By Nellie Peyton, Special to the Packet
Long lines of Florida voters who waited until the wee hours of the night to cast their ballots this month are an immediate legacy of the Civil Rights Movement, said former NAACP Chairman Julian Bond, in a speech at Princeton University on Tuesday evening.
”The people who stood in line in Florida have a certain kind of moral courage and strength that I don’t think all of us have,” said Mr. Bond. “In the face of countless efforts to suppress their vote, they were determined.”
Mr. Bond shared a unique perspective on the Civil Rights Movement, having been one of its active leaders from the early stages on. His talk was part of the Woodrow Wilson School’s “Social Movements” lecture series.
A college student in Atlanta in the 1960s, Mr. Bond helped to form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He later served four terms in the Georgia House of Representatives, and six terms in the Georgia Senate.
”Instead of a movement that ended in 1968 with the death of Dr. King, we now see a continued movement stretching from the ancient past until this moment,” said Mr. Bond, referring to the unending struggle for civil rights.
His speech focused on the history of this movement, giving a detailed timeline of SNCC from its origins in Southern Mississippi in 1961, to its lasting effects.
”I thought it was a wonderful walk through the whole Civil Rights Movement,” said Len Lavinson of Lawrenceville afterwards.
Mr. Lavinson added that it was nice to be reminded of these events, some of which he had forgotten.
Other audience members were struck by Mr. Bond’s comments on the current state of civil rights in America, which, he said, is far from where it should be.
”Both our response to the nation’s first black president, and the response to the Civil War’s 150th anniversary confirmed that we are still a nation at war with itself,” said Mr. Bond.
He cited attempts at voter suppression, the divisive state of our politics, and the acute problem of housing segregation as examples.
”The task ahead is enormous, equal if not greater than the job already done,” he said.
In response to questions about how Americans can continue to make progress on issues such as the racial inequalities in our education system, Mr. Bond stressed that we must not rely on politicians to make changes from the top down.
”All of these questions are based on the ability of citizens to take action,” he said. “If citizens are not willing to talk about these things, and to act about these things, nothing will get done.”
This message resonated with audience member Laura Hanson, a graduate student in Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs.
”His message is that citizens have to stand up and work together,” said Ms. Hanson. “This is what we already know, but institutionally this isn’t how we talk about it.”
Mr. Bond focused on SNCC’s community based politics as a positive example of the way change can occur.
In 1965, he was one of eight African Americans elected to the Georgia Legislature, but was denied his seat three times because he had publicly endorsed SNCC’s position on U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. In 1966 the Supreme Court declared this unconstitutional, and Georgia swore him in.
”Among SNCC’s contributions to electoral politics were the formation of two political parties, and the conception and implementation of my successful campaigns for the Georgia Legislature,” said Mr. Bond.
Mr. Bond’s retelling of civil rights history was interspersed with personal details.
Notably, he was one of only eight students who took Dr. Martin Luther King’s philosophy course at Morehouse College, and the two later formed a close friendship.
”You can see history in his face,” said Carol Raymore, an audience member from Trenton. “He has a lot to share.”
Mr. Bond retired last spring from his position as a history professor at the University of Virginia, where he taught for 20 years.
He will continue to lead his annual Civil Rights South Seminar in March, which takes participants on a week-long tour of historical sites in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.

