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Apartheid Protests and the Divestment Movement

Apartheid, an institutional system of racial segregation in political, economic, and social life, existed in South Africa from 1948 to the early 1990s. This system was met with intense protests not only in South Africa but around the world, including on Brandeis University campus. Brandeis students’ protests against the Apartheid regime spanned decades, and were particularly intense from the late-1970s to the late-1980s when the Divestment Movement was underway.

The Divestment Movement was a long-term movement by Brandeis students, faculty, and staff to pressure Brandeis’s Board of Trustees to immediately divest from companies that conduct business in South Africa. The university owned stock in fifteen companies that conducted business in South Africa, such as IBM, Kodak, and Engelhard Minerals Ltd. The stock totaled $2,884,789.50, about 8% of Brandeis’s total transferable investments. Students, as well as faculty and staff, who opposed apartheid did not want the university to indirectly provide financial support to a racist, oppressive system through its monetary investments. Many believed that divesting from these companies would compel them to pull their operations out of South Africa, thereby putting economic pressure on the South African government to end its apartheid system. Several student organizations participated in efforts to persuade the Board of Trustees and administration to divest, including the Committee for Divestment from South Africa, Divestment Movement, Divest Now, Coalition for a Just World, and Brandeis Student Anti-Apartheid Coalition. Brandeis students, alongside staff and faculty, engaged in many acts of protest, including demonstrations, class boycotts, and petitioning. They also participated in talks with the administration to urge the university to divest from all South African holdings.

Many actions were taken over the course of several years to pressure the university to divest from South Africa. The information below touches on just a few of them:

A protest rally against P.J. Nels, Director of the South African Information Service in the U.S. Forty students picketed Nels’s lecture, a demonstration that was organized by six African students with assistance from EPIC. April 18, 1961.

April 1979

Students and faculty occupied Bernstein-Marcus for three days in response to the Trustees’ decision to not immediately sell all of Brandeis’s investments in companies operating in South Africa.

news clipping of an announcement for a strike against Apartheid; black text on white background.

Announcement of the strike starting April 5, 1979 from the Brandeis Student Senate and The Brandeis Divestment Movement, published in The Justice. The announcement summarizes their opposition against Apartheid and their support for divestment, as well as the issues they have faced in persuading the university to divest.

Newspaper front-page dated April 10, 1979; black text on white background. Includes articles entitled "Bernstein-Marcus Occupation Ends After 3 Days," "Trustees Approve 'Social Injury' Criteria: Reject Option of Immediate Divestment."

The Justice front-page from April 10, 1979. It includes articles discussing the strike, rally, and Bernstein-Marcus occupation in support of divestment and the Board of Trustees' approval of a "social injury" criteria for current and new investments and their rejection of immediate divestment.

Shantytown (1986)

Statement from The Divestment Coalition on the shantytown they built on campus. It explains the purpose and symbolism of the shantytown and their support of divestment and the oppressed peoples in South Africa. September 11, 1986

Students built a shantytown to replicate the shanty towns that many Black South Africans lived in in order to dramatize the effects of Apartheid, demonstrate their solidarity with Black South Africans, and to pressure the university to divest. They constructed the shantytown on Pearlman Lawn and later moved it to the front of the Bernstein-Marcus administration building in order to confront the administration with the discrimination they supported through Brandeis’s investments. The administration removed the wall of the shantytown on March 4, soon after it was moved to Bernstein-Marcus, and the students responded by occupying the reception area of President Evelyn Handler’s office the following day.

The images below show students standing in front of a shantytown that they helped build in support of divestment.

A woman is crouching on the ground while holding a newspaper and a man is going through items in a plastic bag. Two men are standing next to them. Behind them are multiple makeshift structures made out of cardboard, plywood, tarps, ropes, and sticks. Written on the structure in black are statements, such as "Divest" and "Divest Against Apartheid."

Several people working on makeshift structures made out of cardboard, plywood, and tarps. There are images and text in black on the structures. They are in front of a campus building and there is snow on the ground. Text includes: "Free Africa" and "Divest."

Eight people working on makeshift structures made out of cardboard, plywood, and tarps. Three of the people are carrying carboards.There is text written on the structures in black; the text includes statements like, "U.S. Out of Afrika," "Zimbabwe 1979."

Several people standing aroundmakeshift structures made out of cardboard, plywood, and tarps. There is text on the structures in black; the text includes statements like "Divest." There is a campus building in the background and there is snow on the ground.

Large group of people standing and sitting around makeshift structures made out of cardboard, plywood, and tarps. The structures have text and images on them in black text; the text includes statements like, "Free Nelson Mandela," "Mandela Quad" and "All Power to ANC and SWAPO." There is snow on the ground.

Other smaller anti-Apartheid protests and actions

Maki Mandela, Nelson Mandela’s daughter, came to speak at Brandeis on October 6, 1986. 500 students attended her talk. Following the talk, she accompanied students to the shantytown, where she affirmed her support.

(Early to mid-March 1986)

Justice article from March 4, 1986 discussing a candlelight vigil against Apartheid and students moving the shantytown from outside of Pearlman Hall to the front lawn of Bernstein-Marcus, along with photos of the events.

Students held a candlelight vigil to urge total divestment, as well as blockaded the entrance to Bernstein-Marcus and attempted to enter the building. In addition, four students with red paint on their faces laid down in President Handler’s office under a facsimile of the Brandeis flag that was also covered in red paint.

Below, Justice articles from March 18, 1986 detailing students' blockade of the entrance to Bernstein-Marcus and efforts to enter the building in protest against Apartheid and the university's investment policies, as well as the administration's removal of the shantytown wall.

Newspaper dated March 18, 1986; black text on white background. Includes articles discussing actions taken to protest in support of divestment and the administration's and other people's responses.

Photos of Student Protests

President Evelyn Handler talking to large group of people outside.

President Evelyn Handler meeting with students protesting in support of divestment outside of Bernstein Marcus. (March 5, 1986)

Long group of students sitting and standing on the road and blocking the entrance to campus. Two police officers are holding a man by the arms and dragging him up in order to arrest him.

Police arresting twenty students for blocking the entrance to campus in protest against the university's investment in companies operating in South Africa.

Two lines of people wearing graduation robes and hats walk down a paved path. A Black man in the front is carrying a large sign that says "Brandeis Profits from S. African Blood." There are people standing and sitting on the grass next to the path and watching the procession.

Graduating students protest Apartheid in South Africa and the university's investment in companies that operate in South Africa during their graduation ceremony (1978).

In front of a red stage, several people wearing graduation robes and hats and other people wearing regular clothing are holding a chain and signs criticizing the university's investment in Apartheid South Africa. There are graduating students leaving the ceremony in the background. There are lots of empty seats in front of the stage where the graduating students had been sitting. There are spectators behind the seats sitting and standing on the grass.

Graduating students protest Apartheid in South Africa and the university's investment in companies that operate in South Africa during their graduation ceremony (1978).

Several people are sitting on armchairs, a couch, and on the floor in the reception area of the university president's office. They are covering their faces with jackets and a notebook.

Students covering their faces as they occupy the reception area of President Evelyn Handler's office to protest against the university's investment in companies operating in South Africa

Aftermath

Reprint of the Resolution on Divestment passed by the Board of Trustees instructing the university to divest completely from all companies doing business in South Africa.

In May of 1987, after years of pressure from students and faculty, the Board of Trustees voted to divest from all companies doing business in South Africa (“with the exception of news organizations and health-related firms”).¹

Footnotes:

1. The Justice, “Brandeis Divests,” (Sept. 3, 1987).