Statement on the passing of Civil Rights Leader Julian Bond

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation notes today with a mix of sadness and great appreciation the life and successes of civil rights leader Julian Bond, who passed away at age 75.

Throughout the course of Bond’s illustrative career, he had been chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a founder and leader of the Southern Poverty Law Center, and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives – a position which he was nearly prevented from entering because of his strong, public conviction against the Vietnam War; though ultimately the Supreme Court ruled in Bond’s favor on the grounds of free speech. Bond was a long-term state congressman in the Georgia State Legislature and a founder, along with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee while a student at Morehouse College.

Bond was a life-long champion of equal rights, not only for African Americans, but also for all who faced oppression. In the latter years of his career, he was a frequent television commentator, as well as a writer, lecturer and poet, known for his eloquence and flair.

As long-term funders of many of the social justice issues and organizations that Julian Bond led, we share in a belief that all children deserve to live in families where they and their parents have equal rights and opportunities to thrive. We could not be more appreciative for the work of Julian Bond.