Contesting Apartheid

Reveals how the American public became aware of racial conflict in southern Africa and eventually came to support sanctions which bypassed state and corporate decisionmakers and exerted direct pressure on South Africa to end apartheid.. Contesting Apartheid reveals how the American public became aware of racial conflict in southern Africa and came to see it as incompatible with American principles of democracy and racial equality. It rejects the conventional notion that apartheid presented no problems for U.S. policymakers. Using a political process model, Contesting Apartheid explores how activist groups created new spaces in churches, campuses, stockholders meetings, entertainment and sports venues, city councils, and Congressional subcommittees to broaden support for the sanctions that bypassed state and corporate decisionmakers and exerted direct pressure on South Africa to end apartheid. Contesting Apartheid examines how U.S. public and private sector interests produced wealth and poverty in South Africa. It explains how the anti-apartheid movement capitalized on the fragility of the racial regime. It exposes the political vulnerability of the international supporters who had insulated apartheid from policy consideration until the mid-1970s. Contesting Apartheid describes how activists converted civil rights movement ideals, symbols, and strategies into weapons against apartheid. They mobilized a grassroots network of groups previously excluded from foreign affairs, and proposes alternatives to uncritical acceptance of South Africa as an anti-Communist ally. The book examines the Sharpeville massacre, the Vietnam War, the Soweto uprisings, and the divestment campaigns. It explores the role played by news media and the intelligentsia in shaping popular perceptions of the crisis. Drawing on diverse sources such as organizational records and published literature, correspondences, interviews, personal papers, and government documents, this study views anti-apartheid activism as central to mainstream American political developments.