Civil Rights Movement Veteran Julian Bond To Speak At Ramapo College
(Mahwah) – Julian Bond, chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), will be the guest speaker at Ramapo College of New Jersey’s Convocation, scheduled Wednesday, September 18 at 4 p.m. in the Athletic Center (gymnasium). “2002: A Race Odyssey” will be his topic. The event is free and the public is welcome to attend.
From his student days to his current chairmanship of the NAACP, Bond has been an active participant in the movements for civil rights and economic justice. As an activist who faced jail for his convictions, as a veteran of more than 20 years in the Georgia General Assembly, as a university professor and as a writer, he has been on the cutting edge of social change since 1960.
While a student at Morehouse College, Bond was a founder of the Atlanta student sit-in and of the anti-segregation organization, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). As SNCC’s communications director, Bond was active in protests and registration campaigns throughout the South.
Elected in 1965 to the Georgia House of Representatives, Bond was prevented from taking his seat by members who objected to his opposition to the Vietnam War. He was re-elected to his own vacant seat and unseated again and seated only after a third election and a unanimous decision of the United States Supreme Court.
Bond was co-chair of a challenge delegation from Georgia to the 1968 Democratic Convention. The challengers were successful in unseating Georgia’s regular Democrats, and Bond was nominated for vice president but had to decline because he was too young.
In the Georgia Senate, Bond became the first black chair of the Fulton County Delegation, the largest and most diverse in the upper house, and chair of the Consumer Affairs Committee. During his legislative tenure, he was sponsor or co-sponsor of more than 60 bills that became law.
Bond is a commentator on America’s Black Forum, the oldest black-owned show in television syndication. His poetry and articles have appeared in numerous publications. He has narrated numerous documentaries, including the Academy Award-winning A Time for Justice and the prize-winning and critically acclaimed series Eyes on the Prize.
He has served since 1998 as chairman of the board of the NAACP, the oldest and largest civil rights organization in the United States.
The holder of 21 honorary degrees, he is a distinguished professor at American University in Washington, DC, and a professor of history at the University of Virginia.
For more information on the Ramapo College Convocation, call (201) 684-7910.
