Sunday, May 1, 2011

Having a Smoke with Julian Bond

The recent classroom lectures I gave about the Civil Rights era reminded me of one of my favorite moments since I started grad school: the day in 2006 when I met Julian Bond -Civil Rights leader, co-founder of both the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Southern Poverty Law Center, and long-time chairman of the NAACP. He was at the University of Illinois to get an honorary doctorate (not that he needed one, he is a professor in the history department of the University of Virginia.) I accompanied my professor Vernon Burton in driving Bond to the airport (after a large get-together at the Custard Cup)... and had a cigarette break with him outside the airport before his flight left. That's when this picture was taken- a very cool moment for yours truly.

And here is a 1960s photo of Bond:

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