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Interviews with news makers and discussion of topics important to Southwest Michigan. Subscribe to the podcast through Apple itunes and Google. Segments of interview are heard in WestSouthwest Brief during Morning Edition and All Things Considered

WSW: Famed Julian Bond's Activism Extended to SW Michigan in His Final Years

Southern Poverty Law Center website

Longtime civil-rights champion Julian Bond who died Saturday from complications from vascular diseasespoke last year at Albion College, giving an interview to WMUK in advance of that lecture. Today we air a half-hour version of it on our WestSouthwest public affairs show.

The 75-year-old NAACP chairman emeritus had his hands in many high-profile organizations fighting for racial equality for African-Americans but in later years added activism on behalf of the LGBT community. In that January 2014 interview with WMUK's Earlene McMichael, Bond explained why he's an ardent supporter for same-sex marriage, noting that one of the lead organizers of the historic 1963 March on Washington D.C. was an openly gay man. Over the years, Bond had also become a strong advocate for environmental issues.

Julian Bond's activism dates back to his days as a Morehouse College student in Atlanta, and lasted right up through his death. As a college student, Julian Bond helped found the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee that was a co-sponsor on the '63 March on Washington where Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. Bond once had King as a college professor, and later became an associate of his.

WestSouthwest aired at 9:30 a.m. today (8/17), with a repeat broadcast at 3:30 p.m.

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