[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 128 (Tuesday, September 8, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1222-E1223]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     IN REMEMBRANCE OF JULIAN BOND, CIVIL RIGHTS CHAMPION, GEORGIA 
LEGISLATOR, AND ELOQUENT VOICE FOR JUSTICE, EQUALITY, AND HUMAN DIGNITY

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, September 8, 2015

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, it is with a heavy heart that I rise to 
speak in praise of Julian Bond, one of the leading lights of the Civil 
Rights Movement, who died on Saturday, August 15, 2015, at the age of 
75.
  While Julian lost his battle to the illness that claimed his life, it 
is the struggle for civil rights and human dignity he helped to win 
that he will forever remembered and revered.
  Horace Julian Bond was born January 14, 1940 in Nashville, Tennessee 
to Julia Agnes and Horace Mann Bond.
  Julian's father was the first African-American President of Lincoln 
University of Pennsylvania, the same institution attended by Thurgood 
Marshall and Langston Hughes who would both go on to make substantial 
contributions to the Civil Rights Movement and the advancement of 
African-Americans.
  Julian's father later became president of Atlanta University and 
Julian decided to attend Morehouse College, one of the leading black 
colleges in the nation.
  Julian Bond, who came from a long line of educators, determined at an 
early age to put his journalistic and organizing talents in service of 
the cause of civil rights and racial equality.
  While a student at Morehouse College, Julian helped found The 
Pegasus, a literary magazine, and led nonviolent student protests 
against segregation in Atlanta parks, restaurants, and movie theaters.
  Mr. Speaker, today it is difficult to imagine there once was a time 
in our country when blacks and whites could not eat together in public 
restaurants, use the same public restrooms, stay at the same hotels, or 
attend the same schools.
  Julian Bond answered the call to action and put his studies on hold 
to devote all of his energies and efforts to ending segregation and 
racial discrimination.
  Mr. Speaker, it is not unusual these days for us to think of a 
champion as someone who receives the highest accolades in sports.
   Julian Bond was a champion of the people.
  His success is measured not in the numbers of trophies, medals, 
ribbons, and championship banners, but in the number of doors and 
opportunities he helped to open for those who had been neglected, 
marginalized, and disenfranchised.
  Julian Bond knew that to bring about non-violent social change it was 
necessary to organize so he co-founded the Student Nonviolent 
Coordinating Committee (SNCC).
  SNCC, which organized and mobilized the participation of students and 
young people in the Civil Rights Movement, conceived the Freedom Rides 
that challenged the practice of racial segregation in interstate 
transportation and the Mississippi Freedom Summer project that 
undertook the dangerous work of helping African Americans register to 
vote in the state most committed to maintaining White supremacy by any 
means necessary.
  SNCC was not the first leadership role history and circumstance would 
call upon Julian Bond to assume; nor would it be the last.
  In 1965, after passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting 
Rights Act of 1965, Julian Bond was elected to represent the residents 
of the 32nd district in Georgia House of Representatives.
  But on January 10, 1966, his white colleagues in the Georgia House 
voted 184-12 not to seat him because he had publicly expressed his 
opposition to the Vietnam War.
  Julian Bond challenged the refusal of the Georgia House to seat him 
and took his case all the way to the United States Supreme Court, which 
ruled in the unanimous decision of Bond v. Floyd, 385 U.S. 116 (1966), 
that expressing opposition to the Vietnam War was speech protected by 
the First Amendment and directed that he be seated as a duly elected 
member of the state legislature.
  Julian Bond would go on to serve three more terms in the Georgia 
House, where he co-founded the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus, and 
six terms in the Georgia State Senate.
  In 1971, Julian Bond co-founded and served as president of the 
Southern Poverty Law Center that tracks the actions of hate groups to 
better inform and prepare communities about the dangers these groups 
pose.
   Julian Bond consistently identified issues of civil inequality and 
provided solutions by gathering groups of community leaders, 
professionals, and educators to protect what the laws and policies 
would not, our basic civil rights.
  In 1998, Julian Bond's commitment to justice and equality led him to 
answer the call to serve and accept the position of Chairman of the 
NAACP, a post he held until 2010.
   Julian Bond was able to bring the earnest fight to achieve equality 
into the modern era

[[Page E1223]]

as he watched African-Americans achieve the highest awards in their 
professions and continued to break down barriers.
   In November 2008, Julian Bond witnessed the election of the first 
African American President of the United States, a feat thought 
impossible just a decade earlier.
  Mr. Speaker, because of trailblazers like Julian Bond millions of 
Americans gained access to opportunities previously denied to members 
of their communities.
  Julian Bond spent 5 years with SNCC, 8 years as president of the 
Southern Poverty Law Center, 12 years as the president of NAACP, 20 
years as a state representative, and 75 years an unwavering champion of 
civil rights for all people, including the LGBT community.
  My thoughts and prayers are with Julian's beloved wife Pamela, his 
children and grandchildren; and the untold millions of persons whose 
lives were touched by one of America's greatest sons.
   Mr. Speaker, I ask the House to observe a moment of silence in 
memory of Julian Bond, a tireless and eloquent voice for justice, 
equality, and human dignity who did so much to close the gap between 
the promise of America's founding ideals and the reality of people's 
lives.

                          ____________________