A national civil rights leader with ties to the Pensacola area passed away over the weekend. Julian Bond, a Tennessee native who lived part time on the Panhandle died last Saturday night in Fort Walton Beach. Mr Bond was 75.
He last made news in Pensacola two summers ago when he spoke at the Greater True Vine Baptist Church in Pensacola in August of 2013. He was there as part of a town hall meeting so citizens could express their concerns about incidents involving the Escambia County Sheriff's department, including the shooting of Roy Middleton at his home by two deputies.
Julian Bond has been active in the civil rights movement for over 50 years. Bond was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1965 and the Georgia Senate in 1975, where he served six terms. It was his election to the Georgia House that brought him to national attention. "He had won the seat but the legislature refused to seat him because of his opposition to the Vietnam War" said Charles Morgan the Third, a restaurant owner in the Destin-Pensacola area who was a family friend of Mr. Bond. Morgan says e was a youngster in 1965 when Bond was elected to the Georgia house. His father, Charles Morgan Jr. was Bond’s attorney who sued the Georgia legislature trying to force them to give Bond the seat he won. "My father was the head of the American Civil Liberties Union in the south. That was really early on for a civil rights leader to come out against the Vietnam War. They had their hands full with what they were doing, and Julian was one of the early leaders that sort of combined the two movements...and so my dad took it to the Supreme Court and it was a unanimous decision. Just because he had different opinions didn't preclude him from sitting in the Georgia Legislature."
"That (case) was freedom of speech and they could not curtail that" said Reverend H.K. Matthews, president of the National Movement for Human and Civil Rights based in Rockville, Maryland. He has known Julian Bond since the early 1960s. He calls his friend a humanitarian. "Julian spent his adult life in working for the betterment of humankind. His specific concern was about the treatment of African Americans, but his general concern was about the treatment of American citizens regardless of their race, color or creed."
Bond helped found the Southern Poverty Law Center and served as its president. He was later elected board chairman of the NAACP in 1998. He was also involved with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He worked with national civil rights leaders from Dr. Martin Luther King to Rev Jessie Jackson. In 1968 he was nominated for Vice President on the floor of the Democratic National Convention, although he would have been unable to serve because of his youth. Millions of Americans saw a different side of Mr. Bond when he hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live in 1977.
Julian Bond is survived by his five children and his wife, the former Pam Horowitz who was the law partner of Charles Morgan Jr. "He's my youngest daughter Jane's Godfather" said Charles Morgan the Third. "He and Pam, whenever they would visit here, we'd eat almost every meal with them either at Harbor Docks (one of Mr. Morgan's restaurants) or at my mom's house. And they would come back from visits with the Dali Lama, or President Obama, or with Nelson Mandela, or with Oprah and bring us stories."
In a statement on Sunday, President Obama called Mr. Bond “a hero and, I’m privileged to say, a friend. Obama also said “Julian Bond helped change this country for the better. And what better way to be remembered than that.” For his part, when speaking in Pensacola two years ago, Julian Bond thought the world still needed a little work saying "So as we contemplate the state of race relations 50 years after Dr. King's historic speech at the March on Washington, we know we still have work to do".
