To Bertrand Russell
Author: King, Martin Luther, Jr.; Lutuli, Albert J.
Date: August 21, 1962
Location: New York, N.Y.
Genre: Letter
Topic: Martin Luther King, Jr. - Political and Social Views
Details
On behalf of the American Committee on Africa (ACOA), King and Albert Lutuli invite Russell to be one of the signers of the “Appeal for Action Against Apartheid.”1 Russell was one of more than a hundred international sponsors of the appeal published on Human Rights Day in December 1962.2
Lord Bertrand Russell
c/o Anenaeum
London S.W.1
England
Dear Lord Bertrand Russell:
We write to ask you to join us in sponsoring the Appeal for Action Against Apartheid, first printing of which is enclosed.3 Designed to call attention to the deepening crisis in South Africa, the Appeal aims at stimulating concerted action by people around the world. The campaign starting now focuses toward Human Rights Day, December 10, 1962, as the first climax in a continuing movement to quarantine apartheid.
International action now is imperative: the recently enacted “Sabotage” law ultimately makes opposition to the government’s apartheid system a capital offense.4 The Appeal can become the base on which to unite the people of the world against the tragic and suicidal racist practices in South Africa.
In 1957, a similar campaign was built around the Declaration of Conscience, signed by international figures from all continents.5 We believe the present effort, because it calls for action, can be significantly more effective. We cannot overestimate the significance of international pressure in influencing the course the South African Government may follow. Even more important, such pressure has been called for by those courageous South Africans now risking life itself to oppose their government’s barbarous policy.
We therefore ask you to join us as sponsors of the Appeal for Action. To do so, simply sign the enclosed card and rush it to us at the American Committee on Africa.
Thank you,
[signed] A. J. Lutuli
Albert J. Lutuli
South Africa
[signed] Martin L. King Jr.
Martin Luther King
United States
encs.
P.S. We should like to have your signature by September 10 so that the names of signers can be issued three months before 1962’s Human Rights Day.
1. George Houser, executive director of ACOA, wrote King on 6 February 1962 asking if he would team up with Lutuli, president of the African National Congress, and Eleanor Roosevelt, former first lady, to invite international figures to sign the declaration. The “Appeal for Action Against Apartheid” was signed by world leaders to mobilize support for a boycott of South African goods and economic sanctions against the country. Bertrand Arthur William Russell (1872–1970), born in Monmouthshire, Wales, attended Trinity College and earned First Class degrees in both part I of the school’s mathematical tripos (1893), part II of the moral science tripos (1894), and an M.A. in moral science (1897), before lecturing at the college from 1895–1916. Russell wrote on analytic philosophy for which he eventually earned a Nobel Prize in 1950. Best known for his opposition to war and nuclear weapons, Russell was dismissed from Trinity in 1916 and jailed for six months in 1918 for his anti-war activities. In 1961 he was sentenced to two months in jail for organizing a nonviolent demonstration that officials said incited others to breach the peace. Only a few months before his death, Russell appealed to the United Nations to investigate war crimes by American soldiers in South Vietnam.
2. More than 200,000 copies of the Appeal were distributed to individuals, organizations, student groups, churches, and labor unions on Human Rights Day. In addition to seeking public support, the ACOA sent letters protesting apartheid to President Kennedy and South African Prime Minister, H. F. Verwoerd (ACOA, “A brief review of action taken on and around Human Rights Day, December 10, in connection with the Appeal for Action Against Apartheid campaign,” December 1962; “ACOA Urges Action in Anti-Apartheid Campaign,” Africa Report, December 1962, p. 31).
3. American Committee on Africa, “Appeal for Action against Apartheid,” 1962.
4. Following several bombings in December 1961, the South African legislature proposed the General Law Amendment Bill, which broadly defined sabotage as not only threats to property or life but any action seeking to bring about social and political reform. The minimum punishment for sabotage was five years in prison, and the maximum sentence was death. The controversial law also included a new provision, “civil death,” in which a lifetime of forced isolation under house arrest would be imposed.
5. In mid-1957 King joined the National Committee of the ACOA, and later sponsored with Eleanor Roosevelt and Reverend James A. Pike “The Declaration of Conscience,” an international call for demonstrations on 10 December 1957 to protest South African apartheid (see King to Chester Bowles, 8 November 1957, in Papers 4:311–314).
Source: LBRP-WRDA-OHMa, Bertrand Russell Papers, William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections, McMaster University Library, Hamilton, Canada.