African Activist Archive

Mailing seeking donations to the Divest Now Legal Defense Fund. The mailing notes that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called for divestment in response to pleas from Black South Africans. Since then, more than 40 universities, including five Big Ten schools, have fully divested, but the University of Illinois still refuses to do so. For the past 10 years, the C-U Coalition Against Apartheid and the Divest Now Coalition have used letters, petitions, testimonies, and referenda to urge the University Board of Trustees to divest, all of which have been ignored. On April 10, 1986, after the Board or Trustees refused once again to consider divestment, 60 people were arrested in a peaceful protest, in the tradition of Dr. Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi, of Senators Lowell Weicker and Christopher Dodd, and of countless others. The University responded with actions which injured students and by pressing criminal charges. The arrested community members and students believe that their first amendment rights have been violated. The Defense Fund is seeking $15,000 to defend protesters against possible arbitrary disciplinary actions by the University and against criminal charges in the courts.

African Activist Archive

[Dear Friend, Over the past 18 months 2000 Black South Africans have died due to the Racist system of apartheid]

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