African Activist Archive

Copy of a letter to Abraham Ordia, President, Supreme Council for Sport in Africa; Jean-Claude Ganga, Secrtary-General, Supreme Council for Sport in Africa; SACOS (South African Council on Sport); ACCESS (American Coordinating Committee for Equality in Sport and Society); and ICARIS (International Campaign Against Racism in Sport) sent as part of a campaign against the boxing match between John Tate and Gerrie Coetzee from South Africa. The letter includes a copy of a letter sent to Mr. M. Newman, Vice-President, General Manager, WMAQ/NBC TV. The mailing includes REPORT OF MEETING; WMAQ/NBC TV OFFICES, MERCHANDISE MART, CHICAGO on October 2, 1979. The letter says you will note that I have raised two specific points in my letter to Mr. Newman and I hope that you will take supporting action on these. The letter says one, we request the Supreme Council for Sport in Africa to contact the Moscow Organizing Committee for the 1980 Olympics and all countries friendly to Africa and request that all athletes should refuse to cooperate with NBC in any way if they telecast the Tate-Coetzee boxing match from apartheid South Africa; two, we specifically request all athletes of the United States Olympic Team to refuse to cooperate with NBC in any way if they telecast the Tate-Coetzee boxing match for apartheid South Africa. The meeting report says Letters of protest were handed to the General Manager and Vice-President, Mr. M. Newman, the Station Manager, Mr. Al Jerome and the Program Director, Mr. Richard Lobo of WMAQ/NBC television at noon on October 3; the protest was against the televising of the Tate-Coetzee boxing match from apartheid South Africa on October 20th. The meeting report says those handing in the protests were1 Professor Dennis Brutus, President, South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee (SAN-ROC); Ms. Ellen Mark, Coordinator, International Campaign Against Racism in Sport (ICARIS)a Anthony Thompson, Coordinator, For Members Only (FMO), Northwestern University Black Student Organizations; Brad Berg, Committee Member, South African Support Committee, Northwestern University, John Bellamy, Coordinator, Steve Biko Memorial Committee. The meeting report says each of the spokespersons from the organizations stated opposition to the telecast; each asked that it be cancelled.

African Activist Archive

[Friends: I enclose copies of my letter to WMAQ/NBC and a Summary Report of a meeting with WMAQ/NBC Chicago.]

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