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Duration: 1953-2001 (Americans for South African Resistance (1952-1953)
Location: New York, New York, United States

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Newsletter: Bulletin: Americans for South African Resistance

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The American Committee on Africa (ACOA) was founded in 1953 to support the liberation struggle in Africa. It was a national organization supporting African struggles against colonialism and apartheid. ACOA grew out of the ad hoc Americans for South African Resistance (AFSAR) which was formed to support the Campaign of Defiance Against Unjust Laws led by the African National Congress (ANC). The co-chairmen of AFSAR were Rev. Donald Harrington of the Community Church of New York and Rev. Charles Y. Trigg of Salem Methodist Church in Harlem. In 1953, following the end of the Defiance Campaign, AFSAR met and decided to form ACOA, an organization supporting the whole anti-colonial struggle in Africa. Based in New York, NY, ACOA had a national focus and a broad range of constituencies including students, labor, civil rights, religious and community leaders and elected officials. In 1954 ACOA launched the magazine Africa Today, which in 1967 became independent under the control of Africa Today Associates (see separate entry) and is now published by Indiana University Press. In 1966 ACOA founded The Africa Fund, a 501(c)3 organization (see separate entry); the two organizations shared office space and staff but had separate boards and budgets. In 1967 ACOA established a Washington Office (Washington, DC). In 1972 the Washington Office was reorganized as an independent organization sponsored by five organizations including ACOA and renamed the Washington Office on Africa (see separate entry). ACOA's scope included anti-colonial struggles throughout the continent including Algeria, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Western Sahara, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. ACOA staff traveled extensively in Africa, attending all the All African People's Conferences, visiting newly independent countries and the Frontline States to meet with African leaders, attend conferences and visit refugee camps. ACOA published newsletters including Africa-UN Bulletin, ACOA Action News, Student Anti-Apartheid News, and the Public Investment and South Africa. ACOA played a key role in campaigns related to South Africa especially for sanctions and the divestment which resulted in churches, universities, states and cities selling their stock holdings in companies that did business in apartheid South Africa. ACOA supported some post-colonial struggles such as for democracy in Nigeria during the dictatorship of Sani Abacha and against slavery in Mauritania and Sudan. In 2001 ACOA, The Africa Fund and the Africa Policy Information Center (see separate entry) merged to form Africa Action based in Washington, DC. The New York office was closed in 2002. The Executive Directors of ACOA were George Shepard (1952-1953), George M. Houser (1955-1981), Jennifer Davis (1981-2000) and Salih Booker (2000-2001). For more information see No One Can Stop the Rain: Glimpses of Africa's Liberation Struggle by George M. Houser (New York: The Pilgrim Press, 1989) and "Meeting Africa's Challenge - The Story of ACOA" by George M. Houser, ISSUE: A Quarterly Journal of Africanist Opinion, Volume VI, Numbers 2/3 Summer /Fall 1976. Some material of ACOA has been microfilmed and is available in some libraries or purchase from UPA/Lexis/Nexis as Records of the American Committee on Africa, including: Part 1 (6 roles): ACOA Executive Committee minutes and National Office memoranda, 1952-1975; Part 2 (35 roles): Correspondence and subject files on South Africa, 1952-1985. This represents a limited amount of the ACOA material.

Organizational Archive

Title: American Committee on Africa and The Africa Fund
Time Span: 1953 - 2001 (may have some 1952 material)
Media: 94+ cubic feet plus 182 boxes; publications, correspondence, research files, pamphlets, periodicals, posters, photos, audio tapes, videos, etc.
Description: Papers, records, publications 1949-2001 of the American Committee on Africa (ACOA) and The Africa Fund. Includes the some material of Americans for South African Resistance (AFSAR). The collection includes the correspondence, project and research files of the American Committee on Africa (ACOA) and The Africa Fund. The collection includes publications, newsletters, photos, posters, videos and films published by ACOA/Africa Fund and other organizations. The collection includes papers, articles and correspondence of Adotei Akwei, Michael Fleshman, Jennifer Davis, James Farmer, Donald Harrington, Mary-Louise Hooper, George M. Houser, Paul Irish, Richard Knight, Dumisani S. Kumalo, Richard Lapchick, Conrad Lynn, Frank Montero, Prexy Nesbitt, Andrew E. Norman, Joshua Nessen, Wyatt Tee Walker, Peter Weiss and many others. It also includes correspondence with numerous African liberation movement leaders. The collection also includes material from many other U.S. and international solidarity and anti-colonial and anti-apartheid organizations. For more information on see "No One Can Stop the Rain: Glimpses of Africa's Liberation Struggle" by George M. Houser (New York: The Pilgrim Press, 1989) and "Meeting Africa's Challenge - The Story of ACOA" by George M. Houser, ISSUE: A Quarterly Journal of Africanist Opinion, Volume VI, Numbers 2/3 Summer /Fall 1976

Related Archive
Title: Randolph (Register of His Papers in the Library of Congress); A. Philip
Time Span: 1949-1969 (Africa material)
Media: 13,000 items; 56 containers plus 4 oversize; 23.8 linear feet
Description: A. Philip Randolph (1889-1979), was an African-American labor and civil right leader. He organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, most of whose members were African-America. He was a member of the Executive Committee of Americans for South African Resistance (AFSAR) which was founded in 1952 to support the Defiance Campaign Against Unjust Laws in South Africa. He was active in and served on the National Committee of the American Committee on Africa (ACOA), which grew out of AFSAR. The American Negro Leadership Conference on Africa (ANLCA) was formed in 1962 with Randolph and Martin Luther King, Jr., as cochairmen; ANLCA went out of business in 1968. In 1966 Randolph headed the Committee of Conscience Against Apartheid formed by ACOA and the University Christian Movement to protest loans to South Africa by Chase Manhattan Bank and First National City Bank. Subject files related to Africa include: American Committee on Africa, 1954-1969; American Negro Leadership Conference, 1962-1967; Americans for South African Resistance, 1952-1953; and Correspondence, 1949-1968, n.d.

Related Archive
Title: Hooper (papers); Mary-Louise
Time Span: mid-1950s? - late-1960s?
Description: Mary-Louise Hooper was an American, a Quaker and a graduate of Stanford University. In 1956 Mary-Louise Hooper went to South Africa on a group tour and met Chief Albert Luthuli (also spelled Lutuli) and other leaders of the African National Congress (ANC). She became deeply committed to the anti-apartheid cause and she immigrated to South Africa later that year and bought a home in Durban. She worked for two years as an assistant to Luthuli. She was arrested and given a deportation order in March 1957 with thirty days to clear up her affairs. The ANC gave Hooper a letter of commendation signed by Luthuli and Tambo. After being forced to leave South Africa, Hooper returned to the United States and worked at the American Committee on Africa (ACOA) both in its office in New York and but mostly as the organization's West Cost representative. She was a member of the ANC's delegation to the All Africa People's Conference in Accra in December 1958 - no members of the ANC based inside South Africa were able to attend, as the government refused to let them travel outside the country. She also attended the All-African Peoples Conferences held in Tunis (1960) and Cairo (1961). Her work at ACOA included raising money for political prisoners for the Africa Defense and Aid Fund, arranging public meetings for African leaders, public speaking, helping African students in the U.S. and other countries, organizing the Declaration of American Artists Against Apartheid statement "We Say 'No' to Apartheid" opposing cultural contacts, signed by 65 well known performers, and editing a newsletter, South African Bulletin (later renamed Southern Africa Bulletin). She co-coordinated the Committee of Conscience Against Apartheid, initiated by the ACOA and the University Christian Movement, which campaigned against the financial support to apartheid given by two of the largest New York banks - Chase Manhattan and First National City. She traveled in 24 African countries and was acquainted with numerous African leaders. Included in the archives are original letters from Moses Kotane in Dar-Es-Salaam, Oliver Tambo, Alfred Hutchison, Zeke Mphahlele, M.P. Naicker, and many from Albert Luthuli in Groutville. The archive also includes letters from Joshua Nkomo of Zimbabwe and Tom Mboya of Kenya. (Note: Additional archival material related to Mary-Louise Hooper is in the archives of the ACOA at the Amistad Research Center, Tulane University.) Donated by Mary-Louise Hooper's daughter Sue Cogley.