The Revolt of the Black Athlete by Edwards Harry;

Author:Edwards, Harry; [Edwards, Harry;]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780252041075
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Published: 2018-01-15T07:00:00+00:00

AMERICAN COMMITTEE ON AFRICA

(New York City)

February 16, 1968

DEAR PROFESSOR EDWARDS,

We would like to express our deep gratitude and admiration for your concern with the problem of South Africa’s readmission to the Olympics, and for your signing and returning the statement of protest circulated by Jackie Robinson. Without this action on your part and that of other athletes, we would have been unable to hold a press conference in New York and publicize the issue in the press, and on radio and television. (See enclosed press clippings.)

But in spite of our efforts and those of other groups, you no doubt know that South Africa has been readmitted to the Olympics by a very narrow margin. According to Reuters (a British News Agency), the secret vote of the International Olympic Committee was so close that South Africa gained entrance by less than half a dozen votes. We will keep you informed on the latest developments on the part of African nations and others to boycott the Olympics and to protest the racist decision of the I.O.C.

In the meantime, we urge you very strongly to send a telegram or letter to the U.S. Olympic Committee, 57 Park Avenue, New York, N.Y. protesting the decision of the I.O.C. Last night we sent the following telegram to Mr. Avery Brundage, President, and Mr. J. W. Westerhoff, Secretary-General of the I.O.C. in Grenoble:

I.O.C. decision readmitting South Africa to Olympics has destroyed the integrity and worth of the games. South Africa’s policy does not change apartheid in sports in South Africa and still defies Olympic rules. Reaction in much of the world will confirm fact that I.O.C. accepts racism.

To Mr. Douglas Roby, President of the U.S. Olympic Committee, we sent this message:

Deeply shocked at I.O.C. decision readmitting South Africa to Olympics. U.S. Olympic Committee had obligation to make vote public. We hope all American athletes will boycott Olympics in solidarity with African nations against apartheid.

If you know any other athletes who are interested in preventing South Africa’s presence in Mexico City this fall, please urge them to join in our protest by contacting the American Committee. In the continuing fight against racism and against South Africa’s false return to “international respectability”, we know that we can count on your continued support.

Yours,

GEORGE M. HOUSER

Executive Director

Most of the parties backing the continuing ban against the Union of South Africa were keenly aware of the political overtones implicit in South Africa’s being readmitted. The white establishment in South Africa has for years operated from the premise that eventually most of the stable countries of the world, particularly those in the Western Hemisphere, would one day accept the political ideology and implications of apartheid. Including a racially-mixed South African team in the 1968 games, clearly a sham form of integration, would have gone far to extend official blessings to it. Such an act would have seriously compounded the struggle of black Africans and black South Africans to break the back of the cruel, immoral, and oppressive South African political, social, and economic system.

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