U.S. Civil Rights Leaders March Against Apartheid

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, actor Paul Newman, Coretta Scott King and many of the most prominent figures in the U.S. civil rights movement proclaimed Monday to be a national day of mourning for blacks in South Africa and led 5,500 marchers in a mock funeral for those killed in anti-apartheid violence in that country.

Just as funerals have become the rallying point for black protest in South Africa, so too was the symbolic funeral procession down Constitution Avenue a showcase for some of the most forceful voices of U.S. protest against apartheid, South Africa’s system of racial separation.

Under warm skies and without any visible counterdemonstrators, the “Free South Africa” marchers carried 50 small black coffins along the parade route from the Washington Monument to the foot of the heavily guarded State Department for the symbolic services.

Actor Newman and fellow entertainer Tony Randall joined civil rights figures in the front ranks, carrying a banner reading, “Apartheid Kills.”

The demonstrators called on the Reagan Administration to renounce its policy of “constructive engagement,” or quiet diplomacy, toward South Africa and to impose sanctions on the white-minority government. They also urged U.S. businesses to halt all dealings with the Pretoria regime.

The Rev. Leon Sullivan, a Philadelphia pastor whose voluntary “Sullivan principles” have guided many businesses in their economic dealings with South Africa, declared a hard-edged new impatience with the Pretoria regime.

“If, in 24 months, apartheid is not abolished, I call for the withdrawal of all American companies and the breaking of diplomatic relations,” Sullivan, his voice trembling, told a pre-march press conference.

The remarks represented a significant change for the black leader, who has given U.S. businessmen guidelines for racial progress as a foundation for continuing their commerce in South Africa. In some cases, these guidelines have called for actions that stretch ahead further than two years.

New York Mayor Edward I. Koch, a strong supporter of Israel, called upon the United States, Israel and “all the nations of the world” to immediately break diplomatic and economic ties with South Africa.

A Hitler Comparison

Koch likened actions of the white-minority government in South Africa to those of Adolf Hitler’s pre-World War II Germany and said that other nations should not consider strife in South Africa to be an “internal matter.”

“We should not wait for the death camps,” he declared. But when reporters said that Israel has been among the nations with closest ties to Pretoria, Koch bristled and said such questions “are designed to break up coalitions, not build them.”

King, widow of the late civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., said: “Apartheid is beginning to crumble. What it will be replaced by depends on actions in this country and in other nations.”

She quoted her late husband about the value of protest here when strife is so far away in the South African countryside. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” she said.

Jackson, making a low-key appearance, also exhorted the Administration to think ahead. “Our challenge to our government: Take the right side in history,” he said.

‘Weak, Denying Role’

Singer Harry Belafonte, who led the marchers in song, including “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” likewise focused on a theme of how U.S. policies will be viewed over the long run. “These are important times in history, and it is unfortunate that our government is playing such a weak and denying role,” he said.

Others who played a visible role in the march included Georgia state Sen. Julian Bond, Father Robert Drinan of Georgetown University, Judy Goldsmith, president of the National Organization for Women, NAACP Director Benjamin Hooks and congressional delegate Walter E. Fauntroy (D-D.C.).

The organizers of the march also have kept up long-running protests at the South African Embassy, where daily arrests are made, including eight Monday, police said.