Chief Albert Luthuli and Reverend Martin Luther King: “Appeal for Action Against Apartheid”
On 10 December 1962, Chief Lutuli and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. initiated a joint statement, which was signed by many prominent Americans and promoted the public campaign for sanctions against South Africa. The statement was titled, “Appeal for action against Apartheid”, as the only solution which represented sanity – a transition to a society based upon equality for all without regard to colour.
This began in 1957, when an unprecedented Declaration of Conscience was issued by more than 100 leaders from every continent. That Declaration was an appeal to South Africa to bring its policies into line with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations. The Declaration was a good start in mobilising world sentiment to back those in South Africa who acted for equality. The non-whites took heart in learning that they were not alone. And many white supremacists learned for the first time how isolated they were.
Subsequent to the Declaration, the apartheid South African government took the following measures: it banned the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), the principal protest organisations, and jailed their leaders; it coerced the press into strict pro-government censorship and made it almost impossible for new anti-apartheid publications to exist; and it established an arms in
