Duke Trustees Set Date to Start Divestiture
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DURHAM, N.C. — Duke University’s board voted Saturday to sell by 1988 the university’s $12.5 million worth of shares in companies that do business in South Africa unless that country dismantles its apartheid system.
The Duke trustees deliberated about two hours and voted, 21 to 3, to begin selling the holdings in January if South Africa has not ended business and residential segregation and repealed laws that restrict the movement of blacks.
“I hate to see Duke University on the wrong side of a great moral issue,” Samuel Cook, a trustee from New Orleans, said in support of the proposal. “The situation in South Africa is really a rebellion against civilization.”
Mikel Taylor, a member of the Duke-Durham Divestiture Action Campaign, praised the trustees’ action.
“It’s great, it’s exactly what we wanted,” Taylor said.
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