Julian Bond never gave up. His admirers, who were many, and his foes, who were fewer and fewer as the years passed, all could agree on his devotion to the fight for racial equality. Former Ambassador Andrew Young said Bond was a "lifetime struggler."

He lamented that the civil rights struggles of the 1960s never really ended. "We're happy that we've come so far but sorry that we haven't gone further," he said. "... We need to make our organization a lean, mean fighting machine."

The fight was still in him seven years later, when he addressed the NAACP's Leadership 500 youth summit at Sandestin, Florida. He noted the fight against terrorism overseas and for social justice in America. "Today," he said, "we realize we have not achieved either victory — not yet against tyranny abroad, not yet against racism here at home."

His yearning for victory had impelled him, as a college student, to help form the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, one of the key civil rights groups of the '60s. He was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1965 but fellow legislators refused to seat him. The dispute went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, and Bond won.

Bond served as a Georgia lawmaker until 1986. He co-founded the Southern Poverty Law Center. He led the NAACP for 10 years.

Throughout, his was a calm, cultured voice for equality; he showed in words and deeds that victories could be sought while working within the system, with persuasion and political dexterity, not with violence.

Julian Bond died Saturday in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. He will be remembered for his courage and dedication to social justice.

REPRINTED FROM NORTHWEST FLORIDA DAILY NEWS