Chronology from November 21, 1984 (Thanksgiving Eve) through July 1990. The Free South Africa Movement (FSAM) is born when Dr. Mary Frances Berry, member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, D.C. Congressman Walter Fauntroy, and TransAfrica's Executive Director Randall Robinson are arrested at the South African Embassy for attempting to stage a sit-in. Georgetown University law professor Eleanor Holmes Norton was also with the group, but she was not arrested as she was addressing the media when the others were taken away. Academic and community organizer Dr. Sylvia Hill, President of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) William Lucy, and Johns Hopkins University Institute for Policy...
Chronology from November 21, 1984 (Thanksgiving Eve) through July 1990. The Free South Africa Movement (FSAM) is born when Dr. Mary Frances Berry, member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, D.C. Congressman Walter Fauntroy, and TransAfrica's Executive Director Randall Robinson are arrested at the South African Embassy for attempting to stage a sit-in. Georgetown University law professor Eleanor Holmes Norton was also with the group, but she was not arrested as she was addressing the media when the others were taken away. Academic and community organizer Dr. Sylvia Hill, President of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) William Lucy, and Johns Hopkins University Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) Senior Fellow Roger Wilkins join Berry, Fauntroy, and Robinson on the steering committee. This act is the beginning of daily protests at the South African Embassy which will last for years. Within a week, demonstrations are held across the nation against South African consulates, Krugerrand coin dealers, and corporations tied to South Africa. Over a year, more than 4,500 people are arrested nationwide, and grassroots campaigns develop in more than 40 cities. Rosa Parks, Senator Lowell Weicker, more than 20 members of the House of Representatives, Harry Belafonte, Arthur Ashe, Tony Randall, Stevie Wonder, and Coretta Scott King are among the celebrities who join daily demonstrations at the embassy. Local 10 of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU) in San Francisco refuse to offload cargo from South Africa. After the South African government declares a state of emergency and bans public funerals, Paul Newman, Jesse Jackson, and major civil rights and labor leaders join 10,000 people in a "funeral march" to the State Department. The FSAM joins with labor, religious, and civil rights organizations to launch a campaign against the Royal/Dutch Shell Group. In his opening address to parliament, President F.W. de Klerk lifts the ban on the African National Congress (ANC), Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) and other political organizations, and Nelson Mandela is released from prison after 27 years. The report mentions Archbishop Desmond Tutu, President Ronald Reagan, "constructive engagement", the House Subcommittee on Africa, protesters detained in South Africa, Executive Order 12532, Rev. Jerry Falwell, Columbia University, U.C. Berkeley (University of California), the Sullivan Principles, sanctions, Senator Bob Dole, Rev. Allan Boesak, George Schultz, the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986, the Congressional Black Caucus, National Urban League, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Jesse Helms, Pat Roberson, P.W. Botha, F.W. de Klerk, the National Party, Rev. Naude, President Bush, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, the Rivonia Trial, negotiations, HR 1580, Deak-Perera, gold coins, and the Mandela Welcome Committee.
