HR0712 99TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0712 LRB099 13959 GRL 37963 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of Representatives are saddened to learn of the death of Julian Bond, who passed away on August 15, 2015; and

WHEREAS, Horace Julian Bond, generally known as Julian Bond, was born in Nashville, Tennessee on January 14, 1940; 5 years later, his family moved to Pennsylvania, where his father served as the first African-American President of Lincoln University; and

WHEREAS, In 1957, Julian Bond enrolled at Atlanta's Morehouse College, where he helped found The Pegasus, a literary magazine, and interned at Time magazine; while still a student, he became a founding member of the Committee on Appeal for Human Rights; and

WHEREAS, Julian Bond led nonviolent student protests against segregation in Atlanta parks, restaurants, and movie theaters; in 1960, he helped form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Raleigh, North Carolina; the following year, he left Morehouse to serve as the SNCC's communications director, a position he held for 5 years; he returned to Morehouse a decade later and received a degree in English; and

WHEREAS, In 1965, Julian Bond was voted into the Georgia House of Representatives; however, the Georgia House refused to swear him into his seat because he had endorsed a SNCC statement that decried the war in Vietnam; Martin Luther King, Jr. subsequently organized a protest rally on Bond's behalf; in 1966, the case went to the United States Supreme Court, which unanimously ruled in Bond's favor on the basis of freedom of speech; and

WHEREAS, Julian Bond was finally able to take his seat in the Georgia House of Representatives in 1967; he served in the Georgia House until 1975 and went on to serve in the Georgia Senate from 1975 to 1986; during his tenure in the state legislature, he wrote over 60 bills that were ratified as law; and

WHEREAS, Julian Bond attended the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where he was nominated as a vice-presidential candidate; he was the first African American to receive the honor, but withdrew his name because he was not old enough to hold the office according to constitutional guidelines; and

WHEREAS, From 1971 to 1979, Julian Bond served as president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization he also co-founded; he was president of Atlanta's chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People before becoming the chairman of the national NAACP, a position he held from 1998 until 2010; and

WHEREAS, Julian Bond was a prominent voice in the media; he was a commentator for NBC's Today show, wrote a national newspaper column, and produced poems that have appeared in publications such as The Nation and the New York Times; he was also a professor of history at the University of Virginia and an adjunct professor at American University; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-NINTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn the death of Julian Bond and recognize his life, commitments, and achievements; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to the family of Julian Bond as an expression of our sympathy.