This week on Voices From the Frontlines, I had a wonderful reunion with some Voices listeners, and as we celebrate the life and mourn the death of civil rights giant John Lewis, I choose to also celebrate the life and mourn the death of Julian bond, as the two of their lives were deeply intertwined. John Lewis died on July 17, 2020. Julian Bond died on August 15, 2015.

John Lewis, along with Julian, was a founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He was an influential member of Congress and the subject of many books and films—including the excellent just-produced John Lewis, Good Trouble. The film recounts the historic race for the U.S. Congress in 1986 in which John Lewis defeated Julian Bond.

Bond had won a seat in the Georgia state legislature in 1965% but the racist body refused to seat him because of his endorsement of SNCC’s statement opposing U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. The voters in his district reelected him in both a special election and a regular election in 1966, but the legislature barred him each time. Finally, in December 1966, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the exclusion unconstitutional, and Bond was sworn in on January 9, 1967. In the film, it brings back the historic race for Congress between two old friends and comrades, Bond and Lewis, and explains, painfully, some of the conflicts between them. Also, Lewis makes clear he rejected the teachings of Malcolm X, rejected Black nationalism, and also rejected the concept of Black Power put forth at the time by Stokely Carmichael and Willie Ricks at the time. It also makes it clear that Bond, who had been elected to the Georgia State Legislature, was favored by Black voters by a 60% to 40% margin over Lewis. But Lewis received 80% of the white vote and Bond only 20% that created Lewis’ margin of victory.

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