Aug. 17, 2015

The Prophetic Voice of Julian Bond Silenced at 75
The Civil Rights Giant Often Envisioned the Future as He Spoke
 By Hazel Trice Edney

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – President Barack Obama called him “a hero” who helped change this country for the better”.

NAACP Chairman Roslyn Brock said she was inspired by the “breadth and depth of his exemplary service”, which included activism, writing, historic record-keeping, teaching, and within it all, an “unrelentingly eloquent voice for the voiceless.”

With the streams of accolades being spoken in memory of civil rights giant Julian Bond, who died August 15 at the age of 75 - one description of his voice that is rarely mentioned is the word “prophetic.”

Yet, in interviews with the Black press over the years, Bond would indeed speak prophetically as he couched his viewpoints more in a context of what needed to happen for the future than simply responding to what was happening at that time.

“It is a tipping point, as was the murder of Trayvon Martin,” Bond told the Trice Edney News Wire of the police killing of 18-year-old unarmed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. less than a week after the shooting occurred. “But we all have short attention spans, and some will lose heart. But I believe this will be with us for a long time. Will it stop the murders of Black young men?  No. But it will serve as a marker, as has other deaths. Emmett Till's death is still with us; this one will be with us too.”

Then, earlier this year, during a Black History Month forum discussing old and new civil rights leadership, Bond stressed the importance of new leadership rising up “to chart its own course without waiting to hear from their elders,” reported Howard University student by Jacquelyn Johnson, who covered the campus forum for the Howard University News Service. "I think people in my generation are a little reluctant to say to these young people, ‘Why don't you do this?  How about you do that?’ I'm not willing to say that because I think you know what the problems are. You know what the solutions are, and I'm sure we will be glad to help, but don't depend on us to tell you what to do.  Just go out and do it."

Bond’s voice, whether prophetic, encouraging or comforting, was one that consistently spoke up for what he viewed as justice. And as the civil rights community has said in solemn statements this week, that voice will be sorely missed.

“We've lost a champion,” proclaimed the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) headline announcing his death in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., after a brief illness. Bond, a co-founder of SPLC, served as its president from its founding in 1971 to 1979. He was described as a “visionary and tireless champion for civil and human rights” by SPLC President Morris Dees, who pointed to Bond’s deep roots in civil rights.

“From his days as the co-founder and communications director of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s to his chairmanship of the NAACP in the 21st century, Julian was a visionary and tireless champion for civil and human rights,” Dees said.

According to the Washington Post, Bond became suddenly ill Aug. 12, from complications related to vascular disease,” according to his wife, Pamela Horowitz, who survives him along with his five children.

Horowitz told the Post that he remained optimistic, laughing often. “He had a wonderful sense of humor,” Horowitz said in the Post story. “You know, that got him through the serious things he dealt with all his life. He used to joke that on his tombstone, one side would say ‘Race man’ and the other side would say, ‘Easily amused.’ ”

But the pains of racism and discrimination were too painful to be funny. Therefore, when necessary, his voice also reflected tart reminders of just how sharp those pains were. In a speech as chair of the NAACP, he once referred to the Bush administration as the “Taliban wing of American politics” and on another occasion, he accused Bush of using “snake oil” politics.

Among his long fought issues was the right to vote. Discussing the early uprising in Ferguson, he said, “The Black (and decent White people) must learn how to vote. It is a shame to have a Black majority without power. Across the country, Black (and decent non-black) people must learn how to monitor their police departments and stop these crimes.”

Considered civil rights royalty, Bond’s life mirrored a person destined to impact the future –whether he is here to see it or not. The following obituary was posted at NAACP.org:

While a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Bond helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He was elected Board Chairman of the NAACP in 1998.

Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Bond's family moved to Pennsylvania when he was five years old when his father, Horace Mann Bond, became the first African American President of Lincoln University (Pennsylvania), his alma mater. Bond attended Morehouse College in Atlanta and won a varsity letter for swimming. He also founded a literary magazine called The Pegasus and served as an intern at Time magazine.

Bond was a founding member of the SNCC and served as communications director from 1961 to 1966. From 1960 to 1963, he led student protests against segregation in public facilities in Georgia. Bond graduated from Morehouse and helped found the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). He was the organization's president from 1971 to 1979.

Bond was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1965. White members of the House refused to seat him because of his opposition to the Vietnam War. In 1966, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the House had denied Bond his freedom of speech and had to seat him.

From 1965 to 1975, he served in the Georgia House and served six terms in the Georgia Senate from 1975 to 1986.

In 1968, Bond led a challenge delegation from Georgia to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and was the first African-American nominated as Vice President of the United States. He withdrew his name from the ballot because he was too young to serve.

Bond ran for the United States House of Representatives, but lost to civil rights leader John Lewis. In the 1980s and ‘90s, Bond taught at several universities, including American, Drexel, Williams, the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard universities and the University of Virginia.

Bond continued with his activism as Chairman Emeritus of the NAACP, after serving 11 years as Chair, and working to educate the public about the history of the Civil Rights Movement and the struggles that African Americans endured.

“Julian Bond helped change this country for the better,” said the statement from President Obama and First Lady Michelle. “And what better way to be remembered than that.”

Aug. 11, 2015

In Ferguson: Man Shot by Police on Fringes of Protest, Police Say He Fired First
By Chris King St. Louis American


Tear gas in Ferguson. PHOTO: Lawrence Bryant / St. Louis American

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the St. Louis American

August 11, 2015

Michael Brown Jr.'s Memory Honored With Moments of Silence, March
By Kenya Vaughn  

Michael Brown Sr. and his family leads a silent march in memory of his son Michael Brown Jr. on the one-year anniversary of his death. PHOTO: Lawrence Bryant/St. Louis American

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the St. Louis American 

August 10, 2015

Closing the Achievement Gap One Child at a Time
By Julianne Malveaux

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Thousands of pages have been written about the achievement gap; the fact that White kids score higher than either Black or Latino kids who sometimes sit right next to them in classrooms.  And despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent to close the achievement gap, the National Assessment of Educational Progress reported last year that the gap was unchanged in both reading and math between 2009 and 2013.

Why? African-American students are as capable for learning as Caucasian students are, if they have the same quality of teachers, schools, and learning material.  But many researchers have documented the differences in school quality between inner cities and elsewhere.  Some researchers will explain the achievement gap by focusing on poverty, challenging family backgrounds, or other factors.  Anecdotal evidence suggests that often, teacher attitudes determine the ways some students are treated, and some of the ways that they learn.  Often large classroom sizes and, yes, unruly students, contribute to teacher burnout for which there is little relief.

Multiple and complex factors go into explaining the achievement gap.  But in the very shortest of runs, while we wait for public policy to shift and for legislators to put more money in our schools, some of us can decide to close the achievement gap.  Too many of us seem too challenged to help our own kids, yet parental involvement is needed to keep close touch with teacher and administrators and to provide our children with challenging educational experiences.  Some of us, retired and with adult children, could make a difference by giving a few hours a week to a child who needs supplementary education. 

I’m all for a shift in public policy. K-12 education has been neglected, from a policy perspective, by too many cities and states.  Too often when there are budget cuts, education takes a big hit.  Schools are closed, classrooms are overcrowded, and necessary classes in the sciences, in civics or physical education, are eliminated. In most schools across the country, the arts (music, theater etc.) have been removed entirely.

Reading facility may be the foundation of the achievement gap.  Some researchers say that African American children enter high school with a word gap as high as 30 million (which means they have heard 30 million fewer words than their Caucasian counterparts). 

Some allege that children are not the only ones to have a word gap –Valerie Strauss, writing in the Washington Post of February 16 of this year, wrote that as many as a million “state licensed and nationally credentialed” early childhood educators are at risk for functional illiteracy.  Many of these workers earn such low wages the best educated and qualified teachers are not interested in early child education.  Thus, while President Obama has called for universal kindergarten, where are the teachers who will take kindergarten to the next level?

Until policy is changed and we put our money where our mouths are, closing the achievement gap is a short run parental and community challenge.  I know some parents who start reading to their child in the womb, who allow toddlers to turn pages and look at pictures (and words) to get them ready for reading, who talk to their children even when they know their offspring can’t understand a word they are saying. Other parents may sing and occasionally sit toddlers at the dinner table, even though they know a child might holler or make a mess.

Children are headed to school this month and next, and many of them need parents, or involved community contributors, to help them get there without being burdened by the achievement gap.  The gap that starts early – in preschool or kindergarten – grows over time.  Caucasians graduate from high school at a rate of 86 percent, compared to 73 percent for Hispanics and 69 percent for African Americans.  Yet we say that a well-educated workforce is a key to our nation’s future prosperity.  We need to change the spending policy that supports the achievement gap, and until that happens, we need to reach out, a child at a time, to make a difference.