Written by Claire Pitzer, L’26
This year marks the sixtieth anniversary of the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a landmark law which many scholars consider to be the conclusion of the classic American Civil Rights Movement.[1] 2024 is also the thirtieth anniversary of the formation of a democratic government in South Africa and the end of the Apartheid regime.[2] The convergence of these two anniversaries creates a unique vantage point from which to revisit and reflect on two of the most influential civil rights movements in human history.
The following analysis considers the two movements in four sequential categories: laws, leadership, liberty, and legacy. The “laws” section will recount the ways in which the U.S. and South African governments used history, legislation, and judicial decisions to enshrine racial oppression and segregation into the fabric of their nations. Next, the “leadership” section will introduce both the U.S. Civil Rights Movement and the South African struggle to end Apartheid, highlighting movement leaders and their tools for resistance. The “liberty” section will recall the official government overruling of the oppressive laws and what redress, if any, immediately followed. Finally, the “legacy” section will take the opportunity to reflect on the lasting effects of oppression and to amplify the current call to action for the movements of today.
Laws: The Legalization of Oppression
There were two key factors that enabled these oppressive regimes to take root: (1) histories of colonialism and slavery, and (2) multi-level dissemination of discriminatory policies.
The similarities between the United States and South Africa date back to the 1600s, when both nations were plagued by European colonial forces.[3] By the turn of the 20th century, both countries fought bloody civil wars and formally abolished the rampant systems of slavery upon which their nations were built.[4]
In the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, the American federal government took one step forward and two steps back. While the 14th and 15th Amendments enshrined equal protection and enfranchisement for black citizens into the Constitution, the Supreme Court’s ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson re-legitimized oppression in the new name of “separate but equal.”[5] This ruling enabled state governments to enact widespread “Jim Crow Laws” which further legalized segregation in all facets of American life.[6] It was not until the 1954 landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Educationthat the first of these laws were successfully stricken as unconstitutional.[7] With this historic victory, the Civil Rights Movement was born.[8]
Meanwhile, the conclusion of the South African War, also known as the Anglo-Boer War, also marked a turning point in the nation’s history of legalized oppression.[9] The post-war administration of white elites enacted several laws focused on the segregation and isolation of black South Africans, such as the Land Act of 1913 which established less than one-tenth of South African land as exclusively black “reserves.”[10] Led by the infamous prime minister J.B.M. Hertzog, the government promoted nationalism and white supremacy in both policy and rhetoric.[11] In 1948, Hertzog’s National Party officially implemented the policy of “Apartheid” (meaning “separateness” in Afrikaans), thus naming and legalizing the discriminatory policies that had been flourishing for years.[12] For the next forty-six years, the Apartheid regime would relentlessly implement comprehensive policies of segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement against black South Africans.[13]
Leadership: Making a Movement
Jim Crow and Apartheid laws each sparked historic resistance movements with very different timelines, yet remarkably parallel missions, tactics, and activists leading the way to liberation.[14]
The Civil Rights Movement is most frequently defined as the decade from 1954 to 1964.[15] The movement began in 1954 with Brown v. Board of Education, which held that both school segregation and Plessy’s “separate but equal” standard were unconstitutional.[16] Ten years later, the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 officially declared racial discrimination illegal and largely concluded the Civil Rights Movement.[17]
The struggle to end Apartheid, on the other hand, had a clearer timeline and lasted for nearly half a century.[18]Although the prominent African National Congress (ANC) formed as early as 1912 in resistance to oppressive laws, the resistance movement against Apartheid is largely considered to have begun when the policy was formally named in 1948.[19] The Apartheid regime subjugated black South Africans for the next forty-six years until it was finally overturned by the first democratic election in 1994.[20]
Although the duration of each movement differed greatly, the Civil Rights Movement and the Apartheid resistance Movement overlapped in many facets of their campaigns. Most obviously, both pursued the overarching goal to end legalized racial segregation and oppression.[21] Martin Luther King, Jr. called for all-encompassing equality in his historic “I Have A Dream” speech; he described an America in which black and white citizens are “able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together.”[22] With these words, King demanded constitutional freedoms (“to pray together”), judicial equality (“to go to jail together”), and compassionate social kinship (“to stand up for freedom together”).[23] These goals were echoed by South African activists as well; according to the ANC’s “Freedom Charter,” the primary aims of the anti-Apartheid resistance movement were democratic governance, equal rights, equal access to wealth and resources, and social harmony.[24]
While there is much overlap between the tools and tactics each movement deployed, there is some notable dissonance as well. A hallmark of the Civil Rights Movement was its commitment to civil disobedience “with the moral force of non-violence.”[25] This manifested in marches, peaceful protests, sit-ins, freedom rides, and more.[26] The South African resistance movement likewise began its fight with a call for civil disobedience.[27] However, their creed for nonviolence was shaken by the bloody Sharpeville Massacre of 1960 in which 300 policemen opened fire and killed nearly 70 protestors.[28] After this tragic bloodshed, along with the subsequent banning of protest groups entirely, anti-Apartheid leaders took up arms and embraced guerilla tactics for much of the remaining struggle.[29]
The most prominent advocates for each of these tactics were world-renowned icons of history: Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela.[30] Both led their respective movements at relatively young ages: King was only 34 years old when he led the Civil Rights Movement’s historic March on Washington, and Mandela spearheaded ANC guerilla campaigns through his thirties and forties.[31] The two men were both effectively martyred for their contributions to the fight against oppression: King was assassinated in 1968, and Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964 for high treason, narrowly escaping the death penalty.[32] In the decades that followed, their legacies continued to inspire the fight for civil rights globally and cemented them as heroes of history; they both earned the Nobel Peace Prize, King even garnered consideration for sainthood.[33] These two transformative figures, along with the countless others who fought by their side, were unrelenting in the hard-won fight for freedom.
Liberty: Overturning Injustice
Ultimately, justice prevailed. The American and South African governments heard the pleas of protesters, their demands for change, and finally took action.[34]
On July 2, 1964, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law.[35] This historic piece of legislation comprehensively prohibited segregation and discrimination from voting practices, public accommodations and facilities, public education, federally funded programs, employment, and certain judicial proceedings.[36] However, segregation and racial oppression did not end overnight, so subsequent legislation including the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 were required to cement anti-discrimination into all corners of the law.[37]
Meanwhile, liberation came much later for South Africans.[38] It was not until 1990 that newly appointed President F.W. de Klerk shocked the nation and called for drastic and immediate reform, notably breaking from his pro-Apartheid past.[39] Over the next three years, De Klerk lifted bans on opposition groups, abolished segregation laws, and freed political prisoners, including Nelson Mandela.[40] Then, in 1994, De Klerk established the country’s first democratic elections, in which Mandela was elected president with De Klerk by his side as deputy president.[41]
In the immediate aftermath of the abolition of segregation and racial discrimination, each nation pursued different paths for redress. The new Mandela administration famously formed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which aimed to “promote reconciliation and forgiveness among perpetrators and victims of apartheid by the full disclosure of truth.”[42] The TRC conducted thousands of hearings from around 22,000 victims of human rights abuses committed in the name of Apartheid.[43] Controversially, the TRC granted amnesty to a handful of confessed perpetrators to entice broad participation and full honesty.[44] The TRC was not designed to be a forum for prosecuting the human rights abuses it illuminated like the Nürnberg Nazi trials after World War II.[45] Rather, traditional prosecutions were recommended by the TRC to follow, although many never came to fruition.[46]
In the United States, there was no equivalent to the TRC, and there was no immediate redress for the victims of Jim Crow laws and racial discrimination. To this day, there are countless cold cases and lives lost that are still awaiting justice.[47]
Legacy: Where We Stand Today
2024 marks sixty and thirty years since the end of Jim Crow segregation and Apartheid (respectively).[48] Upon reflection from this double-anniversary, it is clear that while so much progress has been made since these movements began, the fight is far from over.
Widespread inequalities still persist in both nations. In the U.S., black Americans face heightened poverty rates, inferior healthcare, and unequal access to employment and education.[49] Although South Africa has had less time to address their shortcomings, certain issues like segregated housing remain a major problem throughout the country today.[50]
Additionally, just days after the re-election of Donald Trump for his second presidential administration, the future of Americans’ civil rights protections remains uncertain.[51] Trump has a well-documented history of racism: he refused to rent to black tenants in the 1970s, he publicly advertised that the falsely accused Central Park Five should be put to death in 1989, and spearheaded birther conspiracies about former President Barack Obama in 2011.[52] During his first campaign and term as president, Trump was unapologetically racist, proudly pandered to his white supremacist base, and fueled an insurrection that aimed to dismantle democracy.[53] This time around, he ran his campaign on heightened and specific policies to further racial inequality, like the abolition of diversity programs and affirmative action policies.[54]His promotion of nationalism and racist rhetoric eerily echoes the Apartheid and Jim Crow eras. History is repeating itself in real time.
But, just like in the earlier movements, resistance is already brewing. Activists applied to law schools in record numbers during Trump’s first term, and a new mass of young people are expressing newfound interest again.[55]Organizations like the ACLU are preemptively preparing to defend civil and human rights when the new administration begins.[56] Vice President Kamala Harris herself compelled the disheartened public to keep hope, that “this is a time to roll up our sleeves, […] to organize, to mobilize, and to stay engaged.”[57] If history gives any clue of what is to come, an uphill battle lies ahead, but the fight for good will always prevail.
Steve Schapiro, Photograph of demonstrators from the 1963 March on Washington, in Cheryl Bond-Nelms, Boycotts, Movements and Marches, AARP (Feb. 9, 2018) https://www.aarp.org/politics-society/history/info-2018/civil-rights-events-fd.html.
[1] Civil Rights Act of 1964, Pub. L. No. 88-352, 78 Stat. 241 (1964).
[2] All Things Considered, “30 Years of Democracy in South Africa,” NPR (Apr. 28, 2024) https://www.npr.org/2024/04/28/1247725899/30-years-of-democracy-in-south-africa.
[3] History, Republic of South Africa, https://www.gov.za/about-sa/history (last visited Nov. 11, 2024); U.S. History Primary Source Timeline: Overview, Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/united-states-history-primary-source-timeline/colonial-settlement-1600-1763/overview/ (last visited Nov. 11, 2024).
[4] History, supra note 3; The Civil War and Emancipation, PBS https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2967.html (last visited Nov. 11, 2024).
[5] U.S. Const. amends. XIV, XV; Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896).
[6] Onion et al., Jim Crow Laws, Hist. (Jan. 22, 2024) https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/jim-crow-laws (last visited Nov. 11, 2024).
[7] Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954).
[8] Onion et al., Civil Rights Movement Timeline, Hist. (Feb. 27, 2024) https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-movement-timeline (last visited Nov. 11, 2024).
[9] Hall & Mabin, Segregation of South Africa, Britannica (Nov. 11, 2024) https://www.britannica.com/place/South-Africa/Segregation.
[10] Id.
[11] J.B.M. Hertzog, Britannica https://www.britannica.com/biography/J-B-M-Hertzog (last visited Nov. 11, 2024).
[12] Ted-Ed, How Did South African Apartheid Happen, and How Did It Finally End? – Thula Simpson, YouTube (Dec. 5, 2023) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke4kVFycpYY.
[13] AUHRM Project Focus Area: The Apartheid, Afr. Union https://au.int/en/auhrm-project-focus-area-apartheid (last visited Nov. 11, 2024).
[14]See generally Onion et al., Jim Crow Laws, Hist. (Jan. 22, 2024) https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/jim-crow-laws (last visited Nov. 11, 2024); see generally Hall & Mabin, Resistance to Apartheid, Britannica (Nov. 13, 2024) https://www.britannica.com/place/South-Africa/Resistance-to-apartheid.
[15] Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past, 91 J. Am. Hist.1233, 1235 (2005) (arguing for the consideration of a “long” Civil Rights Movement outside of the widely accepted timeline).
[16] Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954).
[17] Legal Highlight: The Civil Rights Act of 1964, Office of the Assistant Sec’y for Admin. & Mgmt.https://www.dol.gov/agencies/oasam/civil-rights-center/statutes/civil-rights-act-of-1964 (last visited Nov. 11, 2024).
[18] South Africa Profile – Timeline, BBC (Dec. 19, 2022) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-14094918.
[19] Id; Defiance Campaign Timeline 1948-1952, S. Afr. Hist. Online https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/defiance-campaign-timeline-1948-1952 (last visited Nov. 11, 2024).
[20] History, supra note 3.
[21] JoAnne Cornwell, The United States and South Africa: History, Civil Rights and the Legal and Cultural Vulnerability of Blacks, 47 Phylon285 (1986).
[22] Martin Luther King, Jr., I Have a Dream (Aug. 28, 1963).
[23] Id.
[24] The Freedom Charter, African National Congress (June 26, 1955).
[25] Barack Obama, Remarks by the President at the “Let Freedom Ring” Ceremony Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington, The White House: Office of the Press Sec’y (Aug. 28, 2013) https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2013/08/28/remarks-president-let-freedom-ring-ceremony-commemorating-50th-anniversa.
[26] Onion et al., Civil Rights Movement Timeline, History (Feb. 27, 2024) https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-movement-timeline (last visited Nov. 11, 2024).
[27] Ted-Ed, How Did South African Apartheid Happen, and How Did It Finally End? – Thula Simpson, YouTube (Dec. 5, 2023) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke4kVFycpYY (last visited Nov. 11, 2024).
[28] Sharpeville Massacre, 21 March 1960, South African History Online https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/sharpeville-massacre-21-march-1960 (last visited Nov. 11, 2024).
[29] Ted-Ed, How Did South African Apartheid Happen, and How Did It Finally End? – Thula Simpson, YouTube (Dec. 5, 2023) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke4kVFycpYY (last visited Nov. 11, 2024).
[30] See generally Martin Luther King, Jr., NAACP https://naacp.org/find-resources/history-explained/civil-rights-leaders/martin-luther-king-jr (last visited Nov. 11, 2024); see generally Nelson Mandela, Britannica (last updated Nov. 11, 2024) https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nelson-Mandela.
[31] Martin Luther King, Jr., supra note 30; Nelson Mandela, supra note 30.
[32] Martin Luther King, Jr., supra note 30; Nelson Mandela, supra note 30.
[33] Martin Luther King, Jr.: Facts, The Nobel Prize https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1964/king/facts/ (last visited Nov. 11, 2024); Nelson Mandela: Facts, The Nobel Prize https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1993/mandela/facts/ (last visited Nov. 11, 2024); Gary Nguyen, Saint Martin Luther King, Jr: Civil Rights Leader Canonized by Orthodox Church, World Religion News (Sept. 13, 2024) https://www.worldreligionnews.com/religion-news/christianity/saint-martin-luther-king-jr-civil-rights-leader-canonized-by-orthodox-church/.
[34] See generally Civil Rights Act of 1964, Pub. L. No. 88-352, 78 Stat. 241 (1964); see generally Hall & Mabin, The Unraveling of Apartheid, Britannica (Nov. 11, 2024) https://www.britannica.com/place/South-Africa/The-unraveling-of-apartheid.
[35] Civil Rights Act (1964), Nat’l Archives https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/civil-rights-act (last visited Nov. 11, 2024).
[36] Civil Rights Act of 1964, Pub. L. No. 88-352, 78 Stat. 241 (1964).
[37] Voting Rights Act of 1965, Pub. L. No. 89-110, 79 Stat. 437 (1965); Fair Housing Act of 1968, Pub. L. No. 90-284, 82 Stat. 73 (1968).
[38] See generally Lyn S. Graybill, Truth & Reconciliation in South Africa 6 (2002).
[39] Betty Glad & Robert Blanton, F. W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela: A Study in Cooperative Transformational Leadership, 27 Presidential Stud. Q. 565, 567 (1997).
[40] Id.
[41] Id.
[42] The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), Apartheid Museum https://www.apartheidmuseum.org/exhibitions/the-truth-and-reconciliation-commission-trc (last visited Nov. 11, 2024).
[43] Lyn S. Graybill, Truth & Reconciliation in South Africa 6 (2002).
[44] Truth Commission: South Africa, U.S. Inst. of Peace (Dec. 1, 1995) https://www.usip.org/publications/1995/12/truth-commission-south-africa.
[45] Truth and Reconciliation Commission, South Africa, Britannica https://www.britannica.com/topic/Truth-and-Reconciliation-Commission-South-Africa (last updated Oct. 21, 2024).
[46] Id.
[47] Civil Rights-Era Cold Cases, U.S. Dep’t of Just. https://www.justice.gov/hatecrimes/spotlight/civil-rights-era-cold-cases (last updated Nov. 14, 2022).
[48] Civil Rights Act of 1964, Pub. L. No. 88-352, 78 Stat. 241 (1964); All Things Considered, “30 Years of Democracy in South Africa,” NPR (Apr. 28, 2024) https://www.npr.org/2024/04/28/1247725899/30-years-of-democracy-in-south-africa.
[49] Janis Bowdler & Benjamin Harris, Racial Inequality in the United States, U.S. Dep’t of the Treasury (July 21, 2022) https://home.treasury.gov/news/featured-stories/racial-inequality-in-the-united-states.
[50] Vox, Why South Africa is Still So Segregated, YouTube (Apr. 21, 2021) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVH7JewfgJg/.
[51] Miller et al., Donald Trump Elected 47th President of the United States, PBS (Nov. 6, 2024) https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/donald-trump-elected-47th-president-of-the-united-states.
[52] German Lopez, Donald Trump’s Long History of Racism, from the 1970s to 2020, Vox https://www.vox.com/2016/7/25/12270880/donald-trump-racist-racism-history (last updated Aug. 13, 2020).
[53] US: Second Trump Term a Threat to Rights in US, World, Hum. Rts. Watch (Nov. 6, 2024) https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/11/06/us-second-trump-term-threat-rights-us-world.
[54] Agathocleous et al., Trump on DEI and Anti-Discrimination Law, ACLU (July 2, 2024) https://www.aclu.org/publications/trump-on-dei-and-anti-discrimination-law.
[55] Stephanie Francis Ward, The ‘Trump Bump’ for Law School Applicants is Real and Significant, Survey Says, ABA J. (Feb. 22, 2018) https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/the_trump_bump_for_law_school_applicants_is_real_and_significant_survey_say#google_vignette.
[56] Anthony D. Romero, We’ve Seen 105 Years and 19 Presidents. Trump’s Gotta Get Past All of Us., ACLU (Nov. 6, 2024) https://www.aclu.org/news/civil-liberties/the-aclu-is-fighting-back-against-trump.
[57] Reis Thebault, A ‘Resistance’ Raced to Fight Trump’s First Term. Will It Rise Again?, Wash. Post (Nov. 10, 2024) https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/10/women-trump-protest-election-harris/.
[55]Organizations like the ACLU are preemptively preparing to defend civil and human rights when the new administration begins.
[56] Vice President Kamala Harris herself compelled the disheartened public to keep hope, that “this is a time to roll up our sleeves, […] to organize, to mobilize, and to stay engaged.”
[57] If history gives any clue of what is to come, an uphill battle lies ahead, but the fight for good will always prevail.