Dead at the age of 75. Here is the NY Times obit, and here is President Obama’s statement:
Statement by the President on the Passing of Julian Bond
Julian Bond was a hero and, I’m privileged to say, a friend. Justice and equality was the mission that spanned his life – from his leadership of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, to his founding role with the Southern Poverty Law Center, to his pioneering service in the Georgia legislature and his steady hand at the helm of the NAACP. Michelle and I have benefited from his example, his counsel, and his friendship – and we offer our prayers and sympathies to his wife, Pamela, and his children.
Julian Bond helped change this country for the better. And what better way to be remembered than that.
There are lots of things to remember about this giant of a man, but what immediately comes to mind for me is his voice. I could just listen to him speak all day long. Maybe that is just my background in radio, but there was just something pleasing about his voice. Here he is six years ago speaking at the Human Rights Campaign:
A great loss.
JPL
John, Thank you for posting the link. I forgot that he was a founding figure in the Southern Poverty Law Center.
They continue to do great work.
SiubhanDuinne
Indeed. May he rest in peace.
Rep. John Lewis had a moving tribute to Julian Bond this morning. They were close friends for decades, despite running against each other in 1986 for the Congressional seat Lewis has held ever since. I guess that challenged the friendship for a short time, but never destroyed it — which is a nice lesson all by itself.
aimai
Whatever you do don’t read the comments at some of the larger sites for the obit. Mindbogglingly racist. The filters have really come off in the last few years, since the election of President Obama, and white racist resentment really lets its freak flag fly.
raven
@aimai: I understand your sentiment but I don’t think any filters have come off of anything. It’s always been this was and it’s not ending anytime soon.
Bobby Thomson
@raven: yep. Comment sections at newspapers have ALWAYS been sewers.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@raven:
@aimai:
I agree with you both, in that the white racist resentment comments are now being made openly and loudly. It has always been this way, and it’s only gotten worse as people of color (with some cultural exceptions, of paler hue) have become more publicly accomplished.
Combine that with its ubiquity on the internet, both at dedicated sites and in comments sections, and it seems filters have now been turned off. But we’re just seeing it now, because it’s only whispered in our affinity groups, and often entirely absent.
geg6
A great man. A truly great man. RIP.
MomSense
@raven:
I agree. When I am alone I am white and people have always said all kinds of horribly racist things that they would never say when I am with some of family members.
A few weeks ago the cashier at the grocery store I go to multiple times per week asked my son “what” he was because his skin, eyes, and hair are so dark. Obviously this is an incredibly mild example but the discomfort she was feeling was palpable.
satby
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I do too. For a short time the bigots tried to be careful to only speak their hate in circles they felt were composed of like minded folks. They never went away though. But the devolution into open and proud racism is depressing, because it shows that they think they’re safely a majority again.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
Julian Bond was one of the greats, and not nearly appreciated enough, as discussed above.
Villago Delenda Est
Aye.
Yet, still, the vile thing that is the Dark Lord continues to be animate.
Chris T.
Not really apropos of anything, but I saw the title of the video first which leads me to point out that Human Rights Campaign and Hillary Rodham Clinton have the same initials.
Anya
A great man.
What is it about Atlanta that fostered so many great men and women?
RIP, sir. You have earned your rest.
Thanks John for posting the video. It lead me to other Julian Bond videos.
feebog
Only 75, he was taken too soon.
Big ole hound
@raven: So many people just have to feel superior that the very idea of a black president has made it painfully clear that they are not, so the hatred comes out. Sadly no amount of money or legislation will ever change this feeling that somebody must be inferior that exists everywhere in the world today.
Geeno
@geg6: seconded
Goddammit – Why is Cheney still alive?
BobS
@aimai: I would agree that it’s becoming more ‘respectable’ to fly one’s racist colors in public — I think that the moment in time can be approximately marked with when the Tea Party vociferously faced off with their congressional reps over Obamacare. On the other hand, what I have noticed recently (at least at this site) is an overuse of “racist” to label people who have a sincere criticism of BLM tactics (somewhat similar to the abuse of the term “anti-Semite” to describe people critical of Israel or Zionism).
Geeno
@BobS: While I agree (somewhat – only somewhat), This isn’t the thread for that discussion.
BobS
@Geeno: Yeah, thanks for your rigorous policing of the site*. I can understand why a thread where the subject of racism has been brought up several times wouldn’t be “the thread for that discussion”.
*Would you do me the favor of providing a list of the acceptable topics of discussion?
Geeno
@BobS: Just sayin’ that I don’t attend funerals so I can discuss all the issues I have with the decedent’s family.
But – to each his own, I guess.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
He was a fine example of a life well lived.
I was a pre-teen in Cobb County Georgia when he served in the Georgia legislature. The clarity of his voice, his calm and sensitive demeanor, the power of his arguments and his example were clear to me even at that young age (mine and his). He continued to do great things throughout his life.
He was a giant and will be greatly missed.
Cheers,
Scott.
aimai
@Geeno: Right, Geeno is correct, –this is not a place to start an argument about how the mourners are at fault in some other discussion BobS may have had with them (or thinks he was having with/about them.) For one thing those comments made by unknown and unnamed people on the internet about other people on the internet are simply not relevant to the matter at hand. For another the accusation that a particular term, racist, is sometimes overused doesn’t mean that it has been used incorrectly this time. The comments I was referring to were straight up racist in a classic sense.
BobS
@Geeno: I see — so then this thread is a funeral? With Mr. Bond’s family present? And your apparent “issues” with Dick Cheney are going to comfort them how exactly?
You might be spending too much time on the internet and too little with your own family, Geeno.
raven
@aimai: Oh, so your post about nasty shit on the internet was ok?
BobS
@aimai: I made an observation about how the abuse of a word (on other threads on this Balloon Juice website, not somewhere more distant like “comments at some of the larger sites”) that is (in my opinion) being appropriately used on this thread risks diluting the meaning.
PurpleGirl
As I said in the thread below, when I was a teenager I had huge crush on Julian Bond. I thought he was handsome and what he was doing was cool. (For a white working-class girl at that time to say a black man was handsome, was not acceptable in my family.) It helped me to become the bleeding-heart, pinko-commie, liberal in my family. (I’m proud to say, I’m still that in my family.)
But I was so interested in the Civil Rights Movement and what was happening. I had to support it. And Mr. Bond was such a voice for it.
RIP, sir, you lived a good life and did much good for many people.
Amir Khalid
@BobS:
This thread is about commemorating Julian Bond, who was famous (not just in America) for his contribution to social justice and his leadership. Those who comment here should stick to remembering a great man, rather than air grievances which might have nothing to do with him.
notorious JRT
Wow. Gone too soon.
BobS
@Amir Khalid: Are you one of Geeno’s deputies?
John Cole
@BobS: Stop being a dick. This is about Julian Bond. I’m sure there are many other threads in the past and those to come where you can bring this up. Hell, I’ll put one up right now.
Amir Khalid
@BobS:
Why, yes I am. And so is aimai. How ever did you guess?
dww44
@Anya: I have a theory that’s entirely my own and comes courtesy of my decades long remembrance of the birth of the civil rights movement. via the pages of what was once a quite liberal publication, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution under Ralph McGill, editor and/or publisher.
Then there was the pragmatic longest serving Mayor, William B Hartsfield, from the late 1930’s to 1961 who is certainly partly responsible for Atlanta being known as the “city too busy to hate”. He presided over the city when the political winds, vis-a-vis Black Americans, was changing.
Then there was the presence of the group of HBCU’s, like Atlanta Univeristy, Clark, & Spellman that helped to foster a nascent middle class in the city and surrounding areas. As it is now, Atlanta was a magnet drawing ambitious and aspiring Black Americans to the area. Neither John Lewis nor Julian Bond, so closely identified with the city, are natives of Atlanta.
Provider_UNE_AndPlayersToBeHatedLater™
@BobS:
Sorry that someone hurt your feelings, but if you want to start a conversation of the misuse of the term racist, by all means, this is a most appropriate venue.
I do enjoy your pivot from “Julian was a great man, but someone suggested that I might be a racist.”
Carry on.
…
Roger Moore
@BobS:
No. He is a widely respected poster who is trying to tell you politely- perhaps so politely that you are missing the message- that you are making a fool of yourself. You are, of course, free to ignore him and the other people telling you the same thing and to continue showing your ass in public, but it would be wise to listen to what he’s saying.
rikyrah
@Anya:
Outside of Washington, DC, Atlanta was always ‘forward thinking’. I don’t mean liberal, I mean, having a substantial Black Middle Class that predates the Civil Rights Movement.
With Morehouse, Spelman, then Clark & Atlanta Universities, and Morris Brown, Atlanta was a hub for Black people, even during segregatioin.
It’s not surprising that MLK, who attended Morehouse at the age of 15.
Maynard Jackson, who attended Morehouse at the age of 16
both under the supervision of Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays.
That Julian Bond attended Morehouse and his father was Horace Mann Bond.
Atlanta was a crucible, and a support system for these folks.
rikyrah
RIP, Mr. Bond. And, thank you.
Debbie
@PurpleGirl:
I first saw Julian Bond at the 1968 convention. When compared to the Daley-type cigar-chomping champions of the Political Machine also in attendance, he was far their superior. And that never changed.
BobS
@John Cole:How exactly were comments 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 15 about Julian Bond and not the more general issue of racism?@Provider_UNE_AndPlayersToBeHatedLater™: And that quote is lifted from where?.@Amir Khalid: your sanctimony?
BobS
@Roger Moore: And like I pointed out to Mr.Cole, several comments before mine strayed from Mr. Bond to the more general problem of racism.
John Cole
@BobS: This is a post about Julian Bond, his life and his legacy, and you tried to hijack it with current bullshit that won’t be remembered in five years. When asked not to, you doubled down and insisted that your right to discuss the issue superceded the rights of everyone else to not discuss it here.
That’s being a dick in my book. And now, even with a new thread for you, you continue to shit all over this one. Again, being a dick in my book.
Provider_UNE_AndPlayersToBeHatedLater™
@rikyrah:
Growing up in Indiana (thank god in a liberal college town) with few black folk around I do remember being riveted by Bond whenever I saw him on TV. He was a role model for this politically aware young black dude growing up in white america.
Thanks for the historical background on Atlanta. It makes sense that when i was growing up it seemed to have an allure that escaped me when i visited in ’96…
…
Elizabelle
@feebog: I think it’s cool that someone can be 75 and “gone too soon.” Quite the compliment.
Humane and elegant man, and used his life well.
Kropadope
I took this opportunity to learn about Mr. Bond, er… Julian Bond, that is. He truly did a yeoman’s work.
I had seen Bond referenced in passing over the years, but I didn’t know he founded the Southern policy Law Center. They’re still doing important work and our society will be better off for having had Julian Bond.
Kropadope
@Geeno:
He’s more machine, now, than man. I wouldn’t wish cybernetic dependency or zombification on anyone.
aimai
@raven: Yes, obviously.
Dolly Llama
@rikyrah: I can concur in a second-hand way. I grew up in a tiny town about an hour and a half northeast of Atlanta, and we got Atlanta television. I think it really was ahead of the curve. One of the few black teachers I had, one who had himself been active in the Civil Rights movement, often called Atlanta “a Mecca for black people.”
WereBear
Cheney is the exception to a lot of my rules.
Kropadope
@WereBear: In his case, it has allowed him to shuffle around spewing more venom across our airwaves, so I’m still not down with it.
Cervantes
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
You have my sympathies.
Elizabelle
I like the photos that accompany the NYT obit, especially the one of JBond at an airport, cigarette in hand, and the one at a political convention. Believe that is a young John Lewis, not identified, standing behind him.
WereBear
@Kropadope: I wouldn’t mind seeing him expend his fortune racing mortality until he resembles a Sith Lord.
Kind of like Charles Krauthammer. Every hate-filled thought he’s ever had seems etched across his visage.
LAC
@John Cole: Thank you. For both the post and slapping down this sideshowBobS shithead. Julian bond was a wonderfully eloquent man whose legacy and contributions to civil rights should be better known.
raven
@Dolly Llama: Remember Hosea’s March on Forsyth?
Ajabu
@Elizabelle:
Well, as someone who hit 75 exactly 10 days ago, I agree that he’s gone too soon. MUCH TOO SOON!
I met Julian Bond only once, in an airport, when we were both 31 and moving fast.
Meeting him was the high point of my decade.
RIP, brother…
MomSense
@Elizabelle:
It is quite the compliment. He was an extraordinary human being.
Cervantes
@BobS:
1. Stop asking such an inconvenient question. This isn’t the thread for it (nor is any other).
2. I can think of no better tribute to Julian than a reasoned discussion of what “racist” means — not that we are entitled to any such thing, and even reasoned discussions can sometimes be too contentious when grief is making a prior claim.
3. Here’s something Julian said:
Food for thought while we (correctly) eulogize Julian as “a wonderfully eloquent man whose legacy and contributions to civil rights should be better known.”
Elizabelle
@Ajabu: Happy 75 years young!
satby
@Ajabu: Belated Happy Birthday Ajabu!
Dolly Llama
@raven: Sadly I do. And Oprah’s show there thereafter.
Geeno
Just rereading the man’s bio – what an amazing individual.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Cervantes: Hey, I know it’s not La Mancha, but we all have to grow up somewhere.
:-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Ironist
He was multi-faceted. Here’s a memory I have of him (Saturday Night Live in the 70s)
Myiq2xu
@John Cole:
Physician heal thyself.
greenergood
@Geeno: Every time a good person dies, I ask myself ‘Why is Dick Cheney alive?’ But then I remember he is one of the un-dead – he probably has a counterpart in Norse mythology or Indonesian ghost terrors – we just don’t have that meme in the US (or UK) MSM. Julian Bond was part of my childhood – on the telly with Martin and others, esp. vilified people like Malcolm – talking about things my white working-class-moved-from-the-Bronx-to-suburbia parents tut-tutted about. I’d no idea what was going on – I was 8-9 – I’ve only really learned about what Martin et al. meant as I got older, and left first Westchester Co. and then the US. It’s so depressing that there’s still such a long road to walk …
Singular
I’m embarrassed to say, I had never even heard of Julian Bond. That was a powerful speech.
Anya
@dww44:
@rikyrah:
Thanks for the historical background. One of these days I want to visit Atlanta. I wish I went to one of the universities you listed.
Atlanta produced and nurtured so many people who dragged our country to take steps into a more perfect union.
Rikyrah, can you suggest a book(s) on history of Atlanta?
Geeno
@Amir Khalid: Cool … I have deputies. LOL
There are times and places to let the rage fly – this thread is about a great man who did and said great things, and how much we are all lessened when such a person passes.
Cervantes
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
Debatable, I think, sometimes.
Geeno
@Cervantes: Not even petri dishes?
Nathan Tyree
@aimai: That makes me sad. A great American passes, and the bigots come out of the woodwork. Did you see that some RWNJ was gleeful tweets about president Carter’s cancer diagnosis? She said that “a cancer has cancer” or some such. My faith in humanity erodes each day.
Don K
@Debbie:
I couldn’t remember whether he first came to prominence at the 68 or 72 convention, but if it was 68, then he was one of several heroes of mine who I first learned about by watching coverage of that convention.
Nora Carrington
@PurpleGirl: Me too! I’ve always thought Bond was simply one of the most physically beautiful human beings who ever graced the planet. And I agree with John, too, about how sonorously delicious his voice was. I saw him speak about LBGT rights at the 2013 rewind of the 1963 March on Washington. His task was basically to stand up for and stand in for Bayard Rustin, who’d been the primary mover and shaker of the first march but who’d been asked to step aside for the “good of the movement” because he was widely and fairly publicly known to be gay. Rustin didn’t speak in 1963. Bond’s remarks:
hrc.org/blog/entry/on-the-50th-anniversary-of-the-march-on-washington-julian-bond-says-lgbt-ri
[and a hopefully on-topic aside: Rustin should be much better known than he is. He was a mofo badass and a genius organizer. Obama posthumously awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom a few months after the 50th anniversary of the 1963 march.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayard_Rustin ]
Nora Carrington
@Anya: I have read and re-read David Halberstam’s _The Children_. It’s focus is Nashville not Atlanta but it’s the best single-volume history of the early days of the Civil Rights movement I know. John Lewis, who went to school in Nashville, is a primary focus of the book and since much of the action takes place further south in Georgia and Alabama and Mississippi, there is quite a bit about Atlanta and the role the HBCUs there played.
Karen
To me it seems like when Obama became President, the huge stinking boil of racism burst and all the pus that had been bubbling under the surface just spurted everywhere and became the new normal.
Velma
I was a waitress at Paschal’s in the 60’s.Julian would always sit in my station so I could wait on him.I was talkin about him the day he passed.I can’t believe he is gone.He was a very nice person.Thanks for the tips and the service you provided especially through the NAACP.I will always remember you.RIP