The Aspen Wye Fellows will host Civil Rights pioneer Julian Bond for a dialogue at the Aspen Institute’s River House in Queenstown on Thursday, October 24, from 5 – 7 p.m. The famed Social Activist, Politician, Professor and Writer will address “The Struggle for Equal Civil Rights for all Americans”.
Julian Bond served eleven terms as Chairman of the NAACP National Board from 1998 to 2010. He has been an activist in the civil rights, economic justice and peace movements since his college years. He helped form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Atlanta University student civil rights organization, which directed several years of nonviolent protests and won integration of Atlanta’s movie theatres, lunch counters and parks. Professor Bond served 20 years in the Georgia House of Representatives and Georgia Senate, drafting more than 60 bills that became law. He was president of the Atlanta branch of the NAACP for eleven years, and was the first president of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Bond has taught at Drexel University, Harvard University and the University of Virginia, and is now a Distinguished Professor in Residence at American University in Washington, D.C. He appears frequently as a television commentator, and was the author of the nationally syndicated newspaper column “Viewpoint”
Time magazine named Julian Bond one of America’s top 200 leaders. He is a recipient of the Civil Liberties Bill of Rights Awards of Massachusetts and Georgia, the NAACP’s Springarm Medal, and the National Freedom Award, and holds 25 honorary degrees from many leading colleges and universities.
The Aspen Wye Fellows was founded in 2006 as a support organization to connect the Aspen Institute’s 1,100 acre Wye River campus in Queenstown with residents of the Eastern Shore interested in meaningful dialogue with world leaders. It has hosted speakers including Queen Noor of Jordan; Secretary of State Madeline Albright; Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld; Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff; the Ambassadors to the United States of Afghanistan, Mexico and Egypt; America’s Ambassadors to Nepal, Morocco and Romania; authors Ishmael Beah, Walter Isaacson, Steve and Cokie Roberts, Khalid Hosseini and Sally Bedell Smith; and many others.
Philip J. Webster of St. Michaels, Founding Member and Chairman of the Aspen Wye Fellows, said “we have had many outstanding speakers in the last seven years. Professor Bond will be among the best, discussing the struggle for equality for all Americans regardless of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or economic circumstance. Julian Bond joins a Fall lineup that also includes Michael Morell, Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency; Molly Williamson, a Career Minister of the Foreign Service who also served in important sub-Cabinet posts at the Departments of State, Energy, Defense and Commerce; and Howard G. Buffett and Howard W. Buffett, philanthropists and son and grandson of Warren Buffett.”
The Aspen Institute is an international nonprofit organization that fosters enlightened leadership, the appreciation of timeless ideas and values, and open-minded dialogue on contemporary issues. Founded in 1950, the Institute and its international partners seek to promote the pursuit of common ground and deeper understanding in a non-partisan and non-ideological setting through seminars, policy programs, conferences and leadership development initiatives. The Institute is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and has campuses in Queenstown, Maryland and Aspen, Colorado. Its international partners include partner Aspen Institutes in Berlin, Paris, Bucharest, Prague, Rome, Madrid, Tokyo and New Delhi.
Individuals interested in possibly joining the Aspen Wye Fellows, and in attending the Dialogue with Julian Bond as the Aspen Institute’s guest, should contact [email protected]. Seating for the October 24 event is limited.
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