An Important  loss to the human race: Longtime civil rights leader Julian Bond has died.  The NAACP board member, 75, passed away after a brief illness. Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Bond’s family moved to Pennsylvania when he was five years old when his father, Horace Mann Bond, became the first African American President of Lincoln University (Pennsylvania), his alma mater. Bond attended Morehouse College in Atlanta and won a varsity letter for swimming. He also founded a literary magazine called The Pegasus and served as an intern at Time magazine. Bond was a founding member of the SNCC and served as communications director from 1961 to 1966. From 1960 to 1963, he led student protests against segregation in public facilities in Georgia. Bond graduated from Morehouse and helped found the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). He was the organization’s president from 1971 to 1979.

Bond was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1965. White members of the House refused to seat him because of his opposition to the Vietnam War. In 1966, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the House had denied Bond his freedom of speech and had to seat him.

From 1965 to 1975, he served in the Georgia House and served six terms in the Georgia Senate from 1975 to 1986.

In 1968, Bond led a challenge delegation from Georgia to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and was the first African-American nominated as Vice President of the United States. He withdrew his name from the ballot because he was too young to serve.

Bond ran for the United States House of Representatives, but lost to civil rights leader John Lewis. In the 1980s and ‘90s, Bond taught at several universities, including American, Drexel, Williams, the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard universities and the University of Virginia.

Bond continued with his activism as Chairman Emeritus of the NAACP, after serving 11 years as Chair, and working to educate the public about the history of the Civil Rights Movement and the struggles that African Americans endured.

An Important Gain In Mainstream Way Madeline Stuart, an 18-year-old Australian model who has Down syndrome will take to the catwalk during fashion week this fall in New York Fashion Week. She posted her participation in the upcoming event on her Instagram account on Sunday.

She’ll model clothes with FTL MODA in association with the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, according to Cosmopolitan. The company has previously featured models who were living with disabilities in past shows. Stuart has also recently begun work with handbag company EverMaya, which will launch a line of the accessories named after her. She  is not the first model with down syndrome to walk the-catwalk. That distinction belongs to  actress Jamie Brewer.

A Wake up Call to The Nation Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America has released the #NotAnAccident Index and interactive map, a first-of-its-kind tracking tool for unintentional shootings by children, and launched Be SMART, a new public education campaign that asks asking gun owners and non-gun owners alike to come together to reduce the number of unintentional shootings, suicides, and homicides that occur when firearms are not stored responsibly and children or teens get ahold of a gun.

The U.S. has one of the highest reported rates of unintentional child gun deaths in the world. But these tragedies aren’t accidents — they’re preventable. Learn more about how and where these shootings happen:

http://www.everytownresearch.org/notanaccident

A Reminder  To The Country The White House continues support of community policing.

n this week’s address, the President spoke about the work the Administration is doing to enhance trust between communities and law enforcement in the year since the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson.

In May, the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing released their final report setting out concrete proposals to build trust and enhance public safety. And across America, local leaders are working to put these ideas into action in their communities.

The President noted that while progress is being made, these issues go beyond policing, which is why the Administration is committed to achieving broader reforms to the criminal justice system and to making new investments in our children and their future.

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