Breaking down U of L’s legacy of divestment

Editor’s note: This piece’s timeline heavily relied on the thesis of Chris Burns entitled, “Divest now!” The student divestment campaign at the University of Louisville: a crusade for equality.” You can find the full thesis here.

By Emma Posey

The University of Louisville’s chapter of Louisville Students for Justice in Palestine has gained campus-wide attention for its elevated efforts in its call for divestment from companies that financially support Israel. Throughout their work, they have referred to the university’s legacy of divestment from apartheid frequently on their social media, namely the 1985 movement to divest from South Africa.

Student movements for divestment began in 1965 when the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), alongside Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), organized a sit-in protest against the Chase Manhattan National Bank in New York City. This bank was invested in South Africa, therefore funding an unjust system of apartheid.

This sit-in launched the idea of student-led action, and it quickly spread to other college campuses like Princeton in 1969, Hampshire College in 1977, UNC Chapel Hill, Columbia University, Cornell University, UC Berkeley and the University of Louisville in 1985.

Anti-apartheid activism begins

While limited student organizing occurred the previous year, formal anti-apartheid activism on campus began in 1985.

In January 1985, the Progressive Students League (PSL), a student activist organization dedicated to spreading awareness on social justice issues among college students, directed its efforts to anti-apartheid awareness at U of L. From this movement, a call for U of L to divest was made, marking the start of the 1985 divestment campaign.

In February 1985, PSL members protested in front of Firestone Tire and Rubber Co., due to the company’s alleged investments in South African apartheid. At the same time, U of L’s Student Government Association Student Senate drafted and a divestment resolution, demanding that the university pull funds from all institutions with dealings in South Africa no later than April 1, 1986.

In March 1985, the Student Against Apartheid group launched a petition on campus, asking for support from fellow students in their call for complete divestment. This petition gained them the support of the university’s Faculty Senate which then gathered attention from University President Donald C. Swain, and the university’s Board of Trustees.

The Board of Trustees eventually agreed to a meeting with PSL’s student leaders to discuss the issue of divestment, where the majority refused to agree to their demands.

Protests escalate divestment pressure

In April of 1985, an estimated twenty-five students and faculty members marched across campus to Grawemeyer Hall, chanting, “President Swain, you can’t hide! We know you’re on apartheid’s side!” Inside, President Swain and other opposing administrators were meeting.

At the protest, a now infamous picture of Auguste Rodin’s “The Thinker” was photographed with a sign in its hands that called for divestment. Campus police kicked the students out of the building, but that did not stop them.

The Thinker statue holding a divestment poster, April 1985. Photo by Durrell Hall Jr. / The Courier Journal

Here the students peacefully occupied the nearby university information center, renaming it the “Steve Biko Center,” after the prominent South African anti-apartheid activist. At its height, the occupation reached around sixty students and faculty members with around thirty-five students staying overnight and vacating the next morning.

By the following afternoon, President Swain and the Board of Trustees voted to partially divest one to two million of the estimated $9.2 million from companies tied to South African apartheid.

Reaching an agreement

Unsatisfied, student leaders of the divestment campaign referred back to the SGA Divestment Resolution that explicitly called for total divestment. Student organizers continued their campaign through the summer of 1985 and into the following fall semester.

In September, SGA Student Senate passed another resolution calling for total divestment, leading Swain and the Board of Trustees to reconsider the request.

On Oct. 28, 1985, the Board of Trustees voted to completely divest university funds from South Africa no later than Nov. 1, 1987. This made U of L the first university in the state of Kentucky and the South to divest from South Africa.

Current studies on the 1985 divestment campaign

Research about this moment in the university’s history is ongoing. Beginning in 2024, the Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research worked to highlight the stories from this time, specifically with the goal of collecting oral histories of students who were active in the campaign.

Their team of researchers included Director of the Anne Braden Institute, Dr. Angela Storey (Anthropology), Dr. Tyler Fleming (Pan African Studies and History), Philile Dlamini (MA, Political Science), Yomi Ejikunle (PhD, Pan-African Studies), Norah Laugher (B.A., American Studies, Yale). The author of this piece, Emma Posey (B.A. Journalism and English), also worked on the researcher team.