Jean Carey Bond is an American writer and activist. A member of the

Harlem Writers Guild Harlem Writers Guild (HWG) is the oldest organization of African-American writers, originally established as the Harlem Writers Club in 1950 by John Oliver Killens, Rosa Guy, John Henrik Clarke, Willard Moore and Walter Christmas. The Harlem Writer ...

and

Black Arts Movement The Black Arts Movement (BAM) was an African American-led art movement that was active during the 1960s and 1970s. Through activism and art, BAM created new cultural institutions and conveyed a message of black pride. The movement expanded from ...

, she has written for both adult and child audiences. She wrote '' Brown is a Beautiful Color'', a children's book that explores a

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

child's discovery of how his own skin color is beautiful as he explores, discovering things around him that are the color brown. She was married to architect Max Bond from 1961 until his death in 2009.

Life and work

Jean Carey was born at Edgecombe Sanitarium in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan), ...

, New York City. An only child, her father was Richard Carey, one of Harlem's first heart surgeons, and she is the niece of

Benjamin J. Davis Jr. Benjamin Jefferson Davis Jr. (September 8, 1903 – August 22, 1964), was an African-American lawyer and communist who was elected in 1943 to the New York City Council, representing Harlem. He faced increasing opposition from outside Harlem a ...

As a child, she spent time in both Harlem and

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

, the latter where she attended the

Little Red School House The Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School, also referred to as LREI, is a school in Manhattan, New York City. It was founded by Elisabeth Irwin in 1921 as the Little Red School House and is one of the city's first progressive s ...

. Carey married

J. Max Bond Jr. J. Max Bond Jr. (1935 – February 18, 2009) was an American architect. He developed an interest in architecture based on experiences ranging from viewing a staircase at a dormitory at the Tuskegee Institute to views of North African construct ...

, a

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

trained architect who opened an architecture firm in Harlem. The couple met after Bond had relocated from France to New York in 1960. They married on October 7, 1961. In 1964, the couple moved to

Accra, Ghana Accra (; tw, Nkran; dag, Ankara; gaa, Ga or ''Gaga'') is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , ...

, inspired by Pan-Africanism and the socialist progressive political climate. Max Bond became the architect for

Kwame Nkrumah Kwame Nkrumah (born 21 September 190927 April 1972) was a Ghanaian politician, political theorist, and revolutionary. He was the first Prime Minister and President of Ghana, having led the Gold Coast to independence from Britain in 1957. An in ...

and Carey began contributing to ''

Freedomways ''Freedomways'' was the leading African-American theoretical, political and cultural journal of the 1960s–1980s. It began publishing in 1961 and ceased in 1985. The journal's founders were Louis E. Burnham, Louis Burnham, Edward Strong, W.E.B. ...

'' and '' African Review'' alongside Julian Mayfield. She became contributing editor, writing for ''Freedomways'' until it ceased publication in 1985. In 1969, she published '' Brown is a Beautiful Color''. In ''Freedomways'', her work explored racial discrimination, black power, civil rights, and feminism. She wrote the opening essay for the journal's issue about Lorraine Hansberry. Carey and Bond returned to New York in 1967. Carey had two children with Bond: Carey and Ruth. In 1996, Carey was part of a delegation of African Americans who visited

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

. Led by Manning Marable, the delegation participated in a series of conversations about Cuba and its relationship with African Americans. She became a founding member of the

Black Radical Congress The Black Radical Congress or BRC is an organization founded in 1998 in Chicago. It is a grassroots network of individuals and organizations of African descent focused on advocating for broad progressive social justice, racial equality and economi ...

in 1998. She serves on the advisory committee of the New York City Commission on Human Rights. She is a founding board member of Lee Chamberlin's Playwrights Inn Project alongside

Lenny Kravitz Leonard Albert Kravitz (born May 26, 1964) is an American singer-songwriter. His style incorporates elements of rock, blues, soul, R&B, funk, jazz, reggae, hard rock, psychedelic, pop and folk. Kravitz won the Grammy Award for Best Male Roc ...

Bibliography

*Bond, Jean Carey (1969). A is for Africa. Franklin Watts. *Bond, Jean Carey (1969). Brown is a Beautiful Color. Franklin Watts. . *Bambara, Toni Cade (editor) (1970). The Black Woman: An Anthology. Washington Square Press. . *''An Anthology and Civil Liberties: the National Newsletter of the ACLU 1992-1994''

References

External links

Roots of the Fight for Rights: Esther Jackson and Freedomways magazine
by Jean Carey Bond {{DEFAULTSORT:Bond, Jean Year of birth missing (living people) Living people African-American activists Black Arts Movement writers Little Red School House alumni 20th-century American writers 20th-century American women writers American women children's writers American children's writers Writers from New York City 20th-century African-American women 20th-century African-American writers 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women African-American women writers