Demonstrations begin outside the South African Embassy in Washington D.C.

Date: 21 Nov 1984
Updated: 30 Sep 2019

Demonstrations began outside the South African Embassy in Washington DC and continued on an almost daily basis as anti-apartheid protesters demanded a stronger anti-South Africa policy from the United States (U.S.) government. The U.S. Congressman Walter Fauntroy and three other civil rights activists, Randall Robinson, Executive Director of TransAfrica and Dr. Mary Frances Berry, Commissioner of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, were arrested for a sit-in at South African embassy in Washington DC. Georgetown University law professor Eleanor Holmes Norton was never arrested, as she had stepped out to address the media. The Free South Africa Movement (FSAM) went on to discuss violations of human rights under the apartheid government. At the end of the meeting they refused to leave the building and began a sit-in.

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How we know this

01Africa Activist Archive, ‘Free South Africa’, [online], available at https://africanactivist.msu.edu (Accessed: 09 October 2012)
02O’Malley P. ‘1984’, from Nelson Mandela Center of Memory and Dialog, [online], available at www.nelsonmandela.org [Accessed: 20 November 2013]

Last updated · 30 Sep 2019

Cite this entry

South African History Online. (2012, November 14). Demonstrations begin outside the South African Embassy in Washington D.C.. South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0094201

South African History Online (2012) 'Demonstrations begin outside the South African Embassy in Washington D.C.', South African History Online, 14 November. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0094201 (Accessed: 27 September 2026).

South African History Online, Demonstrations begin outside the South African Embassy in Washington D.C. [website], https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0094201, (accessed 27 September 2026).

"Demonstrations begin outside the South African Embassy in Washington D.C.." South African History Online, 14 Nov. 2012, https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0094201. Accessed 27 Sept. 2026.

South African History Online. "Demonstrations begin outside the South African Embassy in Washington D.C.." South African History Online. November 14, 2012. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0094201.