UW News

January 31, 2008

Julian Bond to speak at UW on Feb. 6

As a writer, scholar and political activist, Julian Bond has been on the cutting edge of social change for nearly a half century. Bond, now chairman of the NAACP, will speak on “Civil Rights, Then and Now” at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 6, in 130 Kane.


Bond’s activism dates back to his student days at Morehouse College in Atlanta, where he founded the Committee on Appeal for Human Rights, a student civil rights organization that directed three years of nonviolent, antisegregation protests that resulted in the integration of Atlanta’s public facilities.


Though he won election to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1965 he was barred from seating by that body because of his outspoken views against the Vietnam War. He won a second and third election in 1965 and 1966, with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that his rights had been violated by the Georgia house. In all, he served about 20 years in the Georgia General Assembly and was elected to office more times than any other black Georgian.


Bond, who turned 68 this month, became the first African American to have his name placed in nonimation for vice president in 1968, but he withdrew his name because he was at the time too young to serve.


In addition to his role with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Bond also is a distinguished scholar in residence at the American University in Washington, D.C., and a professor in the Carter G. Woodson Institute for Afro-American and African Studies of the History Department at the University of Virginia.


Bond’s appearance is part of the Jesse and John Danz Lecture Series, sponsored by The Graduate School. Tickets are free and are available at the University Bookstore. For more information on Bond’s appearance and the lecture series, visit online at http://www.grad.washington.edu/lectures/.