Sarasota News Leader

02/21/2014

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The Sarasota News Leader: The theme of your talk is the "unmet challenge" of civil rights. Where do we stand now? Julian Bond: We've made great progress, but it hasn't been sufficient. In some ways we've slipped backward. Requiring that people have photo IDs, they've cut early voting — those sorts of things. There's just a litany of attempts to make it more and more difficult to vote. SNL: Do you believe Attorney General Eric Holder will be successful in challenging some of those voting restrictions? Or will popular action be necessary? JB: You can never say, "We can only try one thing." You have to try everything. These ought to be unnecessary. There should not be any shortening of the ability of Americans to vote — it ought to be expanding. SNL: How does the situation compare to the early days of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee? JB: It's peculiar because it's both different and the same. In past times, black people were kept from voting by terror and intimidation. Today, there are these voting restrictions. All these things are attempts to make sure that certain people don't cast votes. That's so horrific because votes are the key to our democracy. SNL: You've become very outspoken in your support for same-sex marriage. How did you become involved in that issue? JB: By just chance, I knew many people who were gay who worked with me in the civil rights movement, and when they began to say, "We are facing these restrictions," it seemed The Sarasota County Democratic Party will host a Grand Tribute Reception for Julian Bond on Feb. 23. Image from the party's website. Sarasota News Leader February 21, 2014 Page 40

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