*The family of Julian Bond will honor the wishes of the late civil rights leader with a burial at sea.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Bond’s body will be cremated and his ashes will be scattered in the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday. The burial will be part of a private ceremony at 2 p.m. Central Standard Time on Saturday (Aug. 22).
Bond, a Morehouse College student who rose to prominence with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s, died Saturday night (Aug. 15) in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., following a short illness. He was 75.
Bond’s wife, Pamela Sue Horowitz, revealed to The New York Times that her husband’s death was due to complications of vascular disease.
News of Bond’s death has resulted a tremendous outpouring of support from across the world for the longtime NAACP chair, according to his brother, James Bond.
“I’m very sad and it’s overwhelming. And it was so sudden,” James Bond told the Journal-Constitution, adding that Julian Bond did not want an elaborate burial.
“His wishes were to have his ashes thrown in the Gulf of Mexico,” he said. “We’re abiding by his wishes and we hope other people will understand that we are doing what he wanted us to do.”
Although the family is in discussion over holding a memorial celebration for Julian Bond in Washington in September, no details have been confirmed at this time.
The Journal-Constitution notes that a service in Atlanta could follow.
With the burial service being private, the family is asking the public to honor Bond by gathering at a body of water to scatter flower petals at the same time as Saturday’s ceremony.
“This gesture will mean a great deal to us as a family and also provide some comfort in knowing that you share our loss,” the family wrote in a collective email to supporters that were shared with the Journal-Constitution on Tuesday.
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