement and activist for social equality and liberty for all people. On (insert date) 2011, he delivered his lecture “Post Racial America: Fact or Fiction.”
With a far-reaching influence that touches the depth of American History itself, Julian Bond will be remembered as a pioneer in the Civil Rights Movement, and a tireless, successful advocate for social equality.
A recipient of the National Freedom Award, Bond was a national youth leader in the Civil Rights Movement and co-founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), one of the “Big Six” civil rights organizations that organized the infamous March on Washington. He served 4 terms in Georgia’s House of Representatives and 6 terms in its Senate, during which time he drafted 60 bills that became law.
Bond graced Washington University with his eloquent wisdom and superb sense of humor for the second time at Graham Chapel on (insert date) 2011. He was applauded with a standing ovation both before and after his lecture.
Dr. Keona Ervin introduced Bond and characterized him perfectly–“A firsthand eyewitness to many watershed moments in the history of Civil Rights Movement, Julian Bond has a long and expansive sense of the struggle of African Americans for equality.”
In his lecture, titled “Post Racial America: Fact or Fiction,” the charismatic social activist spoke movingly about the history of the Civil Rights Movement and urged that we must continue to address civil rights in the present. Bond described his cause as “race work: fighting to make justice and fairness a reality for everyone.”
Addressing contemporary beliefs about equality, Bond pointed out:
“We’re now asked to believe that 200 years of being somebody else’s property, followed by 100 years of legal oppression in the south and discrimination in the North can be wiped away with four and a half decades of half-hearted remediation and one presidential election. We’re now asked to believe that we Americans are healed and whole people. The truth is that Jim Crow may be dead but racism is alive and well… Racial justice, economic equality, world peace, these are the themes that occupied Dr. King’s life. They ought to occupy ours today.”
Listen to the lecture here: (insert link)