Civil rights leader Julian Bond to speak at 21st Annual Martin Luther King Commemoration
Julian Bond, renowned leader and activist in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, will present the keynote address for the 21st Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration on Saturday, February 7, in the Modesto Junior College Performing Arts and Media Center Auditorium, 435 College Avenue in Modesto. Bond will speak on “The Road to Freedom: From Alabama to Obama.” Doors open at 6 p.m. and the program begins at 7p.m. The event is open to the public and admission is free.
The event will also feature the presentation of the 2015 MLK Legacy Award to Heather Sherburn, principal at Orville Wright Elementary School. She is being honored for advocating for her students and the families of the Airport District in Modesto, and for bringing the Peace Builders program to her school, which teaches students to live lives of civility even when faced with a turbulent community.
Prior to the commemoration, students are invited to meet Julian Bond and ask questions during an informal student discussion held at 4 p.m. on Feb. 7 at the King Kennedy Memorial Center, located at 601 S. Martin Luther King Drive in Modesto. The student discussion will be followed by a free public reception for Bond from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the King-Kennedy Memorial Center.
From his civil rights and anti-war activism in the 1960s to his support for gay rights in the new millennium, Bond has been on the cutting edge of social change. As an activist, he has faced jail for his convictions, most recently for protesting the Keystone Pipeline.
Co-founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1960, Bond helped organize voting drives and sit-ins. An elected member of the Georgia House of Representatives, he was denied his seat by legislators until the intervention of the United States Supreme Court. Co-chairman of an insurgent delegation to the 1968 Democratic Convention, he became the first African-American to be nominated for Vice President of the United States. He served as Chairman of the NAACP from 1998 to 2010, and was the first President of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Bond has taught at Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and American University, and is a professor emeritus in the History Department at the University of Virginia.
In order to host this free, public event, the organizers depend solely on generous donations of money or services from co-sponsors and donors. Sponsors to date include the City of Modesto Parks, Recreation and Neighborhoods Department; Modesto Junior College; Associated Students of Modesto Junior College (ASMJC); Modesto Peace/Life Center; CSU, Stanislaus; Rockwell, Kelly, & Duarte, LLP; College Avenue Congregational Church; Ed Fitzpatrick, Valley Lexus; Mocse Credit Union; Democratic Women’s Club of Stanislaus County; King-Kennedy Center; West Modesto King-Kennedy Neighborhood Collaborative; Project Uplift; The Kaiser Permanente Medical Group; DoubleTree by Hilton Modesto; Central Valley Democratic Club, and Modesto Irrigation District.
For additional information on sponsorship or the event contact Jim Costello at jcostello@igc.org
Modesto Junior College:
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