Julian Bond

Julian Bond was born in Nashville, Tennessee, on 14th January, 1940. His grandfather, Horace Mann Bond, was the first African American president of Lincoln University.

While a student at Morehouse College, Bond became involved in sit-in protests against segregation in Atlanta. Bond's activities helped to win integration of Atlanta's movie theatres, lunch counters and parks. Bond also played a leading role in establishing the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Over the next few years he acted as SNCC communications director and edited its newspaper, The Student Voice. Bond was involved in voter registration drives in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas and in 1964 took part in the Freedom Summer project.

In 1965 Bond was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1965 but was later ejected as a result of his opposition to the Vietnam War. After winning a second election in 1966, the Georgia House once again voted to bar him from proceedings. In November, 1966, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the Georgia House had violated Bond's rights in refusing him his seat.

In 1971 Bond joined with Morris Dees and Joseph J. Levin to established the Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC). An organization that helped to bankrupt the United Klans of America after the lynching of Michael Donald in 1981.

Bond has written for a variety of newspapera and magazines including The Nation, Life Magazine, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. He was host of television's America's Black Forum (1980-97) and narrated PBS's Eyes on the Prize (1987 and 1990). A long-time member of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP), Bond was elected chairman of the organization in February, 1998.