Pillars of Bond’s Work
Julian Bond
“Civil rights are positive legal prerogatives — the right to equal treatment before the law. These are rights shared by all. There is no one in the United States who does not — or should not — share in these rights.”
Speech, “Are Gay Rights Civil Rights”
Luckily, “civil rights” are a win/win game; the more civil rights are won by others, the stronger the army defending my rights becomes. My rights are not diluted when my neighbor enjoys protection from the law—he becomes my ally in defending the rights we all share.
Speech on Affirmative Action, November 12, 2006
“They are color-blind, blind to the consequences of being the wrong color in America today.”
Speech, “Sweet Land of Diversity,” 2005
“Racial minorities serve society like the canaries that miners used to carry to warn them when the underground air was becoming too toxic to breathe. But too many people want to put gas masks on the canaries instead of eliminating the poison in the air.”
Speech, “Concerning South Africa”
We want to guarantee that no one goes without the basic necessities—food, shelter, healthcare, a healthy environment, personal safety and an adequate income.”
Speech, “Are Gay Rights Civil Rights?”
“the successful strategies of the modern civil rights, litigation organization and mobilization and coalition all aimed at creating a national constituency for civil rights, so sometimes it is the simplest of ordinary acts: sitting at a lunch counter registering to vote, going to a new school, applying for a marriage license that can change the way we think and act, that’s why when someone asked me are gay rights civil rights, my answer is always of course they are, civil rights are positive legal purgatives, the right to equal treatment before the law these are rights shared by everyone, there is no one in the United States that should not enjoy or share in enjoying these rights”
Speech, “The United States Moving Toward Destruction”
It [beginning our lives again] requires some form of unity among those who insist on a better day, rather than one hundred different drummers beating different tunes.
Speech, “Sweet Land of Diversity,” 2005
“Today, too many of my students and too many others– young and old, black and white– believe they are impotent, unable to influence the society in which they live. Four decades ago, a mass movement marched, picketed, protested, organized and brought state sanctioned segregation to its knees. One [Civil Rights Movement] message is that people move forward fastest when they move forward together. Another lesson is that heroes need more than a passive audience if their heroism is to flourish. The audience provides a context for heroism, an encouraging and supportive cast for heroic deeds and a mirror for its valor.”
Speech, “Sweet Land of Diversity,” 2005
“Black Americans really did not march to freedom; they worked their way to civil rights through the difficult business of organizing. Registering voters, one by one. Organizing a community, block by block. Creating a black-led, interracial movement in which 100 parts made up the successful whole. The civil rights movement provides a history of aggressive self-help and volunteerism in churches and civic clubs, assisting the needy and financing the cause of social justice, and an equally honorable tradition of struggle and resistance.”
Speech, “Sweet Land of Diversity,” 2005
“It is a serious mistake– both tactical and moral– to believe that this is a fight that must or should be waged by black or brown Americans alone. That has never been so in centuries past; it is even less so in the century unfolding now. It has never been “just us.”
NAACP Conference (at UVA?) 2009
“A civil rights agenda for the new century must include continuing to litigate, to organize, to mobilize, forming coalitions of the caring and concerned, joining ranks against the comfortable, the callous and the smug.”
Speech “Concerning South Africa
“We want a society whose single aim is the democratic satisfaction of the needs of its people. We want to guarantee all Americans an equal opportunity to participate in the organization of society, and in the shaping of public and private decisions which affect their lives… …. This will require the creation of a large cadre with the strategy, skill and vision to build a democratic movement in the mainstream—a reassertion of the plain truth that ordinary women and men have the common sense and ability to control their lives, given the knowledge and the means.