Contents: 1. The Trial of 37 Southwest Africans • 2. December 8th Human Rights Day Affair • 3. Nomination of New Board Members and Question of ACOA Presidency • 4. New Office Space • 5. Procedure for the ACOA Board Meeting on September 18, 1967 • 6. Washington Representative for ACOA • 7. Southwest Africa Project • 8. Boycott of General Motors • 9. ABC TV Program on Africa • Michael Davis, a South African lawyer now working in the U.S., reported on the case of the 37 Southwest Africans on trial in Pretoria under the Terrorism Act, the most important trial certainly since Rivonia. George Houser reported on plans for a benefit dance for the Defence and Aid Fund on or near Human...
Contents: 1. The Trial of 37 Southwest Africans • 2. December 8th Human Rights Day Affair • 3. Nomination of New Board Members and Question of ACOA Presidency • 4. New Office Space • 5. Procedure for the ACOA Board Meeting on September 18, 1967 • 6. Washington Representative for ACOA • 7. Southwest Africa Project • 8. Boycott of General Motors • 9. ABC TV Program on Africa • Michael Davis, a South African lawyer now working in the U.S., reported on the case of the 37 Southwest Africans on trial in Pretoria under the Terrorism Act, the most important trial certainly since Rivonia. George Houser reported on plans for a benefit dance for the Defence and Aid Fund on or near Human Rights Day; Maya Angelou has been hired to organize this affair. The staff has looked at office space at the corner of Lexington Avenue and 40th Street; it was desirable to be close to the U.N., because the staff members must take frequent trips to the U.N. and also because petitioners from Africa can drop in the office, and other organizations and meetings are in walking distance. The September Board will focus on the direction of ACOA's program. Tom Mboya will lead off that discussion, if he can be present. Houser reported on plans for a group of non-governmental organizations to identify projects they could support inside Southwest Africa. Contact will be maintained with the proper committees and officials of the U.N. SNCC has recommended a public boycott of General Motors products because of GM's deep involvement in South Africa. Several Steering Committee members saw a four-hour program about apartheid in South Africa on September 10. It was a significant program, but it failed to point to the possible emergence of African issues as major ones on the world scene and for the U.S. The minutes mention disengagement, James Forman, liberation movements, the struggle for freedom, Clinton Hoggard, the A.M.E. Zion Church, James Foreman, Rev. Robert Johnson, Peter Weiss, Robert Browne, Tom Farer, Frederick Schwarz, Hope Stevens, Professor Richard Falk, and NYU Center for International Studies.
