He grew up in the halls of The Lincoln University. He fought back against the social injustice of the ‘50s and ‘60s. He stepped up to lead a revolution of change. And his memory brought the next generation of influencers together last Thursday with arms linked and the song “We Shall Overcome” on their lips.

A gathering of community members at The Lincoln University honored the memory of civil rights hero Julian Bond as one of their own — a “son of Lincoln” as prominent poet CeLilliane Green said in a Daily Local News report by Chris Barber. Bond was the son of Lincoln’s first black president, Horace Mann Bond, and the one of the founders of the 1960s’ Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee—or SNCCC.

“The work of Julian Bond was rooted in love,” Green said.

And the example of Julian Bond calls today’s black community to strive for justice in the struggles of this day and age, said Dorothy Green, who grew up as a friend of Bond and is the wife of The Lincoln University President Richard Green.

“What now? What is your task?” she asked in the article. “… Be informed in your voting, participate in the political process, advocate for the continuation of free public education of black children, participate in the NAACP.”

Read more about the celebration of life convocation on what would have been Bond’s 76th birthday, as well as the poignant memories shared, in the Daily Local News here.