Students Rally Against Apartheid

As people across the country yesterday marked the anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s death with protests against apartheid about 200 people gathered on the steps of Massachusetts Hall to rally for divestment.

Following the Harvard rally, about 50 Harvard students travelled to the Boston Common to participate in a rally against apartheid, racism and U.S. involvement in Central America.

More than 500 college and high school students from 40 Boston area schools gathered to listen to speeches and singers, all of whom supported American divestment from South Africa.

Last year on this day, 5000 people filled the Yard to hear the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson speak against apartheid in South Africa and call upon Harvard to divest. The Jackson rally launched last spring's divestment protests.

Professor of the History of Science Everett I. Mendelsohn--one of the most outspoken faculty members in favor of divestment, the Rev. Hogan Yancy--a resident fellow at the Divinity School, and Chris Nteta--a Divinity School graduate who participated in the 1971 student protests--spoke at Harvard's rally yesterday.

Standing in front of a banner for divestment, the three advocated that students participate in civil disobediance to force the University to divest from its $416 million holdings in South Africa-related companies.

Members of the Southern Africa Solidarity committee (SASC), which organized the rally, led the group in chants in between speeches, as two policemen blocked the door to Massachusetts Hall.

"Our aim is to help bring an end to the apartheid regime in South Africa," said Mendelsohn. "Freedom will come to South Africa and the question asked is how much will it cost? How much blood will it take? The answer to that is in part in our hands."

He said that the question of whether one is for or against divestment has now come to a head. "There is no neutrality now. You are either for apartheid or against it and every act you take makes that difference," Mendelsohn said. "To end that violence is something we can and must take part in."

Yancy, who was arrested earlier this year for protesting in front of the South African embassy, detailed