Today, a rally for divestment is not an uncommon sight on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus, whether it be the recent encampment calling for divestment from “organizations or corporations that profit from or support the occupation of Palestine,” or countless climate strikes for fossil fuel -related divestment. However, these movements are not the first to organize for a different set of investment principles for the University of Illinois’ endowment.
In fact, it was the movement against apartheid in South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s that was among the first to outline divestment as a primary goal. Many students, faculty, and community members saw the white supremacist racial hierarchy of South Africa’s system as fundamentally unjust, and sought to distance their university from it in any way they could. The university’s financial holdings, which included millions invested in companies that worked in apartheid South Africa, became a target as organizers sought to leverage their local pressure to fight for change internationally. In an interview with Professor Teresa Barnes, Director of the Center for African Studies at the U of I and a scholar of Southern African history, she described this divestment strategy as strong because it “brought the problem home to American campuses — every university had an endowment.”
By the late 1970s, a movement formed in Champaign-Urbana to pressure the trustees to change the makeup of the University of Illinois endowment. Many were motivated by recent events in South Africa. First, there was the 1976 Soweto uprising, where, as described by Professor Barnes, middle and high school students demonstrated “because they did not want to be taught exclusively in the settler-colonial language of Afrikaans.” In response, they were brutally attacked by police, with at least 100 killed and thousands more injured, arrested and detained. The next year, student activist and leader of the Black Consciousness Movement, Steve Biko, was tortured and murdered in the custody of the South African police, prompting further international outrage.
These human rights abuses specifically targeted young people and depictions of them, such as the iconic photo of Hector Pieterson, were widely disseminated in the media. This fact motivated people across the United States to organize against apartheid, including in the Champaign Urbana Coalition Against Apartheid (CU-CAA), which formed soon thereafter. The coalition’s goals were to educate people on the situation in South Africa, stand with the anti-apartheid liberation organizations like the African National Congress (ANC) and push for divestment.
While much of their work was limited to informative and cultural events to spread the word about apartheid, they also organized direct actions, including a sit-in in at U of I President Corbally’s office in May 1978. These early mobilizations eventually resulted in the Board of Trustees agreeing to adhere to the Sullivan Principles, investing only in companies that met certain criteria, including a lack of racial discrimination. While framed as a way to minimize harm, CU-CAA members viewed this as a way of justifying a continued investment in the apartheid system.
This apparent concession and less of a national focus on apartheid slowed down the movement for a few years. CU-CAA was still around, but operated on a smaller scale until the movement ramped up again in the early 1980s. During this period, organizers began building national and statewide connections, which proved crucial in revitalizing the campaign for divestment. U of I students attended several American Coalition On Africa (ACOA) national conferences. There, they planned National Weeks of Actions, where organizations across the country would hold rallies, political education events and other activities for two weeks. Many CU-CAA members also worked within the Coalition for Illinois Divestment from South Africa, which was pushing for divestment at the state level.
These connections, alongside continued protests, collaboration with other campus organizations, and the establishment of Amandla, the official newsletter of CU-CAA, helped the movement grow in prominence once again. Following a controversial visit by the Illinois men’s gymnastics team to South Africa, frustrations grew. At a board meeting on November 14th, 1984, members of the coalition, alongside student representatives including the student trustee, testified in favor of reviewing the divestment policy. The board rejected divestment, instead voting to have a “retreat” in February to discuss divestment related to social issues. However, this retreat did not result in any significant changes to divestment policies.
In response to this, students continued to organize, including through official channels of campus governance. Leaders of the Student Government Association became more involved in advocating for divestment, forming a committee in 1985 which met with U of I President Stanley Ikenberry and the Board of Trustees. In these meetings and otherwise, university leadership stated that they opposed apartheid, but did not explain their opposition to divestment.
This continued refusal to explain their policy pushed organizers further towards direct action. On May 8th, 1985, following a candlelight vigil, students approached President Ikenberry’s residence, demanding a rationale for his position. After Ikenberry continued to refuse, protests continued throughout finals week, with organizers anticipating the May 15th Board of Trustees meeting in the Illini Union. Under significant pressure, the trustees then agreed to hold a special session addressing divestment in June.
Despite taking place in Chicago outside of the school session, there was a considerable presence at the meeting, including anti-apartheid activists from Chicago and Champaign-Urbana. After taking hours to discuss other business, the Board of Trustees eventually reached the topic of divestment. Board Members Albert Logan and Ann Smith, alongside non-voting student trustee Paul Pittman, advocated for divestment. However, all other trustees voted down the motion, which failed 8-2. Enraged students started chanting “Divest Now!”, and the trustees moved to recess to allow the police to arrest 16 protestors, including four U of I students.
The next school year, the pressure continued for divestment, but the majority of the trustees continued to reject it. In the spring, a new group, the Divest Now Coalition (DNC), was formed. Made up largely of younger students ready to take more radical steps, it focused more on direct action and was geared solely towards divestment. By early 1986, the new group had considerable support, and had formed several committees to facilitate its activities.
One significant escalation the DNC took was the construction of a shantytown on the Main Quad in April 1986, which pro-Palestine organizers today have compared to the recent encampment in a similar location. This action served multiple purposes, providing symbolism of the poor living conditions of the Black majority in South Africa, creating a sense of community among protestors, and forcing the administration to respond to their demands for divestment.
Over the next few days, the structure quickly expanded, and there were reportedly over 1,000 people there when the Board members arrived for their April meeting. Recognizing their fragile position, the trustees allowed three DNC members to come into the meeting and speak. However, following their statements, the Board of Trustees refused to acknowledge their demands, and as the students once again began chanting “Divest Now!”, they were arrested and removed from the Illini Union, prompting additional mass arrests.
However, it would not be much longer after this before the administration was forced to, at least in part, concede to the demands of divestment. The anti-apartheid movement and advocates of divestment were winning nationally, from the University of California divesting $3.1 billion in assets, to US Congress overriding President Reagan’s veto and implementing the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act. The University of Illinois saw four new trustees elected that were more favorable to divestment, and President Ikenberry himself recommended divestment to the Board of Trustees. While it was initially voted down, the end was clearly near. On January 14th, 1987, the Board of Trustees voted to divest $3.3 million from companies doing business in South Africa.
While this was only a partial divestment, it was a huge symbolic victory for the anti-apartheid movement at the U of I. As Professor Barnes emphasized, “it took a long time to achieve that, this was a long struggle.” Generations of student organizers and their faculty and community allies had been pushing for the U of I to divest for around a decade, and activists across the country had been pushing to end ties with South Africa for much longer. The DNC would cease operations soon after this partial divestment, with CU-CAA operating until 1989. While total divestment was never won, apartheid would come to an end, with this local victory playing a small part in a larger international social movement, and continuing to inspire campus organizers to this day.