Compiled from his original lecture notes, Julian Bond's Time to Teach brings his teachings to a new generation of readers and provides a necessary toolkit for today's activists in the era of Black Lives Matter.
[Bond's] meticulously documented accounts provide day-by-day replays of monumental events, enlivened by contemporary media coverage, interviews, police reports, and even jail-cell chatter ... It’s easy to understand why these courses would have been popular. His lectures are accessible, comprehensive, and compelling, and Bond, who once hosted Saturday Night Live, and who appeared in a couple of commercial films, was a charismatic presence. This authoritative testimony is bound to become a staple of American civil rights literature.
This compilation of [Bond's] original lecture notes is filled with detail, insight, and synopsis. The graceful narrative lays out pointers for effective mobilization as it explains what happened and who made it happen at pivotal times in the 1950s and 1960s’ nationalization of the civil rights movement that transcended traditional legal approaches to take the battle from courtrooms to the streets. Included are photographs by Danny Lyon and an afterword by Vann R. Newkirk II ... Mixing reminiscence and analysis of the long struggle against white supremacy, Bond’s lessons provide general readers and scholars alike penetrating studies of ideals, motivations, compromises, suffering, and sacrifice that won Blacks’ release from the worst of racist Southern pathology. Essential reading.
... revelatory ... 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, his former teaching assistant, the pieces challenge the “master narrative” of the movement ... 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.
