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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of
3Representatives are saddened to learn of the death of Julian
4Bond, who passed away on August 15, 2015; and
 
5    WHEREAS, Horace Julian Bond, generally known as Julian
6Bond, was born in Nashville, Tennessee on January 14, 1940; 5
7years later, his family moved to Pennsylvania, where his father
8served as the first African-American President of Lincoln
9University; and
 
10    WHEREAS, In 1957, Julian Bond enrolled at Atlanta's
11Morehouse College, where he helped found The Pegasus, a
12literary magazine, and interned at Time magazine; while still a
13student, he became a founding member of the Committee on Appeal
14for Human Rights; and
 
15    WHEREAS, Julian Bond led nonviolent student protests
16against segregation in Atlanta parks, restaurants, and movie
17theaters; in 1960, he helped form the Student Nonviolent
18Coordinating Committee in Raleigh, North Carolina; the
19following year, he left Morehouse to serve as the SNCC's
20communications director, a position he held for 5 years; he
21returned to Morehouse a decade later and received a degree in
22English; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, In 1965, Julian Bond was voted into the Georgia
2House of Representatives; however, the Georgia House refused to
3swear him into his seat because he had endorsed a SNCC
4statement that decried the war in Vietnam; Martin Luther King,
5Jr. subsequently organized a protest rally on Bond's behalf; in
61966, the case went to the United States Supreme Court, which
7unanimously ruled in Bond's favor on the basis of freedom of
8speech; and
 
9    WHEREAS, Julian Bond was finally able to take his seat in
10the Georgia House of Representatives in 1967; he served in the
11Georgia House until 1975 and went on to serve in the Georgia
12Senate from 1975 to 1986; during his tenure in the state
13legislature, he wrote over 60 bills that were ratified as law;
14and
 
15    WHEREAS, Julian Bond attended the 1968 Democratic National
16Convention in Chicago, where he was nominated as a
17vice-presidential candidate; he was the first African American
18to receive the honor, but withdrew his name because he was not
19old enough to hold the office according to constitutional
20guidelines; and
 
21    WHEREAS, From 1971 to 1979, Julian Bond served as president
22of the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization he also

 

 

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1co-founded; he was president of Atlanta's chapter of the
2National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
3before becoming the chairman of the national NAACP, a position
4he held from 1998 until 2010; and
 
5    WHEREAS, Julian Bond was a prominent voice in the media; he
6was a commentator for NBC's Today show, wrote a national
7newspaper column, and produced poems that have appeared in
8publications such as The Nation and the New York Times; he was
9also a professor of history at the University of Virginia and
10an adjunct professor at American University; therefore, be it
 
11    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
12NINETY-NINTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we
13mourn the death of Julian Bond and recognize his life,
14commitments, and achievements; and be it further
 
15    RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
16presented to the family of Julian Bond as an expression of our
17sympathy.