Horace Julian Bond, or better known by the public as Julian Bond, passed away Saturday in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.
Julian Bond one of United States' voices for equality and a leader in the Civil Rights Movement died at the age of 75. However, his death did not end his vision and mission rather it highlighted his legacy in the society. In a report of washingtonpost, president Barrack Obama even shared Bond's works and pioneering service. According to the president he said that;
"Justice and equality was the mission that spanned his life - from his leadership of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, to his founding role with the Southern Poverty Law Center, to his pioneering service in the Georgia legislature and his steady hand at the helm of the NAACP...Michelle and I have benefited from his example, his counsel, and his friendship - and we offer our prayers and sympathies to his wife, Pamela, and his children."
Pamela Horowitz, wife of Bond for 24 years, stated in a statement saying that Bond even on his final days stayed optimistic despite the health complications related to vascular disease. Horowitz in a statement said that;
"He had a wonderful sense of humor...You know, that got him through the serious things he dealt with all his life. He used to joke that on his tombstone, one side would say 'Race man' and the other side would say, 'Easily amused."
One of Bond's early contributions to society can be traced half a century ago as a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta. It was during that period that Bond helped in starting the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), one of the most important organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. His strong belief on justice and equality was remembered by one his associates, Joyce Ladner, a fellow SNCC activist who met Bond in 1962. According to her as reported on washington, she said that;
"We'd all been influenced by seeing our own parents grasp for justice and equality and were always denied it. Julian never wavered in his fight for justice: We were going to right the wrongs. We were going to destroy segregation and racial brutality."
As the nation mourns for the death of one of the many voices of justice and equality, still it may reflect on echoing sound of this works and legacy left behind.
