Campus protests today parallel Florida colleges’ role in anti-apartheid movement| Opinion
As protests over the Israel-Gaza conflict continue in certain U.S. cities, we should understand that such demonstrations are a common feature of the history of this country.
Even right here in Florida, similar gatherings took place across the state during the 1980s related to the anti-apartheid movement and calls for divestment for universities with ties to companies doing business in South Africa.
These movements can provide an important historical lens in understanding their motivations, length and impact on understanding civil unrest in our modern moment.
These protests, some taking place on Florida campuses, are nothing new, but instead part of a long tradition of civil disobedience that is a hallmark of our university systems and the U.S. more broadly.
College campuses in Florida were key spaces for protest activity and protester education. As early as January 1985, Florida Memorial College (now Florida Memorial University) hosted a lecture and workshop with Ronald W. Waters, secretary of the National Black Leadership Roundtable and formerly president of TransAfrica Forum. Leaders of the local anti-apartheid movements could participate, ask questions and build strategies for the coming years, and help increase support for H.T. Smith’s “Coalition for Free South Africa” in the greater Miami area.
Like today, the University of Florida was one of the first major sites of protest. The Student Coalition Against Apartheid and Racism (SCAAR) worked with a multiracial coalition of student organizations, church groups and labor organizations to demand the university divest some $3 million from companies directly doing business in South Africa.
Like their contemporary counterparts, students used their proximity to the university as a conduit for their frustration with international events seemingly beyond their control.
Most dramatically, on April 25, protesters blocked Tigert Hall, UF’s main administrative building, and manacled the doors with bike chains. University police arrested 27 people, including faculty and students, as the local student paper reported students once again “Taking It To The Streets”.
The use of police force was widely condemned, but the tactics were in no way dissimilar to what we have seen on campuses across the country, as many members of the administration had very little sympathy for these protesters and looked at them with open scorn.
UF President Marshall Criser had made his opinions of such assemblies clear in an interview the previous year, where he referred to the Kent State shooting in 1970 as “Criminal insurrection, under the guise of civil disobedience”.
In Tallahassee, Florida State University and Florida A&M University staged multiple protests on campus and capitol grounds, including in October 1985 when Randall Robinson, founder of TransAfrica, spoke on the steps of the state house, flanked by students from both universities.
In Miami, a coalition of students from the University of Miami, FIU, and the then named Miami-Dade Community College staged joint protests in September 1985, calling for all involved to “hold rallies simultaneously on all college campuses in Florida.”
They were joined by members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Coalition for Free South Africa, who later formed the foundation for the famous “Boycott Miami” movement of the early 1990s.
Admittedly, the overall success of these rallies was mixed. UF never fully divested even by the conclusion of the 1980s, UM partially divested (claiming it was not due to the protests), and USF and FSU fully divested by 1989, years after the initial demonstrations occurred on their campuses.
The situation will not change overnight. If history repeats itself, the current wave of protests should rightly be expected to be a long and arduous struggle.
Jacob Ivey is an associate professor of history at Florida Memorial University in Miami Gardens and is working on a book on the anti-apartheid movement in Florida.
