Bond, James M.
(born: September 5, 1863 - died: January 15, 1929)James M. Bond was born in Lawrenceburg, KY, enslaved the first two years of his life. When he was 16 years old, Bond walked to Berea College, where he was a student in the primary grades and continued studying there untill he he graduated in 1892. He was also a graduate of Oberlin College, where he earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree. He returned to Kentucky and led the fund-raising for Lincoln Institute, the school provided for African Americans after the segregation of Berea College. He was in charge of the YMCA work with the soldiers at Camp Taylor in Louisville, KY. Bond was also the first director of the Kentucky Commission on Interracial Cooperation, and in that position he spoke out against segregation.
James M. Bond was living in Louisville when he died in 1929. He was the brother of Henry Bond; they were the sons of Jane Arthur, an enslaved woman, and Reverend Preston Bond. James Bond was the husband of Jane A. Browne Bond; the father of J. Max Bond, Sr., Thomas Bond, and Horace Bond; and the grandfather of Julian Bond, civil rights leader and former Georgia senator and representative.
For more see The Bonds, by R. M. Williams; and the article and picture of James M. Bond and his three sons on p. 228 of The Crisis, vol. 27, issue 5 (March 1924) [available online at Google Book Search]. See James Bond by Sonia Apbasova '15, a Berea College Hutchins Library webpage.