Julian Bond, chairman of the Board of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, kicked off his Wednesday night lecture in Crowell Concert Hall by re-enacting a snappy comeback he delivered to Dr. Martin Luther King during a personal conversation. Bond came to campus to discuss the past and present state of African Americans as part of the University’s Center for African American Studies 15th Annual Distinguished Lecture.

While still a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, Bond asked King how his day was going. The reverend replied that with poverty, racism, and war in America, he was having a nightmare.

“No, Doc, turn that around,” Bond responded.

Although Bond began his lecture on a light note, he quickly grew more serious while citing other moments in history relevant to the current situation of African Americans.

“Those that say race is history are wrong,” Bond said. “History is race.”

Everything in the history of America can be related to issues of race, he stated. Everything from slavery to suffrage, from Jim Crow to affirmative action, from the Ku Klux Klan to Hurricane Katrina, has significance in a larger narrative about racial relations.

He cited Hurricane Katrina in particular as an example of the continuing prevalence of class and racial divides in the United States.

“Although New Orleans is unique in terms of its music and food, it is the same as the rest of the country [in terms of class divisions],” Bond said.

He emphasized that both African Americans and whites should heed the lessons of Katrina and reexamine racial issues in America, particularly the ways in which race and class are intertwined.

Although one quarter of African Americans nationwide live in poverty, Bond said, race trumps class because many whites today believe that black behavior causes poor conditions for African Americans.

“90 percent of blacks in the country still think that there are segregation issues in the U.S., but only 38 percent of whites do,” Bond said.

Bond also addressed the issue of affirmative action. He proposed that affirmative action has been voted down recently because it has been succeeding, increasing the number of middle class African Americans.

“Without affirmative action, there will be a huge depressive effect on African American income and chances for success,” Bond said.

Attendee Allison Zimmer ’10 agreed with Bond’s political beliefs.

“We can’t just pass an

amendment intended to fix the problem, when there has been inequality for hundreds of years,” Zimmer said.

Bond returned to the civil rights movement, telling his audience that passionate participation is partly why the 1964 Civil Rights Act was the American democracy’s finest hour.

“Martin Luther King did not march alone,” he said. “Thousands marched with him and before him.”

“I appreciated most that he reminded us of all the committed people behind Dr. King who may forever go unnamed, that it was indeed a civil rights ‘movement,’” said Calvin Moore, visiting assistant professor of Sociology and African American Studies. “Without them, King would have walked alone and delivered his speech on the Washington Mall to no one.”

Bond’s eloquence often led the audience to erupt into spontaneous applause, right up to his closing statement.

“I was inspired by Bond’s lecture and felt that I was in the presence of a great man,” Moore said.