[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 178 (Friday, November 16, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2458]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    MRS. JULIA AGNES WASHINGTON BOND

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JOHN LEWIS

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, November 15, 2007

  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I'd like to take a moment to 
honor the life of Mrs. Julia Washington Bond, a gracious daughter of 
the South who contributed significantly to the cultural and academic 
life of metropolitan Atlanta. Mrs. Bond is perhaps best known today as 
the mother of Julian Bond, the Chairman of the National Association for 
the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), my former colleague in the 
Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, and a stalwart advocate for 
civil rights and social justice in America.
  For decades, Mrs. Bond helped form the center of cultural life in 
Atlanta. She was born in Nashville, Tennessee on June 20, 1908, and 
attended Fisk University, like her parents before her. There she met 
and eventually married a young instructor who would become one of the 
foremost educators of his time, Horace Mann Bond. Dr. Bond led several 
prominent institutions of higher education as their president--Fort 
Valley State College in Georgia and Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, 
and served as the first dean at Dillard University. In 1957, he was 
named the Dean of the School of Education of Atlanta University, and he 
and his wife became pillars of the Atlanta community.
  In the 1950's and 60's, African Americans, regardless of their 
prominence, could not stay in hotels or motels in the South. So, when 
they traveled to Atlanta, they had to stay in homes around the city. As 
the first lady of many universities and the wife of a leading educator, 
Mrs. Bond hosted some of the greatest artists and thinkers of the 
Harlem Renaissance--W.E.B. DuBois, Arna Bontemps, Langston Hughes, W.C. 
Handy, Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Duke Ellington and a host of 
others. Her elegant style and manner offered a unique, intimate 
atmosphere for students and educators to engage these celebrities and 
help knit their bond to Atlanta society. She was kind almost to a 
fault, in the most genteel Southern tradition, and her beauty inspired 
an iconic painting by a principal artist of that period, Aaron 
Douglass.
  In 1964, she returned to college and received a degree in library 
science from Atlanta University. During her tenure, she assisted 
hundreds and thousands of students. She worked in the university 
library system there until she retired in 2000. The people of the 5th 
District mourn the passing of Mrs. Julia Bond. She died at the age of 
99 on November 2d. She raised three successful children--Jane Bond 
Moore, Horace Julian Bond, and James Bond. She also had eight 
grandchildren. She will be deeply missed.

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