The 49th Sit-In Anniversary Celebration will have the Honorable Julian Bond as its keynote speaker, Friday, Jan. 30, 2009. The program is held annually at Williams Cafeteria on the campus of North Carolina A&T State University. Breakfast begins at 6 a.m. and the program begins at 7:15 a.m. The theme for the event is "Reclaiming Our Heritage: Redefining Our Legacy." The breakfast is free and open to the public.

The annual event pays tribute to the four A&T freshmen - Ezell Blair (now Jibreel Khazan), Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil and the late David Richmond - who sat down in protest on Feb. 1, 1960 at the segregated F.W. Woolworth store in downtown Greensboro. This single act of courage and the chain of protests that would follow led to significant changes in existing laws that barred African Americans from received equally treatment in this country. The A&T Four/Greensboro Four and members of the Richmond family will be in attendance at this event.

Bond has been an active participant in the movements for civil rights, economic justice from his student days to his current Chairmanship of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). As an activist who has faced jail for his convictions, as a veteran of more than 20 years service in the Georgia General Assembly, as a university professor, and as a writer, he has been on the cutting edge of social change since 1960. While a student at Morehouse College over 40 years ago, he founded the Atlanta student sit-in and anti-segregation organization, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

Bond serves as Chairman of the Premier Auto Group PAG (Volvo, Land Rover, Aston-Martin, Jaguar) Diversity Council and is on the Boards of the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Council for a Livable World, and the advisory board of the Harvard Business School Initiative on Social Enterprise, among many others. Bond has served as commentator on America's Black Forum, the oldest black-owned show in television syndication and his poetry and articles have appeared in numerous publications. He has narrated numerous documentaries, including the Academy Award-winning A Time for Justice and the prize-winning and critically acclaimed series Eyes On The Prize. He has been a commentator on the Today Show and was the author of a nationally syndicated newspaper column called "Viewpoint." He has published A Time To Speak, A Time To Act, a collection of his essays as well as Black Candidates Southern Campaign Experiences.

Serving since 1998 as Chairman of the Board of the NAACP, the oldest and largest civil rights organization in the United States, Bond continues with his activism, working to educate the public about the history of the Civil Rights movement and the struggles that African Americans and the poor still endure.

Throughout his career, Bond has taught at several universities, including Williams, the University of Pennsylvania, American, Drexel, Harvard and the University of Virginia. The holder of 23 honorary degrees, he is a Distinguished Professor at American University in Washington, D.C., and serves as Professor of history at the University of Virginia.

During the breakfast, the university’s Human Rights Medal will be awarded to an individual who has endeavored to correct social injustice and has significantly contributed to the betterment of the world.