Disclaimer: The following blog post is not a reflection of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s opinion on the below topics.
Though UW-Madison has had protests and civic engagement throughout its history, the era that gave UW-Madison its reputation as a “protest school” began in the 1960s. Anti-Apartheid activism influenced politics in Madison long before the American Anti-Apartheid Movement gained momentum in the 1980s, becoming one of the first communities in the United States to recognize apartheid as a critical issue that required American activism and solidarity.[1] This was due to organizations like the Madison Area Committee on Southern Africa (MACSA), formed in early 1969 by a group of UW-Madison students to protest the humanitarian issues people faced because of colonization in Southern Africa.
Before MACSA’s establishment, Anti-Apartheid activism in Madison was largely uncoordinated and sporadic. This resulted in wholly disparate protests in May of 1968, including one on the 17th where hundreds of students participated in a large-scale seven-hour-long sit-in, protesting the university’s investment in Chase Manhattan Bank, whose investments perpetuated apartheid in South Africa.[2] The next day, a mass amount of student files were damaged in a firebombing in South Hall, not to be confused with the Sterling Hall bombing of 1970. This was never officially linked to protestors but was associated with them because of the ongoing protests during this time.[3, 4] However, the true beginning of Madison’s organized Anti-Apartheid campaign for divestment began one year later with MACSA leading the struggle’s efforts through exclusively nonviolent tactics.
As a result of community interest, MACSA’s first organizational meeting was held on March 22, 1969, one day after the ninth anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa in which police openly fired on a crowd of 5000 protestors, leaving 69 people dead and 180 seriously wounded.[5] In its early years, MACSA focused not only on South Africa, but on the belt of southern African countries that were under the oppression of colonial rule, including South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Angola, and Namibia.[6] They devoted most of their efforts to garnering widespread awareness of the unrest in Africa. In October 1969, MACSA had forty active members and, although the majority of the group was composed of University students and faculty, many members were from the local Madison community as well.[7] MACSA’s main agent for spreading awareness was their newsletter, MACSA News, which publicized all activities and current information on the conflicts. Their first issue was published in November 1969 and by 1975, MACSA News was distributed to 400 homes with subscriptions.[8] They also published multiple influential pamphlets including, “Is Southern Africa Wisconsin’s Business?”, “Wisconsin Corporate Involvement in Southern Africa”, and “Israel and Southern Africa”, all of which contributed to Wisconsin’s growing discomfort with their involvement in the situation in Africa.[9] MACSA ran frequent teach-ins and trainings, sponsored guest speakers such as Sharfudine Khan, the representative of Frelimo, a democratic, socialist party in Mozambique, to the UN, picketed, promoted boycotts of products and companies in relations with South Africa, and raised funds for African liberation movements.[10] In 1972, MACSA relocated from the University YMCA to Pres House, but experienced a decline in activity in 1974 and 1975, forcing MACSA to restructure itself around 25 active members.[11]
The turning point in the Anti-Apartheid movement was the Soweto Youth Uprising in South Africa in June 1976, where about 10,000 students were met with police officers, commencing in events of extreme violence. It is estimated that 575 people died and 3,907 were wounded, although the numbers are largely disputed.[12] The massacre was the catalyst for global outrage at the Apartheid government of South Africa as brutal images of police firing on peacefully demonstrating students were spread. As a result of the newfound support against Apartheid, the activist movement within Madison achieved unprecedented political victories unseen elsewhere in the United States, influencing city, county, and university-wide legislation. The support and base MACSA had accumulated allowed them to push for substantive legislative change in the subsequent two years. In its early years, MACSA had developed strong ties with local policymakers, and through heavy lobbying, passed Resolution 29.355 in the Madison Common Council, which awarded contracts with companies that had no ties with South Africa.[13] This became the first ordinance of its kind within the United States and served as a model to 92 other cities that eventually passed similar ordinances.[14] Simultaneously to MACSA’s legislative momentum, 12 students occupied the Chancellor’s office demanding divestment.[15] This gave MACSA the political sway required to pass a modified version of Madison’s ordinance in the Dane County Board of Supervisors, requiring the county to award benefits to companies not involved with South Africa.
The last and most celebrated victory for the movement was the divestment from South Africa by the whole University of Wisconsin system. MACSA’s influence on the University was strong as a result of the group’s consistent publicity and frequent meetings held on campus. However, the main catalyst was Attorney General Bronson LaFollette, whose stance on divestment was heavily influenced and encouraged by MACSA.[16] LaFollette issued Stature 39.29(1), which barred “the purchase of stocks in firms practicing racial discrimination”, illegalizing all University investment in companies reinforcing Apartheid.[17] The resolution was passed on February 10, 1978 by the Board of Regents, one of the most significant divestments due to its size of $11 million worth of stocks.[18] The UW stock portfolio was subsequently reconstructed without any losses. These three legislative advancements that were made as a result of student-led Anti-Apartheid activism in the late 70s are commonly referred to as the Mad Town Victories.
The student-led campaign for divestment in Wisconsin from South Africa was an incredible success, even more so because its achievements occurred nearly a decade before the majority of other divestment campaigns. UW-Madison provided inspiration for other schools and activist campaigns and sent a message of possibility as the largest University system to divest, that divestment was possible and a worthwhile tactic for taking a stance against injustice abroad.[21]
Letters of correspondence between the Liberation Movement in Angola Medical Services with MACSA and other collaborating organizations, specifically about medicine sent from the University of Wisconsin’s hospital:
[1] Elowyn Corby, “University of Wisconsin Students Win Divestment from Apartheid South Africa, 1969-1978,” Global Nonviolent Action Database, 2011, https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/university-wisconsin-students-win-divestment-apartheid-south-africa-1969-1978.
[2]Ibid.
[3] Samuel J. Pfeifer, “8,700 Miles from Pretoria: The Anti-Apartheid Movement in Madison, Wisconsin, 1968-1994,” The University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire, A Bachelor of Arts Thesis, 2010, https://minds.wisconsin.edu/bitstream/handle/1793/44598/Pfeifer_Samuel.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y.
[4]UW-Madison Libraries, “1960-1969,” UW Archives and Records Management, n.d., https://www.library.wisc.edu/archives/exhibits/campus-history-projects/protests-social-action-at-uw-madison-during-the-20th-century/1960-1969/.
[5]“Sharpeville Massacre, 21 March 1960,” South African History Online, 2011, https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/sharpeville-massacre-21-march-1960.
[6]Madison Anti Apartheid Coalition (Wis.), “Madison Anti-Apartheid Coalition Records, 1968-1992,” Wisconsin Historical Society, n.d., https://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=wiarchives;cc=wiarchives;view=text;rgn=main;didno=uw-whs-mss00836.
[7]Ibid.
[8]Corby, “University of Wisconsin Students Win Divestment from Apartheid South Africa.”
[9]“Madison Area Committee on Southern Africa Papers,” African Activist Archive, https://africanactivist.msu.edu/browse/results/?collection=Madison+Area+Committee+on+Southern+Africa+papers%2C+Michigan+State+University+Libraries+Special+Collections&page=1.
[10] Madison Anti Apartheid Coalition, “Madison Anti-Apartheid Coalition Record.” https://africanactivist.msu.edu/record/210-849-28257/.
[11]Ibid.
[12]Rebecca M. Kulik, “Soweto Uprising,” Britannica, 2024, https://www.britannica.com/event/Soweto-uprising.
[13]“Madison Area Committee on Southern Africa Papers,” African Activist Archive,
[14]Corby, “University of Wisconsin Students Win Divestment from Apartheid South Africa.”
[15]Ibid.
[16]Corby, “University of Wisconsin Students Win Divestment from Apartheid South Africa.”
[17]Ibid.
[18]Ibid.
[19] Pfeifer, “8,700 Miles from Pretoria: The Anti-Apartheid Movement in Madison, Wisconsin.”
[20]Wisconsin Public Radio, “UW-Madison’s anti-apartheid and divestment history,” Wisconsin Today, 2024, https://www.wpr.org/shows/wisconsin-today-2/financial-aid-for-college-history-of-divestment-protests-country-music-by-black-artists.
[21]Corby, “University of Wisconsin Students Win Divestment from Apartheid South Africa.”