An ongoing illustrative history study
This piece originally posted 2/28/2021
Prelude | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | Email |
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"The civil rights movement didn't begin in Montgomery and it didn't end in the 1960s. It continues on to this very minute."
Born in 1940 Nashville, Horace Julian Bond (later simply Julian Bond) followed in his family's academic footsteps (his father, Horace Mann Bond, was himself a teacher and the first-ever Black President of Lincoln University). For his part Julian attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA and was among the first organizers of multiple sit-ins across Atlanta, which eventually coalesced into the founding of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Bond became the SNCC's Communications Director in 1961, which stalled off his graduation for a time, though he would eventually return to Morehouse to complete his degree.
Buoyed by the SNCC, in 1965 Bond challenged conventional Georgia politics and managed to get himself elected to the state House of Representatives at the age of 25; however he was not seated due to his vocal opposition to the Vietnam War --ultimately the Supreme Court ruled (Bond v. Floyd) that he was required to be seated. He would ultimately go on to serve 4 terms in the Georgia state House, and then 6 terms in the state Senate.
In addition to publishing several books and being the host of a television series, America's Black Forum (which would become the oldest Black-owned program in syndication), perhaps most famously Bond was a founding member of what would become the Southern Poverty Law Center, a public interest advocacy group that grew into the definitive resource for identifying and challenging white supremacy and other racial hate groups. https://www.splcenter.org/
(Having reached the end of Black History Month 2021, I'm taking a moment looking back at the body of work generated to date and wondering where this series might be taken, going forward. I DO have a wonderful list of suggestions from many of you and anticipate tackling those individuals' biographies and portraits in the coming months. However new posts may not be quite as frequent, after this month. I really do need to figure out what I might do with this Trading Card series --I'm up to 76 individual pieces of art and accompanying biographies, so far! It needs to be put to practical use.
In the meantime keep studying, my friends. Stay informed and do the work. As Julian Bond points out, it continues on to this very minute.)
Next page - Lesson 73: Sarah Mae Flemming