WASHINGTON (AFP) -
Julian Bond, a US civil rights activist and the former board chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), has died. He was 75.
Bond died late Saturday in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, the Southern Poverty Law Center said in a statement on Sunday.
"The country has lost one of its most passionate and eloquent voices for the cause of justice," said the center, where Bond served as president from 1971 to 1979.
"He advocated not just for African Americans, but for every group, indeed every person subject to oppression and discrimination."
Originally from Tennessee, Bond was at the forefront of America's civil rights movement in the 1960s, which demanded equal rights for African Americans.
He was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1965 and went on to serve for two decades in the Georgia legislature.
Bond became NAACP chairman in 1998 and served for 10 years.
He is survived by his wife, Pamela Horowitz, a former attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center, and five children.