“Julian Bond lived this history with unflinching dignity and matchless grace. I miss him dearly. Our wounded country needs every lesson he teaches.”
- Taylor Branch, author of the trilogy America in the King Years
“There was no better teacher of the civil rights movement than Julian Bond. There is no better book for learning the civil rights movement than Julian Bond’s Time to Teach. Bond’s window into his movement will always be with us. His lessons for our movement will always be with us. An utterly invaluable resource.”
- Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award–winning author of Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
“Julian Bond’s Time to Teach is a must-read for anybody interested in the civil rights struggle. Every chapter radiates deep wisdom, fierce historical reality, and far-sighted philosophical insights. Heroism and shame abound. Bond brilliantly comes to grips with what freedom, social justice, and genuine racial equality are about in the American (and global) context. A stupendous book for the ages!”
- Douglas Brinkley, the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and Professor of History, Rice University, and author of Rosa Parks: A Life
“Julian Bond had a piercing moral clarity from a very young age, and it illuminated his teachings as an elder of the civil rights movement. The lessons in these lectures speak directly to the urgency of now, like an unsparing and prophetic admonishment to those who can or will not remember the past.”
- Diane McWhorter, author of the Pulitzer Prize - winning book Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution
“Julian Bond’s words continue to educate, inspire, and provoke. As we witness the emergence of new sensibilities regarding the complex ways racism has structured our institutions, Time to Teach reminds us of historical continuities, unfulfilled dreams, and collective hope for the future.”
- Angela Y. Davis, Distinguished Professor Emerita, History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz
"This revelatory collection of classroom lectures by UVA history professor and Georgia state senator Bond (1940–2015) shines a spotlight on lesser-known aspects of the civil rights movement. Expertly edited by Horowitz, Bond’s wife, and Brooklyn College political science professor Theoharis (A More Beautiful and Terrible History), his former teaching assistant, the pieces challenge the “master narrative” of the movement: “Rosa sat down, Martin stood up, then the white folks saw the light and saved the day.” Bond details how thousands of young, poor, and working-class protestors applied the pressure that led to school integration and the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act, among other milestones, and notes that liberal white politicians, including John and Robert Kennedy, resisted the movement in its earliest days. Bond also pays tribute to numerous grassroots leaders, many of them women; reveals affinities between the civil rights, Black Power, and antiapartheid movements; and details disagreements between SNCC, the NAACP, and other
civil rights organizations. Elegant photos by SNCC photographer Danny Lyon and an extensive bibliography compiled by Bond complement the eye-opening history. The result is a worthy contribution to the historical record and an inspirational guide for today’s social justice activists." Publishers Weekly