NAACP Chairman Julian Bond

ATLANTA (CNN) -- The recent dragging death of a black man in Texas is proof that race is still a "life and death issue" for African-Americans in the United States, the new NAACP chairman said Sunday.

Julian Bond said on CNN's Late Edition that the death of James Byrd Jr. is a "sad reminder that, regardless of the wishful thinking of many, many people, race is still very much with us and in some instances can be a fatal consideration, as it was for James Byrd."

Bond also said during the NAACP's annual convention in Atlanta that he agreed with Camille Cosby's assessment that African-Americans are at risk simply because of the color of their skin.

Bond said the murder of Ennis Cosby, a young man with educational and economic accomplishments, "is a sad reminder that those people who say there's a class of black Americans who don't need civil rights laws or affirmative action just isn't true -- that this young man was singled out because he was black."

NAACP members march in Centennial Olympic Park

Camille Cosby, the wife of entertainer Bill Cosby, wrote an essay in USA Today last week in which she said the killer of her son Ennis was taught by America to hate African-Americans. She was referring to Michael Markhasev, a Ukrainian immigrant who was convicted last week of murdering Ennis Cosby.

"Race is a life and death issue for African-Americans in this country," Bond said. "And the sooner, I think, our nation comes to grips with that and then tries do something about it, the better off all of us will be. Now, that's not to say that we haven't made some progress. We have. But there is obviously much more to do."

Bond said he gives President Clinton "good grades" on his initiative on racial issues, but Bond says there must be action after talks are through.

"We very much like the idea of dialogue. We think part of the problem that is Americans don't talk across lines of race or ethnicity," he said. "And so we are anxiously waiting to see what follows the end of the talk, what proposals are going to be made, not just for governmental action but also for action we private citizens can take."

The NAACP also held a march Sunday morning to support the growing number of African Americans with AIDS.

"If this sort of disease was affecting any other particular community at this rate, there would be a national cry and outrage, coming from the Congress, from the White House, from statehouses, from all over," said NAACP president Kweisi Mfume.

The NAACP is the nation's oldest civil rights organization. Mfume said the group would focus on discrimination against black farmers by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the disproportionate number of blacks stopped by police while driving and political efforts to end affirmative action programs.

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