IN EARLY JULY, shortly before the Democratic Convention, Simon and Schuster published Julian Bond's first books. A Time to Act, subtitled. "The Movement in Politics," and sponsored as coming out party for the book at the White House Motor Inn in Atlanta. Twenty or so invited guests had already settled into the cocktails and hot and old hors d'oeuvres by the time Bond arrived, walking in on cat-lithe feet and wearing a vested blue suit. Just back from a trip politicking for George McGovern and about to leave on another. Bond made a relaxed beeline for the bar, greeting a friend or two as he passed with a Cheshire smile and a handshake. At the bar, he snared his drink like a swimmer taking a racing-turn in slow-motion and continued to make the rounds of the room. As we shook hands, I noticed that four letters were written in felt tip black ink across the carmel palm of his right hand. The letters were "FMBC". I asked him what they stood for.

"For McGovern Before the Convention," he said, his puckish face spread in the confident Cheshire, smile, and coasted off to corral a comely. Afro-coiffed Chisholm delegate and convince her to become FMBC her foxy self.

As it happens, this particular foray proved unsuccessful. The girl, one of a slate of student delegates for Chisholm from Atlanta University, had gone so curly for Shirley that not even Julian's notorious preachin and healin persuasion could dissuade her, or so she warned him. Cheshire eyes eyed her flattered smile, as the young Chisholm delegate pledged she would be sticking with her girl all the way, making no deals until Shirley said make them. The people had elected her to represent their support of the first black and the first woman to be a serious candidate for President, and she was going to fulfill her appointed mission at the Convention. Nothing could change her mind: she was going to stick with the sister.

SUDDENLY, THERE was something sweet and fetching, like magnolias, in the air. Julian magic was on the prowl. His eyelashes purring above the gentle, precise line of his pawing humor as he preached the virtues of being FMBC. Bond's playful political evangelism spread its sticky web. An elegant, feline charisma was at work.

What about the second ballot, he asked. She might be available. The Cheshire cat came back into Bond's smile. But, only if Shirley gave the word, she said. Of course, Julian replied. They could talk about it later ... sometime when her husband wasn't around to give her moral support. Gliding back towards the bar for a refill. Bond walked away knowing she knew she had just been wooed by the best, and he accepted the compliment. However, he also knew that she was not going to vote for George McGovern, because, among other things there wasn't going to be a second ballot. At the Convention, she stuck with her girl all the way, keeping her foxy self on the Chisholm trail.

But, a lot of little foxes never made it to Grandma Shirley's or forsook Uncle Hubert, because they got ambushed by Julian magic. One minute, there was magnolias, and then, suddenly, they were FMBC and, while Frank Mankiewicz was putting them down on the plus side of his delegate list, Julian Bond was strolling off on gilded splinters to ju-ju another stray.

In fact, Julian magic played such a critical role in the nomination of George McGovern that McGovern probably would not be in the position to have even the slim chance he does of evicting Richard Nixon had he not had Julian out preachin and healin for him. Although in the final tabulation of delegate votes, a large number of black delegates cast their votes for Shirley Chisholm in a symbolic show of black solidarity and strength; when it counted, on the credentials votes on the South Carolina. California and Cook County delegations, and on the initial Presidential rollcalls, blacks backed McGovern in numbers. Without this strong black support, McGovern might well have been stopped, and, without Julian Bond. McGovern never would have gotten it.

ORIGINALLY, JULIAN BOND had not intended to support George McGovern or any of the white Democrats dueling for the honor of jousting Richard Nixon. In fact, in August of 1971, at the strategy meeting of the Southern Black Caucus in Mobile, Bond had been instrumental in the framing and passage of a resolution urging blacks to collect and conserve their political torque, withholding any commitment to a specific major contender until after the attrition of the primaries or even after the Convention.

Like many blacks. Bond was deeply discontented with the Democratic party after the '68 campaign. With nowhere else to go blacks--as they had since the New Deal--had religiously voted Democratic in '68, and had voted in such numbers that one out of every five votes Hubert Humphrey got was cast by a black. But, blacks had gotten little, if anything, back from the Democratic party in return. With the exception of Bond's nomination for the Vice-Presidency and the seating of the Mississippi Loyalists, blacks had failed to get at the Chicago Convention the kind of recognition and power to which they were entitled. Moreover, after the Humphrey Muskie ticket was nominated, black politicians became the neglected step-children of the campaign, getting only the last-pickings of campaign resources and positions, and having no say in major decision-making. Perhaps worst of all, blacks had ridden a loser in '68, in trying their political future of Plubert Humphrey. For the next four years the critical domestic power of the Presidency would be in the hands of Richard Nixon, a man who owed them nothing and know it.

But, as disconcerting as the prospect of four years at the mercy of Richard Nixon loomed to black politicians and black people in general on the bleal: noon of his inauguration, was the fact that they had no guarantee that had Humphrey been elected, they would now be anything more than at his tender mercies once he had taken the oath of office. Essentially, this was the realization that despite Humphrey's personal reputation as a champion of black causes and the similar, if less impressive, reputation of the national Democratic party, blacks had failed to elicit from either anything save the same vague promises of patronage and progressivism that they had always gotten from the Democrats, and, more importantly, had failed to enhance their political hand to the point that they could expect anything more in 1972.

POLITICS, JULIAN BOND says in A Time to Speak, A Time to Act, "is not the art of the possible: for black people, most things are impossible. It is not the art of compromise: for black people, the compromise is always so complete that nothing is left when we are through. No, for black people, this art means simply the process of seeing who gets how much of what from whom."

To look out for their interests. "Black people must begin now, in this 1972 election year and afterward, in this country's districts, towns, and cities, the tremendous task of welding together a strong black electorate that will be prepared to make independent decisions about who and what black people vote for and against in the months and years ahead."

To begin this process, it was necessary for blacks to develop a political strategy for 1972 that would give them both a greater degree of independence from the Democratic party and a greater degree of influence within it. In his chapter on "Black Faces in High Places." Bond writes:

Black voters are in the same position in the Democratic Party as the man who was told only two airlines could take him where he wanted to go. One of the two had by far the best safety record but the worst record for hiring black people. He had to decide whether he wanted to be a race man or a live man. That is why independence is important for us. It is not going to be possible for 11 per cent of the population, disorganized and scattered to form a third party in 1972. It is possible, however to hold ourselves along and independent from some of the hustle and bustle surrounding the mynad Democratic candidates in 1972 even from the one candidate who wins the Democratic Presidential nomination and then to extract important promises from that Democratic nominee. Or to run our own candidate, a black candidate for President in states where such a candidacy could affect the outcome.

In short, Bond's strategy for the 2 electrons was even as late as March of this year for black people to tactically withhold their support from the major Democratic contenders until the point when that support would have its most protest impact on "the process of seeing who gets how much of what from whom," while at the same time, laying the groundwork for later actions through grassroots organizing and the favorite son campaigns.