The Tennessee-born activist passed away at his vacation home in Florida on Saturday (15Aug15) after a brief illness.

Bond, a co-founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee organisation, was a key voice in the 1960s equal rights movement after taking part in the sit-in protests while he was a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.

He went on to enter politics and was one of eight black men to be elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1965, following the introduction of the Voting Rights Act, but officials refused to seat him, prompting Bond to successfully sue.

In 1968, he further hit headlines when he became the first African-American to be considered as the Democratic Party's nominee for the position of U.S. vice president, a proposal he declined.

Bond later moved into showbusiness, serving as host of U.S. comedy show Saturday Night Live's second season in 1977 and landing a small role in Richard Pryor movie Greased Lightning.

He also narrated civil rights movement documentary Eyes on the Prize, and presented the news program America's Black Forum from 1980 to 1997.

Paying tribute to Bond in a statement on Sunday (16Aug15), President Barack Obama writes: "Michelle and I have benefited from his example, his counsel, and his friendship - and we offer our prayers and sympathies to his wife, Pamela, and his children."