Julian Bond, a civil rights activist and longtime board chairman of the NAACP, has died. He was 75.
The Southern Poverty Law Center says in a statement that Bond died Saturday night in Fort Walton Beach, Florida after a brief illness.
The Nashville, Tenn. native was considered a symbol and icon of the 1960s civil rights movement.
As a Morehouse College student, Bond helped found the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and as its communications director, he was on the front lines of protests that led to the nation's landmark civil rights laws.
He later served as board chairman of the 500,000-member NAACP for 10 years but declined to run again for another one-year term in 2010.
Bond also served in the Georgia state legislature and was a professor at American University and the University of Virginia.
The Southern Poverty Law Center says in a statement that Bond died Saturday night in Fort Walton Beach, Florida after a brief illness.
The Nashville, Tenn. native was considered a symbol and icon of the 1960s civil rights movement.
As a Morehouse College student, Bond helped found the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and as its communications director, he was on the front lines of protests that led to the nation's landmark civil rights laws.
He later served as board chairman of the 500,000-member NAACP for 10 years but declined to run again for another one-year term in 2010.
Bond also served in the Georgia state legislature and was a professor at American University and the University of Virginia.
Tessa Hill-Aston, president of the Baltimore City Branch of the NAACP released the following statement regarding the death of civil rights icon Julian Bond:
My heart is heavy and saddened this morning after learning of the death of former NAACP National Board Chairman Julian Bond. He was a man of extraordinary passion and vision who spent his entire life seeking to make America a more just and humane nation for all people.
During Julian Bond’s tenure as our Chairman he helped the NAACP understand Dr. King’s idea that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” He broadened the civil rights coalition to include all groups committed to equality and fairness. He combined compassion with amazing intellect and took the NAACP’s mission and principles to a new generation of activists and to the farthest corners of the world.
He will certainly be missed but will never be forgotten.
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