THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 13, 1997 TAG: 9702130316
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL SIZEMORE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 82 lines
A durable veteran of the American civil rights movement came to Hampton Roads Wednesday night with a passionate call to rekindle the activism that sparked what he called ``democracy's finest hour'' three decades ago.
Julian Bond, the grandson of a slave, joined the movement in 1960 as a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta when a friend asked him to help organize sit-ins at a segregated store. He became one of the movement's key lieutenants and went on to become a Georgia state legislator.
Today he is an elder statesman, living in Washington and commuting to Charlottesville to teach University of Virginia students the history of the movement he lived through.
His appearance in Norfolk was part of Old Dominion University's President's Lecture Series.
The spirit of the civil rights crusade needs to be renewed, Bond said, because despite the gains of that era in removing legal impediments to equality, ``there is so much more that needs to be done.''
``Everywhere, black Americans face conditions different from, but just as daunting, as the bus back seats, the fire hoses and the billy clubs of three decades ago,'' he said.
He ticked off the dismal conditions plaguing blacks in the nation's inner cities today: crime, poverty, unemployment, economic and educational disparity, teen-age motherhood, single-parent homes, lack of prenatal care.
``What derailed the freedom train?'' he asked.
His answer: Blacks today are having to refight battles that once seemed won.
Bond had harsh words for the Republican-controlled Congress, which he labeled hostile to civil rights, and the Supreme Court, which he said has reversed many of the gains achieved by school desegregation, the Voting Rights Act and affirmative action.
He traced the trend back to Richard Nixon's ``Southern strategy,'' which he said remade the Republican Party as ``a white people's party,'' and to the Reagan era, when, he said, ``opposition to government succeeded opposition to communism as a secular religion.''
``A Susan Smith defense was adopted,'' he said, referring to the South Carolina mother who drowned her two sons and tried to pin the crime on a nonexistent black man.
``Black people did it to the country, did it to themselves. Black behavior, not white racism, caused blacks and whites to live in separate worlds. . . . Aggressive blacks and pushy women became responsible for America's demise. . .
``This perversion of reality occurred as a result of an organized campaign which continues until this day. It is led by a curious mix of whites and blacks, academics, journalists and policymakers. Its supporters propose strong support for civil rights while they oppose every tool designed to achieve that goal. For these new racists, equal opportunity is a burden society can't afford to bear.''
Bond issued a strong defense of affirmative action programs, which he said created today's black middle class.
``From 1970 to 1990, the number of black police officers more than doubled, the number of black electricians tripled, the number of black bank tellers more than quadrupled,'' he said.
``These aren't just numbers. They represent the growth and the spread of the tiny middle class I knew as a boy into a stable one-third of all black Americans today - women and men with jobs and homes, productive tax-paying citizens able to provide for their families now and in the future.
``Without affirmative action, those white and blue collars around black necks would shrink, with a huge depressive effect on income, education, home ownership and employment.
``That's because racism is alive and well in America. Those who would have us believe otherwise, who argue for a return to a color-blind America that never was, who would have us believe that their opposition to justice is rooted in fairness and equality - these people are engaged in justification, rationalization and downright prevarication. We've long heard these arguments from white supremacists. They are joined today by black self-haters and apologists. . . .
``Even affirmative action's poster child, Justice Clarence Thomas, argues that affirmative action makes black people feel bad. But you know, he may be right. Because ever since he got his most recent affirmative action job, he's been in a foul and nasty mood.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
Julian Bond, who teaches at the University of Virginia, spoke
Wednesday night at ODU.
KEYWORDS: AFFIRMATIVE ACTION