James Farmer, President of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and George M. Houser, Executive Director of the American Committee on Africa (ACOA), at a press conference about a picket line at a ship carrying goods from South Africa at a shipyard in Brooklyn organized by the two organizations. Brooklyn longshoremen, members of Local 1814 of the International Longshoremen's Association, had respected the picket line for two days. After that the vessel, South African Pioneer, was unloaded. The press conference was held in the offices of Local 1814. According to The New York Times, this was the first boycott of a South African ship at a U.S. port, although ships of South African registry had...
James Farmer, President of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and George M. Houser, Executive Director of the American Committee on Africa (ACOA), at a press conference about a picket line at a ship carrying goods from South Africa at a shipyard in Brooklyn organized by the two organizations. Brooklyn longshoremen, members of Local 1814 of the International Longshoremen's Association, had respected the picket line for two days. After that the vessel, South African Pioneer, was unloaded. The press conference was held in the offices of Local 1814. According to The New York Times, this was the first boycott of a South African ship at a U.S. port, although ships of South African registry had recently been halted for as many of four days by dock workers in Copenhagen, Denmark. Houser noted at the press conference that the U.S. was importing about $200 million of commodities from South Africa per year, consisting largely of uranium, wool, diamonds, copper, and lobsters. (Source: Collin Gonze, George M. Houser and "Racial Picketing Idles Freighter" by John P. Callahan, The New York Times, October 11, 1963.)
