For today’s college students, the story of Nelson Mandela may be too current to appear in some curricula. But if you were in college when Mandela was imprisoned and making history in the ’70s and ’80s, you couldn’t help but know his story.
When I graduated college in 1977, the Vietnam War was over. We had nothing to protest — until Mandela. It was too early to talk about the shortcomings of civil rights in America. We were still living in the glow of 1965.
But there was one moral eyesore in the world that all good people could agree on: It was right — and necessary — to speak out against the evils of apartheid in South Africa.
At my graduation, I wore a white armband in protest and displayed it proudly as we marched to receive our diplomas.
“Divestiture” was the word of the day.
Who really knew what that meant? But it was fair to ask the question: What were Harvard and other major universities doing investing in South Africa? Why were we helping to further such a racist policy? And what were American corporations doing buying into a country that was so morally bankrupt?
Mandela gave boomers of a certain age a reason to stand up and take action.
