Missing Julian Bond's voice

Like so much of the rest of the country, I first heard Julian’s voice at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

The country was in turmoil. Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy had been assassinated, and the police were rioting in streets of Chicago, beating antiwar protestors, during the convention. The protestors chanted, “The whole world is watching,” and indeed it was.

But there was one voice at the convention that spoke with great clarity, one voice that made sense of the turmoil. That voice was Julian Bond’s. Today, we’re in another period when the country sometimes seems to be coming apart at the seams, a period of great turmoil.

Julian died a year ago today.

I miss his voice. We all do.

Selected Julian Bond quotes: 

“America is race. From its symbolism to its substance, from its founding by slave holders to its rending by the Civil War … from Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin and to Michael Brown.” — Speech at Edgewood College, March 12, 2015. 

“[Sit-ins were] my introduction to the civil rights movement and it was instructive because it said that even though I wasn’t a lawyer, I wasn’t an orator like Martin Luther King, I wasn’t an academic, I was a student. I was a college student, but I could do this one thing—sit down, which I’m doing right now, that all of us can do, and that got me into the civil rights movement.” 

"The fight for full equality has been a long and winding journey. It has taken us from the Stonewall Riots and the AIDS pandemic to this moment in time, this place, an America when lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans have the right to marry in every state in the union. I am proud to have stood with so many on the right side of history, aligned with those who believe that all Americans deserve the dignity of equal treatment. But our journey is nowhere near over."  "LGBT Work, Housing Protections Needed Now," July 8, 2015.

"My rights are not diluted when my neighbor enjoys protection from discrimination. He or she becomes my ally in defending the rights we all share."

“The humanity of all Americans is diminished when any group is denied rights granted to others. This is not a special interest case, but one that should be of great importance to everyone who believes in the principles of equality on which this nation was founded.”

“An educated populace must be taught basics about American history. One of these basics is the civil rights movement, a nonviolent revolution as important as the first American Revolution. It is a history that continues to shape the America we all live in today.” Via Teaching Tolerance.

"We are gathered in the cradle of the Confederacy to dedicate a monument to those who died so all might be free. As we do so, let us rededicate ourselves to freedom's fight. Let us gather, not in recrimination, but in reconciliation, remembrance, and renewed resolve." Civil Rights Memorial dedication speech, 1989.