Notes on meeting called by the Stop The Fight Campaign with officials of NBC-TV, 14 August 1979

Report on a meeting of the Stop the Fight Campaign and NBC about the upcoming boxing match between John Tate and Gerrie Coetzee. The report says STFC delegates were Ambassador Blankston (Nigeria), Janice Bolden (International Freedom Mobilization), Cary Goodman (New York City Sports Council), George Houser (American Committee on Africa), Clayton Jones, (Progressive National Baptist Convention), Johnstone Makatini (African National Congress of South Africa), Gay McDougall (TransAfrica}, Ambassador Mustafa Sam (Organization of African Unity), Rev. Wyatt T. Walker (SCLC), Denton Watson (NAACP), and Richard Lapchick, (ACCESS). The report says NBC representatives were Art Watson, President, NBC Sports, Alan Baker, Corporate V-P for Public Relation; Mr. Rausch, Corporate V-P for Legal Affairs, and Dick Auerbach, NBC Sports. The report says the meeting was opened by Denton Watson who was chosen to represent the American perspective on the STFC; he made several points; we were meeting with NBC to express our opposition to the fight and to ask NBC to reverse its decision to televise the fight; the fight was an affront to all Americans who oppose racial injustice and would be used by the South Africans as a propaganda showpiece with a Black fighting a white before a mixed audience; Arum had recently admitted that the South Africans had lied to him about future integration and that he said that those opposing the fight had been right; if NBC televised the fight, it would be perceived as helping to promote a false image of South Africa to the rest of the world. The report says Johnny Makatini and Mustafa Sam expressed the African point of view; Africans have long known the importance of the sports boycott against South Africa; Africa does not oppose Coetzee as an individual but as a symbol of the apartheid system; the fact that the stadium might be integrated is without meaning to Africans who have to go home to their segregated townships afterward; an African boycott of the fight was being organized in Soweto; the OAU had confronted Arum in 1978 when he tried to stage a Spinks-Ali fight in South Africa; Arum cancelled the contract in light of learning about United Nations and OAU resolutions on sports events with South Africa; the Supreme Council for Sport in Africa had just cabled NBC to stop the fight or face severe consequences on the African continent. The report says Art Watson spoke for NBC and said he agreed with all that had been said about the horror of the apartheid regime. He said that NBC news had always depicted that horror, but that this was a sports event; he comprehended the possible implications for the Olympic Games, but when NBC signed to cover the "title eliminator" series, it knew neither the participants nor the fight locations. Coetzee is, after all, the 2nd ranked heavyweight; NBC had just met with Bob Arum who assured them that Loftus Stadium would be integrated. NBC had a contract and at this time. The report discusses Soviet Olympic officials, demonstrations, racial discrimination, WBA (World Boxing Association), and the Jack Johnson-Jim Jeffries fight.