A Hero’s Welcome Awaits Mandela at Each U.S. Stop

It is a phenomenon in the making, a 10-day odyssey that promises to mix the pomp and ceremony of visiting royalty with the emotional chemistry of a civil rights observance: Nelson Mandela is coming to America.

In Detroit, anti-apartheid activists are attempting to secure 52,000-seat Tiger Stadium for Mandela to address an expected overflow crowd. New Yorkers are organizing two speeches--one at the United Nations and another at 68,000-seat Yankee Stadium--plus a ticker-tape parade through downtown Manhattan. In Los Angeles, a squabble has already occured over control of Mandela’s schedule. In Boston, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) has reserved the John F. Kennedy presidential library for a luncheon; a public reception is expected in Boston Commons.

And here, in the nation’s capital, Mandela will cruise from a private audience with President Bush at the White House to star-studded fund-raising dinners to political conferences with well connected lawmakers. Organizers say an appearance at RFK Stadium or the Lincoln Memorial also is being discussed.

Hidden from public view for 27 years by South African prison walls, Mandela stepped squarely into the international spotlight with his release on Feb. 11. Now, as word spreads of his journey to America, liberating expectations combine with racial tensions as municipal officials prepare to welcome and protect one of the world’s greatest living heroes.

Mandela, deputy president of the African National Congress and the focal point of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, is expected to meet President Bush at the White House on June 25 and to visit Los Angeles on June 29 and 30. Other stops are planned in New York, Boston, Atlanta, Miami and Detroit.

Organizers of Mandela’s American visit are scrambling to find places deep and wide enough to hold the anticipated thousands who will pay to see--and be seen--during his historic visit. Some are comparing the coming of Mandela to the much publicized visit of Pope John Paul II to nine U.S. cities in 1987.

“Mandela will get the kind of treatment the Pope got,” said Bill Owens, a Massachusetts state senator and a leading figure in Boston’s black communities. “For all intents and purposes, Nelson Mandela is more than a head of state. He is, perhaps, the most well-known person in the world right now.”

For millions of Americans, including an overwhelming number of black Americans, Mandela’s struggle against the South African government has made him a world leader of almost mythic proportion. His seven-city U.S. tour will take him to urban areas with large black populations and, in some cases, severe racial tensions. Five of the seven cities have black mayors. While local officials so far have played down the possibility that Mandela’s visit could spark confrontations, they acknowledge that his presence is likely to evoke powerful emotional outbursts among both blacks and whites, particularly at large outdoor rallies.

Since the “Free South Africa” protests in 1984 focused attention in this country on the racially segregationist policies of the South African government, Americans have identified increasingly with Mandela’s cause.

Although the turnout will be difficult to predict until his schedule is completed, each of Mandela’s public appearances in the United States could attract tens of thousands of participants and create scenes reminiscent of the historic civil rights rallies of the 1960s.

In what was seen as an early indication of the likely U.S. reaction to his presence, Mandela attended a rock concert in his honor at London’s Wembley Stadium before more than 70,000 admirers who paid $33 each for their tickets. When Mandela rose to speak, the overflow crowd of blacks and whites, celebrities and commoners, sat in awe-struck silence.

Already, organizers of his visit to the United States are preparing for an onslaught of people who hope to meet with him or use his celebrity to enhance their causes.

“Everybody wants to shake his hand,” said Roger Wilkins, coordinator of the Mandela Reception Committee, which is supervising Mandela’s lodging, travel and social engagements in concert with the African National Congress; TransAfrica, an anti-apartheid lobby, and Fenton Communications, a Washington public relations firm.

“Since people found out I have this job, I’ve gotten so many calls from new friends, all people who want to participate some way or meet him,” said Wilkins.

Describing Mandela as “a very, very valuable 71-year-old human being,” Wilkins said the planning of his U.S. itinerary would be supervised through the committee’s Washington office. Local officials in each of the host cities are making arrangements and recommendations for activities in the respective locations, he said.

A small dispute erupted last week in Los Angeles, where the local ANC office expressed dismay at the announcement of the Wilkins group’s control of Mandela’s schedule. Responding to the concerns of the Los Angeles ANC chapter, the reception committee issued a statement affirming its duties as the sole “organizing body for the visit.”

Nevertheless, some local confusion and apprehension have become evident amid the excitement surrounding Mandela’s impending visit.

For example, the chief source of controversy arising from Mandela’s planned one-day stop in Detroit on June 28 is who gets the credit for his Motown visit. Mayor Coleman A. Young said it was his invitation that swayed Mandela; a group of Baptist ministers who traveled to South Africa this spring said it was their appeal that persuaded Mandela to visit Detroit; United Auto Workers officials claimed it was the union’s longstanding solidarity with the struggle of black South Africans that tipped the scales.

“The people involved in the process have all worked together on so many things that we don’t anticipate much conflict,” said Bob Berg, Young’s chief spokesman. “The whole idea of his being here is a celebration of what he stands for and a chance for people of Detroit and Michigan and the surrounding states to show their support for the fight for freedom in South Africa.”

For Young, however, the planned visit has revived a source of antagonism between the mayor and many of his black critics involving disclosures of Young’s investments in South African Krugerrands. Young has disavowed any direct involvement in purchasing the gold coins, which were acquired by an investment firm created solely for Young’s benefit.

Though growing tensions between Miami’s black and expanding Latino communities exploded into rioting in 1987 and 1988, Alvin Peabody, an assistant to Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez, said the city will ensure tight security for Mandela’s visit to City Hall.

“If they do have intentions to disrupt Mandela’s time here, our organizers will make sure they are not seen or heard,” Peabody said. However, he called Mandela “a hero for all people” and predicted he would be “a unifying force for people of all colors in America.”

Boston Mayor Raymond L. Flynn assured anti-apartheid activists that he would assist their efforts to celebrate Mandela by providing city-donated parade permits, police overtime and other necessary resources. “What the mayor said was, you tell us what you want, and we’re here to help,” said Arthur Jones, an assistant to Flynn.

In New York, a series of recent racial incidents have heightened tensions among the city’s minority population groups. Even so, Wilbert Tatum, editor of the Amsterdam News, the city’s largest black-owned newspaper, doubted that the recent troubles would affect Mandela’s visit.

“If friction does come at all,” he said, “it will be about who is to sit on the right hand of God, and nothing more.”

Tatum said he believed that New York’s sometimes-divided black community would display unprecedented unanimity in its reaction to the visit, citing a near universal agreement about the need to offer “a real American outpouring of love and money for Mandela.”

Wilkins, the Mandela Reception Committee coordinator, said the U.S. tour is designed to allow Mandela to request U.S. financial support for the ANC and to persuade government officials and private individuals to assist in ending apartheid.

“We are committed to putting together a program that is designed to help him accomplish his objectives,” Wilkins said, noting that the organizers will not allow groups to exploit Mandela for selfish purposes:

“Nelson Mandela is not a moveable photo opportunity to inflate the ego of Americans and American institutions.”

Staff writers John M. Broder and Shawn Pogatchnik contributed to this story.