Civil rights activist to speak at ECU
Civil Rights activist Julian Bond will return to East Carolina University this month to deliver the Lawrence F. Brewster Lecture in History as part of the 2013-14 Voyages of Discovery Lecture Series. As pictured above, seated at left, Bond also appeared at ECU in September 1970. (Photo courtesy of ECU Archives)
Julian Bond, civil rights activist and professor emeritus of the Corcoran Department of History at the University of Virginia, will deliver the Lawrence F. Brewster Lecture in History at East Carolina University.
Julian Bond
Bond will discuss “Civil Rights, Then and Now,” at 7 p.m. Jan. 28 in ECU’s Wright Auditorium. The presentation is part of the 2013-14 Voyages of Discovery Lecture Series. A question and answer session will immediately follow the presentation.
Bond is distinguished professor in residence in the Department of Government at the American University in Washington, D.C., He is also known as an activist in the civil rights, economic justice and peace movements. In 1960, he helped organize the Atlanta University Center Committee on Appeal for Human Rights, which directed several years of non-violent protests, and by 1962, won integration of Atlanta’s movie theaters, lunch counters and parks.
He served for two decades in the Georgia House and Georgia Senate, drafting more than 60 bills that became law. In 1968, Bond became the first African American to be nominated for the vice presidency of the United States.
He has received the American Civil Liberties Union Bill of Rights Awards from Massachusetts and Georgia, and was named one of America’s Top 200 Leaders by Time magazine. He holds 25 honorary degrees.
Dr. John A. Tucker, director of the Voyages of Discovery Lecture Series, said that Bond’s lecture honors Greenville physicians Dr. Andrew Best, Dr. Fred Irons, Dr. Malene Irons, Dr. Ray Minges and Dr. Earl Trevathan for their contributions to the social health of ECU and the Greenville community. “These physicians led the movement to desegregate Pitt County Memorial Hospital, now Vidant, in the early 1960s,” Tucker said.
To make a contribution to the series, or for additional information, contact Tucker at 252-328-1028, or via email at tuckerjo@ecu.edu. Additional information is also available at http://www.ecu.edu/voyages.
