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.

Starting in late 1984, anti-apartheid demonstrators from a variety of organizations protested almost weekly at the South African consulate - the Madison Park home of the country’s honorary consul, James Swing. This image shows Ras Bongo protesting outside Swing's home on July 17, 1988, the 70th birthday of anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela, who at that time had been imprisoned by the apartheid regime for over 25 years.

Caption information source: “Pressure to end apartheid began at grass roots in U.S.”, by Stephen Kauffman, U.S. Missions to International Organizations in Geneva, December 16, 2013. Geneva.usmission.gov.
Caption information source: “A History of Apartheid in South Africa,” South Africa History Online, May 4, 2022.
Caption information source: "Firms dealing with South Africa are facing stepped-up picketing," by Don Fair, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 18, 1988, page B1.