January 14

It took the Supreme Court to seat Julian Bond in the Georgia Legislature.

Born in Nashville in 1940, graduated from a Quaker school in Pennsylvania, he came to Atlanta to attend Morehouse College. Bond led nonviolent protests that helped integrate Atlanta lunch counters, theaters and parks. In 1960, he was one of the founders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and began organizing voter drives throughout the South.



In 1965, Bond was elected to the Georgia House. The lawmakers refused to seat him because of his outspoken opposition to the Vietnam War. His district re-elected him three times. The legislature banned him every time. In December 1966, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the ban unconstitutional and Bond took his seat. He served 20 years in the state legislature. In 1986 he ran unsuccessfully for Congress in a hard-fought contest against fellow civil rights veteran John Lewis.



The man who has been elected to office more times than any other black Georgian was born on January 14, 1940, Today in Georgia History.