500 Gather in Crenshaw Rally to Protest Apartheid
About 500 people converged on a small park in the Crenshaw District on Saturday to denounce the South African government’s apartheid system.
At the rally sponsored by the Los Angeles Free South Africa Movement, the crowd listened to numerous speakers, including South African anti-apartheid activist Allan Boesak, representatives of the African National Congress, Assemblywoman Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) and Alfre Woodard, who portrayed Winnie Mandela in an HBO movie about jailed civil rights leader Nelson Mandela.
Boesak told the crowd that the practice of jailing children in South Africa and the government’s racist policies cannot be tolerated.
“We will not stop until all the jails of apartheid are unlocked,” shouted Boesak, who has frequently been imprisoned for his opposition to apartheid.
The third annual rally was preceded by a parade when about 350 people gathered at Rancho Cienega Sports Center and marched down Martin Luther King Boulevard to Leimert Park.
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