Julian Bond, Doctor of Humane Letters
Beaten, jailed, denied the seat you won in the Georgia Assembly and a seat in the state’s delegation to the Democratic National Convention, you grew with uncommon dignity and grace into one of the most prominent members of the Civil Rights Movement. While still a student, you helped found the Committee on Appeal for Human Rights and the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee. You worked to integrate lunch counters and to register voters. When the U.S. Supreme Court deemed illegal your barring from the State Assembly, you served more than twenty years in that body and sponsored more than sixty bills that became law. You have brought to this struggle a wide range of talents, among them poetry, broadcasting (including narration of the powerful series “Eyes on the Prize”), and teaching (including here at Williams). Since 1998 you have led the NAACP, focusing on education, profiling, and the increased presence of people of color in popular media. All of those with newly won places at our country’s table, and all of us who benefit from that table’s ever widening, will remain forever in your debt.
I hereby declare you recipient of the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, entitled to all the rights, honors, and privileges appertaining thereto.
June 5, 2005