Civil Rights Leader Julian Bond to Speak in Santa Fe

Long time civil rights leader and activist Julian Bond will speak at Temple Beth Shalom in Santa Fe on Saturday, April 14, 2007 at 4:00 PM. Bond’s lecture is presented by Santa Fe’s Human Rights Alliance with sponsorship by Temple Beth Shalom. Co-hosts include the Santa Fe chapter of the NAACP, the New Mexico Holocaust and Intolerance Museum and Equality New Mexico.

Tickets for Bond’s lecture are available exclusively at the Lensic Box Office in Santa Fe or their online site. The box office can be reached at 988-1234. Tickets are $15 for the lecture and $50 for the lecture and a private reception with Mr. Bond afterwards. Temple Beth Shalom, the lecture site, is located at 205 E. Barcelona Road. Additional parking is available at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation, St. John’s United Methodist Church and Immanuel Lutheran Church, all located on Barcelona Road.

In an October 2006 interview with the gay news magazine The Advocate, Bond spoke out against homophobia in the African American community and linked it directly to the spread of AIDS among black people. He stated, “Homophobia is one of the major obstacles to black Americans coming to grips with this disease in the ways that we should.  It is awfully disturbing.  It’s a refutation of what the movement for civil rights stood for.  It’s disgraceful.”

Julian Bond, who has served as the Chairman of the Board of the NAACP since 1998, began his civil rights activism in 1960 as one of the founders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) while he was a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta.  He was active in civil rights protests and voter registration drives across the South.  In 1968 he was co-chair of the challenge delegation from Georgia to the Democratic National Convention that successfully unseated Georgia’s regular Democrats.

In 1965 he was first elected to the Georgia House of Representatives but was prevented from taking his seat due to his opposition to the Viet Nam war.  Bond was elected twice again before the United States Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the Georgia House had violated his rights in denying him his seat.  In 1974, Bond was elected to the Georgia Senate where he served until 1987.  His tenure ended after an unsuccessful run for Congress in 1986 that prevented him from seeking re-election to the state senate.  At that time, Bond had been elected to public office more times than any other black Georgian in history.

Bond was also the first president of the Southern Poverty Law Center at its founding in 1971, and he continues to serve on its board of directors today.  He also serves on the Boards of the People for the American Way and the Council for a Livable World.  He is currently a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the American University in Washington, D.C. and a professor in the history department at the University of Virginia.