“The Chicago Anti-Apartheid Movement Collection was assembled through the efforts of Dr. Lisa Brock in 2007, then the Columbia College Chicago Chair of the Humanities, History and Social Sciences Department. A seminal force in the local anti-apartheid movement, Lisa brought together many of her colleagues who donated the material that forms this collection.” 

The end of the apartheid system was brought about, in part, by groups of people working locally around the globe who fought apartheid by endorsing economic sanctions and company boycotts. What we have broadly termed the “Chicago Anti-Apartheid Movement” collection is made up of several local groups’ records. Most of the collection chronicles Chicago area activists’ work in bringing an end to the apartheid system of government in Southern and South Africa. 

Some of these local organizations also fought other social issues, so there is a small amount of material in the collection not directly related to the anti-apartheid movement, which includes topics such as geopolitics, public health and safety, and immigration matters; most of these materials are found in the digitized poster collection and related individual collections.” 

From the Columbia Archives Collection