Julian Bond, an icon of the civil rights movement, died August 15, 2015 in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. He was 75.
Here are some milestones from Bond’s long legacy:
• Bond enrolled at Morehouse College in 1957 where he co-founded the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He left college to become SNCC’s communications director from 1961 to 1966.
• In 1965, Bond was elected to the Georgia Legislature, but was initially refused a seat. The Supreme Court ruled in his favor the following year. He would go on to serve 20 years in the Georgia House and Georgia Senate.
• Bond became the first African-American to be nominated as a vice-presidential candidate in 1978.
• Bond was the Southern Poverty Law Center's first president, serving from 1971 until 1979.
• From 1974 until 1989, Bond served as president of the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP, and the board chairman of the organization from 1998 until 2010.
• Bond was a distinguished adjunct professor at American University, and a professor of history at the University of Virginia.
• In 2002, Bond received the National Freedom Award.
• Throughout his career, Bond was also a television commentator, newspaper columnist and poet.