Kennedy Speaks at Reception, Endorses Black Election Fund

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy '54 (D-Mass.) spoke last night before a reception at the Faculty Club to benefit the Southern Election Fund, whose chairman is Georgia State Representative Julian Bond.

Kennedy has been a strong supporter of the fund, which contributes financial and technical assistance to the campaigns of blacks for local or statewide offices in the South. He emphasized the importance of electing local black officials and said that the Southern Election Fund is continuing "the efforts of Martin Luther King Jr. and the cause of social justice in America."

The 33-year-old Bond, who was proposed as a vice-presidential nominee at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, organized the found four years ago with the intention of building black political power up from the lower levels. He said in his appeal for funds at the $25-per-person affair that the funds "can't take on the big state-wide candidates in the South because they are too strongly entrenched."

Bond said that since its inception the fund has contributed $150,000 to southern campaigns. He said before an audience of 60 that the fund is overcoming public ignorance of its cause.

Yancey Martin, the executive director of the fund and a former aide to Sen. George S. McGovern (D-S.D.) in his presidential campaign, said that the fund will concentrate on the fall elections in Georgia, South Carolina, and especially Alabama, where court-ordered reapportionment will aid the campaigns of black legislators.

Martin said the fund hopes to raise $400,000 this year to finance campaigns. He said it will be spending 30 to 40 per cent of its time and money in Alabama to "send George Wallace a message." Martin said he hopes to get 20 blacks elected to the Alabama House of Representatives, and five to the State Senate.

Among the other guests were Dr. Robert Ebert, dean of the Medical School; John Lewis, director of the Votes Education Project; Elma Lewis, director of the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts; and Paul Parks, director of the Boston Model Cities Administration.