Human rights crusader Julian Bond, a longtime leader in the struggle for racial equality, will visit Morgantown next week as part of West Virginia Universitys Festival of Ideas lecture series.

Chairman of the NAACP , Bond will speak onCivil Rights: Now and Thenat 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 2, in the Mountainlair Ballroom.

Bond has been at the forefront of Americans human rights struggle since 1960. He has faced jail for his strong convictions, and has been a legislator, writer and university professor.

He was born in Nashville, Tenn., in 1940, the son of a pioneering father. Dr. Horace Mann Bond became the first president of Fort Valley State College and later the first black president of the countrys oldest black private college, Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.

Bond entered Morehouse College in Atlanta in 1957 after graduating from George School, a coeducational Quaker school in Bucks County, Pa. While still a student in 1960, Bond helped found the Committee on Appeal for Human Rights, a student civil rights organization that helped win integration of Atlantas movie theaters, lunch counters and parks.

He was also involved with the formation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, along with several hundred students from across the South. As SNCC ’s communications director, Bond was active in protests and voter registration campaigns throughout the South and was integral to the organizations newsletter and publicity. Bond later left Morehouse College to work for a protest paper, the Atlanta Inquirer, and eventually became its managing editor

In 1965, Bond was elected to a one-year term in the Georgia House of Representatives, where members voted not to seat him because of his outspoken opposition to the Vietnam War. After two subsequent reelections and a unanimous United States Supreme Court decision stating that Bonds rights had been violated, he was finally able to assume his position.

During his time in the Georgia General Assembly, Bond sponsored more than 60 bills that became law and organized the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus, then the largest such group in the nation.

As co-chair of a challenge delegation from Georgia to the 1968 Democratic Convention, Bond was successful in unseating Georgia’s regular Democrats. At the same convention, Bond was the first African American to be nominated for vice president by a major political party but was ineligible because he was too young.

In 1971, Bond returned to Morehouse College and earned his bachelors degree. That same year, he became the first president of a new organization called the Southern Poverty Law Center, now known for its tolerance education programs, its legal victories against white supremacists and its tracking of hate groups. Bond still serves on organizations board of directors.

Bond became a member of the Georgia Senate in 1974. There, he became the first black chair of the Fulton County Delegation, the largest and most diverse in the upper house, and chair of the Consumer Affairs Committee. Bond had been elected to public office more than any other black Georgian living or dead when he left the Senate in 1987.

Bond is now a commentator onAmericas Black Forum,the oldest black-owned show in television syndication. His poetry and essays have appeared in numerous publications, and he has narrated many documentaries, including the Academy Award-winningA Time for Justiceand the prize-winning and critically-acclaimed seriesEyes on the Prize.

Since 1998, Bond has served as chairman of the board of the NAACP , the oldest and largest civil rights organization in the United States. A distinguished professor at American University in Washington, D.C., and a professor of history at the University of Virginia, Bond holds 21 honorary degrees from various institutions.

Other Festival speakers include:

• March 7Carolyn Kepcher, a ranking officer in the Donald Trump organization who regularly appears onThe Apprenticereality TV show, discussing ethics in business;

• March 21Forensic science expert Dr. Cyril Wecht, discussing the roles of forensic pathology in todays society;

• March 28Journalists Jonah Goldberg and Peter Beinart, discussing moral values and the political divide in America;

• April 18Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, discussing fast food andSupersize Me,his documentary look at what its like to really live on such fare;

• April 25Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, who will close the series with a look at Sept. 11 and its aftermath to Abu Ghaib.

All Festival of Ideas presentations, free and open to the public, begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Mountainlair Ballroom. Seating is limited on a first-come, first-served basis. Festival of Ideas is produced by WVU Arts&Entertainment. For more information, call 293-SHOW or visithttp://www.events.wvu.edu.