January 1965: Georgia House of Representatives refuses to seat Rep.-elect Julian Bond (D-Atlanta) due to his position against the Vietnam War. In Reconstruction Georgia, the legislature expelled all its black members. Both times, the federal government was forced to reinstall democracy in Georgia. Among his constituents: Martin Luther King Jr. The following excerpt on Bond’s case comes from The Way It Was in the South: The Black Experience in Georgia, by Donald L. Grant, edited by Jonathan Grant. Published by The University of Georgia Press. (All rights reserved). Much of the book was written and researched in a building named after Bond’s father, Horace Mann Bond, onetime president of Fort Valley State College (now University). The South Georgia legislator railing against “the infamous Mr. Bond” was Bobby…
