Jan. 9, 1967
Civil rights leader Julian Bond was finally seated in the Georgia House.
He had helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee while a student at Morehouse College along with future Congressman John Lewis. The pair helped institute nonviolence as a deep principle throughout all of the SNCC protests and actions.
Following Bond’s election in 1965, the Georgia House refused to seat him after he had criticized U.S. involvement in Vietnam. In 1966, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the Georgia House was required to seat him.
“The truth may hurt,” he said, “but it’s the truth.”
He went on to serve two decades in the Georgia Legislature and even hosted “Saturday Night Live.” In 1971, he became president of the just-formed Southern Poverty Law Center and later served a dozen years as chairman of the national NAACP.
“The civil rights movement didn’t begin in Montgomery, and it didn’t end in the 1960s,” he said. “It continues on to this very minute.”
Over two decades at the University of Virginia, he taught more than 5,000 students and led alumni on civil rights journeys to the South. In 2015, he died from complications of vascular disease.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
