Julian
Bond, a former chairman of the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People, a charismatic figure of the 1960s civil rights
movement, a lightning rod of the anti-Vietnam War campaign and a
lifelong champion of equal rights for minorities, died on Saturday
night, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. He was 75.
Mr. Bond died in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., after a brief illness, the center said in a statement Sunday morning.
He
was one of the original leaders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee, while he was a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta.
He
moved from the militancy of the student group to the top leadership of
the establishmentarian N.A.A.C.P. Along the way, he was a writer, poet,
television commentator, lecturer, college teacher, and persistent
opponent of the stubborn remnants of white supremacy. He
also served for 20 years in the Georgia Legislature, mostly in
conspicuous isolation from white colleagues who saw him as an interloper
and a rabble-rouser.
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