Posted November 19, 2008

CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST JULIAN BOND SERVES LAST TERM AS NAACP CHAIRMAN, REMAINS ON NATIONAL BOARD

 BALTIMORE, MD- After 10 years of volunteer service as the NAACP National Board Chairman Julian Bond, 68, announced he would not seek reelection when his term ends in February 2009. 

"This is the time for renewal. We have dynamic new leadership. The country has a new President in Barack Obama; the organization has a new CEO in Benjamin Jealous, and we'll soon have a new Chairman of the NAACP Board. The NAACP and the country are in good hands," he added.

In a letter to Board members, Bond wrote that he would not run for reelection as Chairman of the National Board, however he will remain on the Board.  He also intends to run for reelection to the Board when his three-year Board term ends. "It has always been my plan to serve until the Centennial and it will be underway in February when my term ends," said Bond. "I'm not resigning, I'm just not running for reelection," he added.

Board members and officers to the National NAACP Board are volunteer, elected positions.  The Chairmanship is a one-year term and Board members serve a three-year term.  

For Bond, this decision was part of a life change. "Being Chairman has been a wonderful honor however, it has been more time demanding than anything I've ever done. I'm ready to let a new generation of leaders lead," he said.

"We appreciate Chairman Bond's commitment and look forward to his continued active involvement on the Board," said Benjamin Todd Jealous.

Bond was elected as the Chairman of the Board in 1998. In 2002, Bond was awarded the National Freedom Award, a prestigious award whose recipients in past years include Jackie Robinson, Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey and Rosa Parks.

About Julian Bond  

 From his student days to his current Chairmanship of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Julian Bond has been an active participant in the movements for civil rights and economic justice. As an activist who has faced jail for his convictions, as a veteran of more than 20 years service in the Georgia General Assembly, a university professor and a writer, he has been on the cutting edge of social change since 1960.

He was a founder, in 1960 while a student at Morehouse College of the Atlanta student sit-in and anti-segregation organization and of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). As SNCC's Communications Director, Bond was active in protests and registration campaigns throughout the South.

Elected in 1965 to the Georgia House of Representatives, Bond was prevented from taking his seat by members who objected to his opposition to the Vietnam War. He was re-elected to his own vacant seat and un-seated again, and seated only after a third election and a unanimous decision of the United States Supreme Court.

He was co-chair of a challenge delegation from Georgia to the 1968 Democratic Convention. The challengers were successful in unseating Georgia's regular Democrats, and Bond was nominated for Vice-President, but had to decline because he was too young.

Bond serves as Chairman of the Premier Auto Group PAG (Volvo, Land Rover, Aston-Martin, and Jaguar) Diversity Council and is on the Boards of People for the American Way, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Council for a Livable World, and the advisory board of the Harvard Business School Initiative on Social Enterprise, among others.

He was a commentator on America's Black Forum, the oldest black-owned show in television syndication. His poetry and articles have appeared in numerous publications. He has narrated numerous documentaries, including the Academy Award winning "A Time For Justice" and the prize-winning and critically acclaimed series "Eyes On The Prize."

He has served since 1998 as Chairman of the Board of the NAACP, the oldest and largest civil rights organization in the United States.

In 2002, he received the prestigious National Freedom Award.

The holder of twenty-five honorary degrees, he is a Distinguished Professor at American University in Washington, DC, and a Professor in history at the University of Virginia.

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