Oh, no he didn’t.

Julian Bond has stooped to playing the race card for Hillary Clinton. On February 8th, Julian Bond wrote a letter to Howard Dean suggesting that not seating the delegates from Florida and Michigan “could remind voters of the sordid history of racially discriminatory primaries.”

From the Associated Press:

A prominent civil rights leader has told the Democratic National Committee that refusing to seat delegates from Florida and Michigan would disenfranchise both states’ minority communities.

In a Feb. 8 letter to DNC Chairman Howard Dean, NAACP chairman Julian Bond expressed “great concern at the prospect that million of voters in Michigan and Florida could ultimately have their votes completely discounted.” Refusing to seat the states’ delegations could remind voters of the “sordid history of racially discriminatory primaries,” he said.

The DNC penalized Michigan and Florida for moving their primaries to earlier dates in violation of party rules. Both states were stripped of their delegates, and the party’s presidential candidates signed a pledge not to campaign in either state. Florida lost 185 delegates; Michigan, 128.

Since then, facing the prospect of a drawn-out delegate battle with Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign has pushed hard for both states’ delegations to be seated. Clinton won Florida’s primary Jan. 29 and Michigan’s Jan. 15, but was the only candidate to appear on the Michigan ballot after the other candidates removed their names. NAACP Head Wants Barred Delegates Seated

It breaks my heart to see leaders of the Civil Rights movement like the heroic John Lewis and now Julian Bond turn away from Obama and a campaign that may yield the ultimate fulfillment of the hard work and deep sacrifice made during America’s Civil Rights movement. Obama’s success is a dynamic example of how the bloody fight for equal rights and equal opportunity was worth the pain.

Apparently, Barack Obama was deeply wounded by John Lewis’ rejection of his presidential bid.

He told John that he felt like a father was stabbing him in the back,” an aide to Obama said. “Barack sees himself as an extension of the civil rights movement, and so it hurt him deeply when a leader of that movement told him he wasn’t ready. For Obama, race is a balancing act, Ginger Thompson, International Herald Tribune

Hearing this from John Lewis who as a student, along with other students, changed the world as we know it; is surprising to me and smacks of something other than overprotective paternal concern. One writer refers to the increasingly sad and disconnected Civil Rights elders as a gerontocracy. That’s a stinging and accurate assessment of the situation.

That’s because, positioned as he is between the black boomers and the hip-hop generation, Obama is indebted, but not beholden, to the civil rights gerontocracy. A successful Obama candidacy would simultaneously represent a huge leap forward for black America and the death knell for the reign of the civil rights-era leadership — or at least the illusion of their influence.
…
Taken as a conglomerate, Jackson, Young, Sharpton and Georgia Rep. John Lewis represent a sort of civil rights old boy network — a black boy network — that has parlayed its dated activist credentials into cash and jobs. Jackson, a two-time presidential candidate, has become a CNN host; Young was mayor of Atlanta and sits on numerous corporate boards; and Lewis is essentially representative-for-life of the 5th Congressional District in Georgia. Sharpton is younger than the others but a peer in spirit.

To the extent that the term “leader” is applicable, these four men likely represent the interests of Democratic Party insiders more than those of the black community. Both Young and Lewis have endorsed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton; Sharpton and Jackson have acted ambivalent, alternately mouthing niceties about Obama and criticizing his stances on black issues. As Obama Rises, Old Guard Civil Rights Leaders Scowl, William Jelani Cobb, Washington Post

Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that because one fought for Civil Rights that he must then support Barack Obama. But, I would say that one might refrain from endorsing either candidate and at least acknowledge how the hard work of the Civil Rights era is visibly and inspirationally paying off.