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CORVALLIS - Julian Bond, who rose to national prominence during the 1968 Democratic Convention, will discuss the current status of the civil rights movement in America during a lecture on March 11 at Oregon State University.

Bond's free public lecture, "Civil Rights: Now and Then," will begin at 7 p.m. in OSU's LaSells Stewart Center, 26th Street and Western Boulevard in Corvallis.

He also will meet with college and local high school students during a reception from 8 to 9 a.m. in the Stewart Center on March 12. The reception will be followed by a student discussion with Bond from 9 to 10 a.m. moderated by Meghna Chakrabarti and Steven Fuller of OSU's University Honors College.

Co-chairman of the Georgia Loyal National Delegation to the Democratic Convention, Bond mesmerized the delegates and made history when he was nominated for Vice President of the U.S. - the first African American to be so honored by a major political party. He withdrew his name because he was too young to serve.

"Julian Bond electrified the country in 1968 when he was nominated for Vice President, and he has played a significant role in the civil rights movement ever since," said Joe Hendricks, director of OSU's Honors College, a co-sponsor of the lecture. "He offers a long-term perspective on civil rights that few people in America can match."

Bond's history of civil rights work spans four decades. In 1960, while a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, he founded the Committee on Appeal for Human Rights, a student-run civil rights organization that staged three years of non-violent, anti-segregation protests. Those protests were credited with helping integrate Atlanta movie theaters, lunch counters and parks.

Bond was arrested during a sit-in at an Atlanta City Hall cafeteria during a protest of its segregation.

His political career began in 1965 when he was elected to a one-year term in the Georgia House of Representatives. However, members of the House voted not to seat him because of his outspoken opposition to the Vietnam War.

He won a second election in 1966 - to fill his own vacant seat - and was again barred from membership. He won a third election in November of that year and, a month later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the Georgia House had violated Bond's rights in refusing to seat him.

In 1974, he was elected to the state senate, where he served until 1987.

In addition to his roles as a politician and an activist, Bond has been an educator, a journalist, an author and an actor. He is a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at American University in Washington, D.C., and a faculty member in the history department at the University of Virginia.

Bond's appearance is sponsored by OSU's University Honors College, Academic Affairs and Student Affairs.