Race Man: Selected Works, 1960-2015

by Julian Bond, Michael G. Long (Editor), Pamela Horowitz (Preface)

Newsweek, Lit Hub, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Atlanta Journal Constitution pick Race Man by Julian Bond as one of their Most-Anticipated Books of 2020! "This compilation of works by social activist and civil rights leader Julian Bond should be required reading in 2020. " —Juliana Rose Pignataro, Newsweek "Bond's essays, speeches and interviews were powerful weapons in his lifelong fight for civil rights."— The New York Times "Justice and equality was the mission that spanned his life. Julian Bond helped change this country for the better. And what better way to be remembered than that." —President Barack Obama An inspiring, historic collection of writings from one of America's most important civil rights leaders. No one in the United States did more to advance the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. than Julian Bond. Race Man— a collection of his speeches, articles, interviews, and letters—constitutes an unrivaled history of the life and times of one of America’s most trusted freedom fighters, offering unfiltered access to his prophetic voice on a wide variety of social issues, including police brutality, abortion, and same-sex marriage. A man who broke race barriers and set precedents throughout his life in politics; co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center and long-time chair of the NAACP; Julian Bond was a leader and a visionary who built bridges between the black civil rights movement and other freedom movements—especially for LGBTQ and women's rights. As we enter the third decade of the twenty-first century, there is no better time to return to Bond's works and words, many of them published here for the first time. "Endlessly grateful for this collection of work that shows the expansive nature of Julian Bond's ideas of black liberation, and how those ideas are woven into the fabric of both resistance and uplift. Race Man is the map of a journey that was not only struggle and not only triumph."— Hanif Abdurraqib, author of They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Essays " Race Man is the essential collection of Julian Bond's wisdom—and required reading for the organizers and leaders who follow in his footsteps today." —Marian Wright Edelman, President Emerita, Children's Defense Fund " Race Man is a staggering collection that offers a genealogy of Bond's freedom-oriented politics and soul work as captured in his written words. Race Man is a book that looks back and speaks forward. It is a timely example of what movement building can look like when servant leaders refuse to leave the most vulnerable out of their visions for Black freedom. We need that reminder, like never before, today." —Darnell L. Moore, author of No Ashes in the Coming of Age Black & Free in America " [An] essential volume that will appeal to a broad audience of readers interested in the civil rights movement and human rights overall . . ."— Library Journal , Starred Review "Bond's years as an activist also offer a guide through the intellectual and political history of the left in the second half of the 20th century . . . Bond's essays capture the intellectual world that inspired him and that he helped inspire in turn."— Robert Greene II, The Nation

Genres: History, Essays, Nonfiction, Race, Politics

304 pages, Paperback

First published February 11, 2020

About the author

Julian Bond was an American civil rights activist, politician and the Chairman of the NAACP 1998-2010.

Reviews

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decade or so ago, Julian Bond delivered the Key Note speech on Martin Luther King, Jr Day at Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. He stood at the lectern in Lee Chapel, a National Historic Landmark with a museum of Robert E. Lee memorabilia in the basement. Traveler is buried adjacent to the Chapel and Museum. If you haven't been to Lee Chapel, here's a photo of that lectern, which places each speaker immediately in front of a marble statue of Lee. https://my.wlu.edu/lee-chapel-and-mus...

[It is the highest honor W&L can bestow to have a presenter speak in Lee Chapel, e.g. from this lectern, and further it is an intimate setting for audience members and speakers alike. As an aside, I am an alum and glad to engage in DMs with anyone who wants to go deep on W&L, its history and its contemporary approach to creating and maintaining a culture on- campus that welcomes and includes a diverse student population, but this review isn't about that.]

I was at that speech. My husband and I both used 1 of our respective, limited vacation days to drive 4 hours each way, arrange for transportation to and from school and childcare for our kids, to hear Bond in person. We sat in the 4th or 5th row. As always, he was a masterful, no-holds-barred, principled communicator, using humor and facts to challenge audience members to take action, to confront the uncomfortable, to do better ... in purposeful, targeted ways, to drive results that mattered. And I'm certain that, as he stood there and -- in roughly the same time frame -- taught then-undergrads at the University of Virginia, 45 miles East, across the Shenandoah Mountains, over the course of a 4 - 5 year period, he was well aware of what his presence at that lectern meant, of the significance of the changes he'd both observed and been a key part of driving, during his lifetime, of the relevance he maintained for audiences interested in continuing the change we seek in the world.

I have been a keen fan of Julian Bond my whole life, but before I read Race Man, I couldn't have articulated why. I knew he was chairman of the NAACP during a rough (for the organization, which was a bit lost and had at least one major scandal) decade. But I didn't know he'd been the plaintiff in a key 1966 9-0 Supreme Court decision, holding that the Georgia House of Representatives had violated the First Amendment by refusing to seat Bond in its chamber due to its dislike of his publicly expressed opposition to the US' involvement in the VietNam War. I didn't know that he co-founded SNCC or that he dropped out of Morehouse in 1961 to serve -- at 21 -- as SNCC's communications director, a role he would hold until 1966, while organizing voter registration drives across the deep South and leading student protests against segregation in public facilities and other Jim Crow laws in Georgia. I didn't know that he'd co-founded the Southern Poverty Law Center. I didn't know that his parents were educators and that he attended a college prep boarding school in Bucks County (PA) for high school. He was a Talented Tenth denizen in the trenches with the children of sharecroppers (John Lewis et al).

I knew that, for as long as I can recall, any clip I saw or quote I read of Bond's made sense and he never hedged. He didn't hold his finger to the political winds before determining and speaking his views. He supported LGBTQ+ rights, for example, decades before his civil rights colleagues did. This well-edited book chronicles his op-eds, interviews, letters and essays on civil rights issues, presidents, public policy and political positions over 40 years of public speaking. The editor, Michael G. Long, includes brief introductions to every excerpt, for context. Sometimes they flag moments when Bond chooses to ignore an elephant in the room to make a point or when a personal ax continues to be ground years after his political contemporaries have moved on (Jimmy Carter, ahem). This isn't a collection that glosses over Bond's flaws or seeks to deify him. It's compelling reading if you're 100% bought in to the topic and to seeing the development of Bond's thinking and focus over the years, stronger perhaps in the first 75% than in the final 25% because ... the times. If you are less than 100% bought in, it's perhaps less compelling, but still I highly recommend it. You'll get a glimpse of history that is more personal and more meaningful than you can obtain from reading either biographies or civil rights history surveys. And that made it riveting for me.

Thanks to Edelweiss+ and City Lights Publishers for an e-copy.

[LaShana Claude · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bond articulated and modeled through his life of service, an idea of Black liberation that was expansive, principled, and pioneering. Race Man is a staggering collection that offers a genealogy of Bond's freedom oriented politics and soul work as captured in his written words... a book that looks back and speaks forward. It is a timely example of what movement building can look like when servant leaders refuse to leave the most vulnerable out of their look like when servant leaders refuse to leave the most vulnerable out of their visions for Black freedom. We need that reminder, like never before, today

Darnell L. Moore- author of No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black & Free in America