LCCR Honors Civil Rights Champions: Julian Bond
Feature Story by civilrights.org staff - 4/6/2005
This article is the first in a series about 2005's Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award honorees. The next installment will feature Ginny Thornburgh.Julian Bond, whose civil rights career has spanned more than 40 years, will be honored by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) at this year's Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award Dinner on May 4, 2005.
The Civil Rights Award honors the legacy of former United States vice president, senator, and civil rights pioneer Hubert H. Humphrey, whose years of public service, leadership, and dedication to equal opportunity changed the face of America.
As a student at Morehouse College, Bond led peaceful protests that culminated in the integration of movie theaters, lunch counters and public parks in Atlanta. In 1960, he helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and later became its communications director, responsible for its printing and publicity departments and editing the SNCC newsletter, The Student Voice. Bond was also active in protests and registration campaigns throughout the South.
Turning his attention to politics, Bond was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1965, but was prevented from taking his seat because of his opposition to the Vietnam War. Bond was elected two more times, but was seated only after the U.S Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the Georgia House had violated Bond's rights in refusing him his seat.
While serving in the Georgia General Assembly, Bond was sponsor or co-sponsor of more than 60 bills that became law. He organized the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus, then the largest such group in the nation.
In 1974, Bond was elected to the Georgia Senate. When he left the state senate in January 1987, Bond had been elected to public office more times than any other black Georgian in history.
In 1968, Bond was co-chairman of the Georgia Loyal National Delegation to the Democratic Convention, challengers who were successful in unseating Georgia's regular Democrats. Bond was nominated for Vice President of the United States, the first black person to be so nominated by a major political party, though he ultimately withdrew his name because he was too young to serve.
Bond holds numerous honorary degrees and has served on the boards of many organizations working for social change. He is currently a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the American University in Washington, D.C., and a professor in the history department at the University of Virginia.
In 1995, Bond was elected to his fourth term on the National Board of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization. Bond has served as chairman of the NAACP since his election in February 1998.
The Hubert H. Humphrey Award is considered to be the civil rights community's highest honor. The more than 180 national organizations that make up LCCR represent people of color, women, children, older Americans, people with disabilities, gays and lesbians, labor unions, major religious groups, and civil liberties and human rights groups.
