Bond Reprimand Reagan, Attacks Justice Department

Georgia State Senator Julian Bond last night attacked the Reagan Administrator's civil rights record and called for a return to the protection of minority civil rights.

Bond reprimanded the government for "giving aid and comfort to those seeking to adverse civil rights movement of the last decade."

The civil rights activist also pointed out that the Justice Department had adhered to its responsibility to protect civil rights until the current administration took office. Since then, he added, the department has become "the biggest offender of civil rights, not the protector."

Bond cited its refused to obey the Constitution, its overturning of Supreme Court decisions the department didn't like, its desire to limit the rights available to all minorities, and its "diminishing of protection for minorities by distorting the law."

The senator focused on segregation in the public school system. Bond said Reagan's Justice Department has been trying to revive "separate but equal"--segregated--schooling.

He added that we must stand up and take notice, because "when the wrongdoer is the highest authority in the land, the situation is very grave indeed."

Bond cited a desegregation plan for the Chicago public school system in which schools which were 7 percent white were considered segregated even though 80 percent of the Chicago public school children are non white.

In a 40-minute question and answer session following Bond's Law School Forum speech, the senator fielded questions on subjects ranging from the Ku Klux Klan--whose immediate danger he dismissed--to unwed teenage pregnancies, which he addressed as a minority issue.

He suggested that to achieve higher minor-ky voter registration we should simply drag people in to register, and then to vote.

He attributed the recent success of Black politics to high voter registration and turnout of minorities and non-minorities up to 99 percent in some cases.

Asked whether there should be a Black presidential candidate, Bond said, "It's not about time."

He clarified by saying it should not be done just to see if it can be done. Frederick Douglas tried the same thing more than 100 years ago, he said, adding that the only real reason to do it would be to make whites aware of Black issues.