Civil rights leader Julian Bond to speak at Purdue on Nov. 4
October 13, 2014
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Julian Bond |
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Julian Bond, former chairman of the NAACP and a leader of the American civil rights movement, will speak at 7 p.m. Nov. 4 in Purdue University's Loeb Playhouse.
"An Evening with Julian Bond," sponsored by the Office of the Vice Provost for Diversity and Inclusion and Purdue's Black Cultural Center, is free and open to the public. It is part of the Martin Luther King Lecture Series and One Community: Unpacking Ferguson. Unpacking Ferguson is a series of forums and events planned by Purdue officials to encourage open, educational dialogue with the campus and community following the police-action shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
Bond was scheduled to speak at Purdue earlier this year as part of the university's MLK celebration. Inclement winter weather forced both the original lecture in January and a rescheduled appearance in February to be canceled.
After graduation from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Bond helped start the Southern Poverty Law Center, serving as the organization's president from 1971-79. He was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives, serving from 1965-75. He also served six terms in the Georgia Senate, from 1975-86.
Co-chairman of an insurgent delegation to the 1968 national Democratic Convention, he became the first African-American to be nominated for vice president. He withdrew his name from the ballot because he was too young to serve.
Bond is chairman emeritus of the NAACP and appears frequently on "America's Black Forum," the oldest black-owned show in television syndication. He has written a nationally distributed newspaper column and narrated the award-winning documentaries "A Time for Justice" and "Eyes on the Prize."
Also, at noon on Nov. 4 the BCC will show "Freedom Summer," the PBS documentary about the 50th anniversary of the Mississippi Summer Project in which blacks and whites came together to fight racism. The film explores the history of the campaign for voter registration and education in Mississippi. Following the film, there will be a panel discussion featuring Cornelius Bynum, a Purdue associate professor of history; Tony Gass, BCC program manager; and Don Nead, a West Lafayette resident who was involved in Freedom Summer activities.
Writer: Greg McClure, 765-496-9711, gmcclure@purdue.edu
Source: Renee Thomas, Purdue Black Cultural Center director, 765-494-3091, rathomas@purdue.edu
Related news release:
'Unpacking Ferguson' aims to build police, community relationships: http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2014/Q3/unpacking-ferguson-aims-to-build-police,-community-relationships.html
