Julian Bond

The 2nd Annual Eugene J. McCarthy Lecture

The Eugene J. McCarthy Center for Public Policy and Civic Engagement announces that Julian Bond, chairman of the board of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), will deliver the second annual Eugene J. McCarthy Lecture at 7:30 p.m. Wed., Oct. 29, in the Stephen B. Humphrey Theater on the Saint John's University campus.

From his student days to his current chairmanship of the NAACP, Bond has actively participated in the movements for civil rights and economic justice. As an activist who has faced jail for his convictions, as a veteran of more than 20 years' service in the Georgia General Assembly, as a university professor, and as a writer, he has been on the cutting edge of social change since 1960.

Bond, as a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). From 1965 to 1975, he served as a Democratic member in the Georgia House for four terms. He was a strong opponent of the Vietnam War. He went on to serve six terms in the Georgia Senate from 1975-1986. Bond was the first president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, and since 1998, he has served as the chairman of the board of the NAACP, the oldest and largest civil rights organization in the United States. In 2002, he received the prestigious National Freedom Award. Bond is Distinguished Professor at American University in Washington, D.C., and serves as professor of history at the University of Virginia.

The annual public lectureship reflects McCarthy's deep commitment to the ideals and principles of democratic self-government. It seeks to inspire a new generation of young people to pursue fresh ideas, to challenge the status quo, to effect positive change in their communities and, like McCarthy himself, to lead with honesty, integrity and courage.