SPLC President on Julian Bond: 'I Miss His Voice. We All Do'

 

The following was submitted by Southern Poverty Law Center President Richard Cohen.

I miss Julian Bond terribly.

Like so much of the rest of the country, I first heard Julian’s voice at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

The country was in turmoil. Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy had been assassinated, and the police were rioting in the streets of Chicago, beating antiwar protestors, during the convention. The protestors chanted, “The whole world is watching,” and indeed it was.

But there was one voice at the convention that spoke with great clarity, one voice that made sense of the turmoil. That voice was Julian Bond’s. Today, we’re in another period when the country sometimes seems to be coming apart at the seams, a period of great turmoil.

Julian died a year ago today.

I miss his voice. We all do.