When South Africa’s National Party came to power in 1948, the white leadership put extreme laws in place forcing the country’s racial groups to live and develop separately. These “apartheid” laws caused much hardship and resentment. The growth of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States in the 1950s brought attention to apartheid, and in the 1970s and 80s, students and other groups staged protests and demonstrations demanding that universities, banks, cities, and other entities divest themselves of any financial holdings in firms doing business in South Africa.

On April 25, 1986, members of the University of Washington Board of Regents met at the UW Administration Building to discuss financial matters. Some 50 students protested nearby on Red Square, chanting in favor of divestment. In this photo, two students carry signs, while another speaks through a bullhorn.

Caption information source: “Campus police eject six protesters”, by Steven Goldsmith, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 26, 1986, page D10.