St. Louis Coalition Against Apartheid Physical Archives

Description: Papers, records, publications 1949-2001 of the American Committee on Africa (ACOA). 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). The collection includes publications, newsletters, photos, posters, videos and films published by ACOA 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. In May 2013 a finding aid American Committee on Africa records addendum, 1949-2001 was added. 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. Donated by the American Committee on Africa.

Description: The papers of Carla Weitzel (1953-2000), a sociology graduate student at the University of Missouri-Columbia, consist of newspaper clippings, magazine articles, correspondence, posters, pamphlets, photographs, and miscellaneous materials. The materials document civil rights issues, particularly the anti-apartheid and divestment movement that occurred on the University of Missouri-Columbia campus during the mid-1980s. While a graduate student, Weitzel became one of the primary leaders in the divestment movement on campus. The divestment movement at the University of Missouri began in April 1978, when Doug Liljegren, Missouri Student Association president, wrote a letter to the board of curators notifying them that the University had investments in 54 companies which were doing business in South Africa. A month later a rally was held to persuade the curators to pull their investments out of South Africa. The University of Missouri Divestment Movement series is arranged by type of material and chronologically therein. The series consists of papers from various student groups, faculty groups, and University administrators and focus primarily on the University's financial investments, the issue of divestment, and the shantytown. Several student groups, including the Shantytown Activists and the Missouri Students Association, joined together in the divestment cause and succeeded in forcing the University to withdraw its investments from companies associated with apartheid in South Africa. Included in the series is a list of the articles written about the shantytown that were published in The Maneater. Also included are notes from organizational meetings regarding the construction of the shantytown. The posters and fliers included in this series primarily advertise shantytown and anti-apartheid demonstrations held on the campus during 1986 and 1987. In 1987, Weitzel was invited to speak about the shantytown and divestment movement before a special committee on apartheid at the United Nations. Her speech and general information about the hearing are included in this series. The collection also includes material of a number of organizations including the American Committee on Africa, DC Student Coalition Against Apartheid and Racism, Episcopal Churchpeople for a Free Southern Africa, Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, John Hopkins University Coalition for a Free South Africa, Kansas City Anti-Apartheid Network, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, National Mobilization for Justice & Peace in Central America & Southern Africa, St. Louis Coalition Against Apartheid, South African Military Refugee Aid Fund, and the Washington Office on Africa.