Longtime US civil rights activist Julian Bond dead at 75

August 16, 2015 18:53

Julian Bond, a US civil rights activist and longtime board chairman of the

NAACP, a group that fights discrimination against black people, has died at age 75.

Bond died last night in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, after a brief illness, the Southern Poverty Law Center said in a statement today.

The Nashville, Tennessee native was considered a symbol and icon of the 1960s US civil rights movement. As a Morehouse College student, Bond helped found the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and as its communications director, he was on the front lines of protests that led to the nation's landmark civil rights laws.

Bond later served as board chairman of the 500,000-member NAACP for 10 years but declined to run again in 2010. Bond also served in the Georgia state legislature and was a professor at American University and the University of Virginia.

The SPLC called Bond a "visionary" and "tireless champion" for civil and human rights.

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