Horace Mann Bond (1904-1972) was an important figure in African American education during the 1930s and 1940s working to end segregation while still improving the education of African American students.

An imposing figure in a family that produced several important scholars and civil rights leaders, Horace Mann Bond had a career that exemplifies the dilemma of the black educator in the segregated South during the 1930s and 1940s: despising segregation and silently struggling to abolish it, while still helping to improve education for African Americans within its confines. Sociologist, college president, and philanthropic agent, Horace Mann Bond resolved this dilemma with intelligence and diplomacy. His work, and that of other educators like him, set into motion the historic forces that found expression in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

Background

Grandson of slaves, Bond was the child of an extraordinary couple. His mother was a...