Civil Rights Talk: From South Africa to Ferguson | SF

Submitted by the Event Organizer

Twenty years later, the system of racial oppression that dominated South Africa for decades is now universally accepted as a “crime against humanity.” Fifty years after the supposed success of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, we are still dealing with racist and murderous police forces throughout the country.

As the indignation and rebellion spreads out from Ferguson across the country, it is a good time for us to study our own history — to try to understand how struggles are won. What lessons can we learn from people in South Africa that fought against apartheid?

Rick Turner was one of the most hopeful and radical anti-apartheid activists. For his efforts, Turner was murdered by the security police in 1978. While Turner’s radical ideas made him a threat to the government, they can be useful to us now as we try to think through how to oppose a brutal system with idealism, open-ness, and a long-term vision. Billy Keniston, author of “Choosing to be Free: A Life Story of Rick Turner,” will lead a discussion linking Turner’s efforts towards radical change with the problems facing us in the United States today.

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