To Julian Bond from Gene Guerrero, 25 January 1968, with Bond's draft response

[logo of outline of several southern and south eastern states] Inside Logo states: Southern Area Conference on Educational Reform

67 8th Street, N.W. Atlanta, Georgia 30309 January 25, 1968

Representative Julian Bond 162 Euharlee Street, S.W. Atlanta, Georgia 30314

Dear Julian,

I'm not sure that you will remember me by name. I went to Emory and worked for the Southern Student Organizing Committee. I now find myself working for the Southern Project of NSA.

I am writing to ask you to speak to a conference we are helping sponsor February 22-25. I believe Bill Shamblin from the University of Alabama talked to you about the conference when you spoke there. As you can see from the stationery the conference will deal primarly with the question of university reform. This will be done through small workshops ranging from student discounts to the university and foreign policy. We expect from three to five hundred students to attend.

One Saturday, February 24 we would like to have you and Charles Weltner address the conference on the question of "The Future of Southern Politics", which seems to me to mean pretty much whatever you want it to mean. The idea would be for both of you to speak for a while and then perhaps have questions and discussion from the floor. Other speakers who have accepted invitations are Dick Gregory, Strum Thurmond, Judge Frank Johnson from Alabama, and Charles Morgan from the ACLU.

I have been trying for a little over a week to reach you by phone but have had little luck in doing so. I wonder if you could call me and let me know whether you will be able to come. My office number is 875-2432, home 876-1361. If you can't reach me, Howard Romaine's, who directs the southern project, home phone is 872-6042.

I really hope you will be able to speak and I'm looking forward to seeing you again.

Yours for a New South

[signed]

Gene Guerrero, Jr.

[The following is the marginal content of the letterhead.]

Steering Committee

SONNY DERISO Emory University

JAMES MAYS Clark College

ALICE ZOLLICOFFER Agnes Scott College

DAVID KIEL U. of North Carolina

HOWARD ROMAINE Southern Project USNSA

GENE GUERRERO Southern Project USNSA

BILL SHAMBLIN U. of Alabama

▄

BOB FORRY Conference Coordinator Emery University Phone: 875-2432 Area code 404 Atlanta, Georgia

Dear Gene:

Yes, I do remember you very well from your SSOC days, and from your recent adventures with the draft.

I'm sorry but I can't make the 24th meeting; I have to be at Cornell University on that Friday and Saturday.

The fellow at the University of Alabama did speak to me about it, and I had it written down in my book with a "?" after it; then this deal at Cornell came up and I snappep^d it.

But please stay in touch with me and let me know what else I might do in the future.

Sincerely,