Conversation with Thelton Henderson

Thelton Henderson Interview: Conversations with History; Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley

Photo by S. Beth Atkin

Page 7 of 8

Visit to South Africa under Apartheid

In the '80s, before the end of Apartheid in South Africa, you had the occasion to go there on one or another trip as a judicial observer. That must have been quite an experience, going to South Africa under Apartheid. It was almost as if you were thrust back into the '50s in the United States. Tell us a little about that experience.

It really was, it was a jarring experience. I went in 1985 with Leon Higginbotham, who at the time was an appellate court judge and sitting in Philadelphia, and Julius Chambers, who at the time was the head of the NAACP legal defense fund in New York. And we were funded by the Carnegie Corporation. We all had civil rights backgrounds. And the idea was that we would go to South Africa as guests of the Black Lawyers Association in South Africa, share our American civil rights experience with them in hopes that we would afford insights in their ongoing struggle against Apartheid. We would talk about strategies used in the Civil Rights Movement. And it was a very, very fascinating experience because we had all read about Apartheid but actually experiencing it and going throughout the country was quite another matter.

And the three of you were actually put under arrest at one point while you were observing a trial?

That's right. We went to Cape Town to observe a trial of three young blacks who were being tried for violation of the anti-terrorism act. And at the break in the trial we went outside and a car drove up. A fellow got out and talked to one of the lawyers who was hosting us. And the lawyer came back and said, "They want you to come back to the commandant's headquarters." I thought, okay. So we got in our car and followed this car to a building. We were taken inside, and it was a small building with no windows. And we were put in this room where we began to be interrogated for the rest of the day. And it was fairly intimidating because they had one guy, a military guard who, when the tall lieutenant commander was questioning us, this other fellow would get behind us and he had a pipe in his hand. He would whack it in his hand, sort of suggesting that if he didn't like our answers he was going to crack our skull. So it was a very, very scary experience. Being quick of wit, I, at some point after quite a while, began to actually lie. And I probably shouldn't be saying this on television or something and recording it, but I began to say that we were guests of the U.S. ambassador and that he was expecting us for dinner that night. I wanted them to know that somebody was going to miss us. And actually, we had had dinner with him the previous evening, but this came to mind, and then we started getting some attention and eventually we were released. But it was a scary experience.

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