The U.S. Anti-Apartheid Movement: a History

Derek Knowles

The U.S. Anti-Apartheid Movement: A History

I.  Introduction

  1. The U.S. Anti-Apartheid Movement was nearly a half-century long process. With humble origins in the evolution of organizations and groups with middling influence in the 1950s and 60s, the American Anti-Apartheid movement was able, with some considerable outside influence, to build upon initially modest grassroots efforts to ultimately force the hand of the U.S. federal government in the form of the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986. This was a movement that would see the participation of a wide variety of organizations spread amongst a wide variety of demographics. Some would enjoy significant success and longevity, while others would flame out rather unceremoniously, having contributed little in the way of discernable influence. Some would explicitly target apartheid, while others, more overtly geared towards African freedom movements as a whole, only did so indirectly. This was a movement that really, until the late 1970s, did not have a unified face, but was instead a conglomeration of groups with different backgrounds and, to a degree, different aims. Spanning five decades, anti-apartheid efforts in the United States would witness participation at the church, university, independent, and political levels. Boycotts, protests, and various other forms of civil disobedience would be utilized in the promotion of mobilizing anti-apartheid awareness or economic sanctions. But such efforts were also dependent on the occurrence of notable, widely-disseminated events in South Africa, which helped turn the tide of public opinion, both internationally and domestically, against apartheid and in favor of U.S.-sponsored sanctions. It would be difficult to directly attribute the passage of the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986 to the combined efforts of the myriad of anti-apartheid groups and organizations that arose after the implementation of apartheid in 1948. Yet, a romanticized, though not unrealistic, view of the U.S. Anti-Apartheid Movement, and in particular the Free South Africa Movement which surfaced to massive media attention in 1984, sees it as an exercise in true democracy and civil disobedience in the most traditional sense. Thus, this overview will attempt to first provide a basic history of the movement, tracing two strands up until 1984 and the creation of the Free South Africa Movement: 1) U.S. foreign policy towards apartheid South Africa, and 2) domestic anti-apartheid campaigns. Finally, it will attempt to situate the movement in the context of non-violent resistance and civil disobedience.

II.  U.S. Political Landscape/American Foreign Policy toward Apartheid South Africa up to 1984

a.  Overview

  1. This section will examine the U.S. government’s foreign policy stance towards South Africa in the aftermath of World War II and the implementation of apartheid in 1948. As such, it will seek to ascertain to what extent Cold War ideology and the desire to preserve American economic interests dictated U.S. foreign policy towards South Africa in the lead-up to the Free South Africa Movement in 1984 and the eventual passage of the U.S. Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986. Such a background will provide the necessary political context to the following section on the various grassroots anti-apartheid groups, organizations, and movements that sprang up in the United States around this time.

b.  Truman/Eisenhower Years (1945-1960)

  1. “The overall thrust of US policy in Africa in the 1950s was the same as the administration’s (Eisenhower) policy toward civil rights at home; to avoid it as much as possible”; “The incentives for criticizing apartheid, however, were easily outweighed by rapidly growing US economic interests in South Africa and by the strategic interests in the country’s mineral wealth, particularly uranium.”

Minter, William, and Sylvia Hill. The Road to Democracy in South Africa.

2nd ed. Vol. III. Unisa, South. Africa: Unisa, 2008. 749. Link

  1. Increased US investment in South Africa over this period, both economically, with the growing development of American businesses, and politically, with South Africa’s possession of uranium.

Borstelmann, Thomas. Apartheid's Reluctant Uncle: the United States and Southern Africa in the Early Cold War. New York: Oxford UP, 1993. Link

c.  Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon Years (1961-1974)

  1. Verbal condemnation from US officials becomes more common, but de facto collaboration with SA remained. This included uranium purchases and aid for Pretoria’s nuclear program, as well as at least $150 million being made available in loan capital.

Thomas, A. M. The American Predicament: Apartheid and United States Foreign Policy. Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 1997.

ii.  1963: Voluntary arms embargo represents the strongest anti-apartheid legislation during this era, though this was more symbolic than effective.

Thomas, A. M. The American Predicament: Apartheid and United States Foreign Policy. Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 1997.

  1. Nixon: “Open Communication”
  2. Obfuscation and secrecy, not an open embrace of Pretoria, was the practice of the Nixon administration, which faced mounting public opinion against apartheid. South Africa was condemned publicly, but the U.S., if anything, strengthened economic and political ties with the government during this period. This policy, termed “open engagement,” would prove to be a significant precursor to the Reagan administration’s policy of constructive engagement some ten years later. Open engagement, like constructive engagement, sought to pursue a policy of cooperation with the existing South African government, with the explicit, outward idea that apartheid reform could be brought about internally. However, the underlying implication of both this and the Reagan era policy was that the United States was not willing to support a rogue regime like the ANC, who in their mind, was linked to communist groups, and whose victory in South Africa would have a greater potential to leave the region open to external, Soviet influence, something the United States was absolutely unwilling to have happen.

Davies, J.E. Constructive Engagement?: Chester Crocker & American Policy in South Africa, Namibia & Angola 1981-8. Oxford: James Currey, 2007. Link

d.  Ford/Carter Years (1974-1980)

  1. The Cold War continued to be a dominant framework for deciding US priorities in South Africa. Under Ford and Nixon’s Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the policy of open engagement essentially remained.

Davies, J.E. Constructive Engagement?: Chester Crocker & American Policy in South Africa, Namibia & Angola 1981-8. Oxford: James Currey, 2007. Link

  1. 1974: U.S. vetoes (along with France and Britain) a 1974 UN Security Council resolution calling for the expulsion of South Africa from the world body. One month later, the US casts the lone negative vote in a Security Council request to meet on the South Africa race question and take mandatory action to halt all arms supplies to Pretoria. Concurrently, the U.S. lends military support to aid the South African military in its intervention into Angola, where Cuban forces were stationed.

Irogbe, Kema. The Roots of United States Foreign Policy Toward Apartheid South Africa, 1969-1985. New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 1997. 87.

  1. Carter: “African regional perspective”
  2. Carter came into power committed to offering a new orientation towards South Africa in line with his administration’s new and revised stance on American foreign policy that aimed to conform to high-minded ideals and principles. This idea stemmed from the belief that U.S. intervention in areas on moral, rather than overtly political or economic, grounds would benefit the American reputation abroad, which would eventually provide the U.S. with leverage in the political and financial arenas in the long term. Such a policy was termed “regionalist,” and while it gave high priority to checking communism, it sought to reconcile U.S. economic and military support with human rights interests. However, this was perhaps just a fig-leaf for more nefarious U.S. interest-preservation, as “the pursuit of American idealism wrapped in human rights doctrine by President Carter cannot be seen as an abstract philosophical preference but as an ideological weapon in a very real conflict in which the United States acted to protect its material benefits.”

Irogbe, Kema. The Roots of United States Foreign Policy Toward Apartheid South Africa, 1969-1985. New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 1997. 84.

Davies, J.E. Constructive Engagement?: Chester Crocker & American Policy in South Africa, Namibia & Angola 1981-8. Oxford: James Currey, 2007. Link

e.  Reagan (1980-1984)

  1. Under Reagan, U.S. foreign policy saw a marked increase in anti-communist directives as a matter of general policy, but especially with regards to South Africa.
  1. Reagan: “The African problem is a Russian weapon aimed at the U.S. The Soviet Union underlies all the unrest that is going on. If they weren’t engaged in this game of dominoes there wouldn’t be any hotspots in the world”

Lawrence, Robert. “Reagan’s Africa Arsenal.” Southern Africa

(November/December 1980): 19.

  1. By 1980 ($4.2 billion), the U.S. was the top trading partner of South Africa for the third year in a row.

Irogbe, Kema. The Roots of United States Foreign Policy Toward Apartheid South Africa, 1969-1985. New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 1997. 92-93.

  1. Constructive Engagement
  2. The brainchild of Chester Crocker, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, constructive engagement was a multifaceted piece of foreign policy that included both explicit and implicit aims. Overtly intended to protect the region of southern Africa from communist infiltration, constructive engagement sought “to expand the United States role in Southern Africa in order to protect its legitimate strategic, political, and economic interests and thereby diminish Soviet power in the region.”

Irogbe, Kema. The Roots of United States Foreign Policy Toward Apartheid South Africa, 1969-1985. New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 1997. 93.

  1. However, there was a much more implicit implication of constructive engagement, which included the promotion and preservation of American business interests in the region. For example, the Reagan administration eased Export-Import Bank loan restrictions for US corporations in South Africa, facilitated a $1 billion loan to South Africa, relaxed trade restrictions on U.S. export sales to the South African military and police, and did not apply pressure on South Africa to cease its attacks on neighboring countries. The Reagan administration was publicly opposed to the policy of apartheid, but championed the claim that withdrawing U.S. support economically would only hurt the very people they were intending to help. Reform, they claimed, could only come about internally or else the country and region would be lost to Soviet influence.

Davies, J.E. Constructive Engagement?: Chester Crocker & American Policy in South Africa, Namibia & Angola 1981-8. Oxford: James Currey, 2007. Link

III.  U.S. Anti-Apartheid Campaigns up to 1984

a.  Introduction

  1. The history of the U.S. Anti-Apartheid movement is slightly complex in that it spans several decades and was comprised of a sweeping array of different groups and organizations with differing amounts of influence, longevity, and methods. As it would be impossible in this forum to mention all of these groups, ones of particular influence and noteworthiness will be highlighted in a mainly chronological fashion. On the whole, most of these groups, especially in later years of this movement, sought to target the economic sector in an attempt to cripple the South African government and bring about the end of apartheid. However, such groups used widely different approaches, some electing to affect change on a national political level, while others were aimed more at the local or state level.

b.  Early Years (pre-1960)

  1. These groups centered around close collaboration with South African liberation movements and were less concerned with efforts to lobby Washington. Advances against apartheid during this time were not very concrete, but would later prove instrumental in establishing a foundation for the later, greater American anti-apartheid movement to draw upon.

Minter, William, and Sylvia Hill. The Road to Democracy in South Africa. 2nd ed. Vol. III. Unisa, South. Africa: Unisa, 2008. 753-58. Link

  1. July 1952: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) passes a resolution that condemns World Bank loans to South Africa. Additionally, it calls on the U.S. to take a more active role against colonialism.

Minter, William, Gail Hovey and Charles Cobb, Jr., ed. 2008. No Easy Victories: African Liberation and American Activists over half a Century, 1950-2000. Trenton, NJ: Solidarity Research and Writing LLC. 15-16.

  1. The American Committee on Africa (ACOA)
  2. 1953: ACOA is founded by George Houser. Its aim is to support African liberation movements, with special attention to South Africa.

Minter, William, and Sylvia Hill. The Road to Democracy in South Africa. 2nd ed. Vol. III. Unisa, South. Africa: Unisa, 2008. 757. Link

  1. 1957: Declaration of Conscience Against Apartheid
  2. Signed by 133 world leaders

Minter, William, and Sylvia Hill. The Road to Democracy in South Africa. 2nd ed. Vol. III. Unisa, South. Africa: Unisa, 2008. 757. Link

  1. South Africans in America
  2. Prominent South Africans, such as Z.K. Matthews, A.B. Xuma (ANC President), and Albert Luthuli (ANC President) all made trips to the United States which would prove to be instrumental in establishing connections between anti-apartheid groups in America and those fighting apartheid in South Africa.

Minter, William, and Sylvia Hill. The Road to Democracy in South Africa. 2nd ed. Vol. III. Unisa, South. Africa: Unisa, 2008. 757. Link

c.  Major Events

  1. This next period in the U.S. anti-apartheid movement would be dictated in large part by the occurrence of major, influential events. Massacres like Sharpeville or Soweto in South Africa, occurring against the backdrop of the American Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War, would help catalyze the efforts of a steadily growing network of U.S. anti-apartheid groups that would attempt to leverage domestic and international public opinion in their favor.
  1. Sanctions, Early Stages
  2. ACOA calls for boycott of South African goods following Sharpeville, where South African police opened fire on a group of Africans protesting the pass law system.

Minter, William, and Sylvia Hill. The Road to Democracy in South Africa. 2nd ed. Vol. III. Unisa, South. Africa: Unisa, 2008. 766-67. Link

2.  1962: The American Negro Leadership Conference on Africa (ANLCA) is founded. This occurs after the ACOA calls for civil rights leaders to establish an Africa sector in their respective organizations. Other leaders include Martin Luther King, Jr.of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, A. Philip Randolph of the Brotherhood of the Sleeping Car Porters, and James Farmer of the Congress of Racial Equality.

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