Conversation with Albie Sachs

Albie Sachs Interview: Conversations with History; Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley

Photo by Jane Scherr

Page 4 of 8

An Activist in Politics

When did you first affiliate with the African National Congress?

Basically it was while I was a law student. I sat on a seat marked "Non-Whites Only" during the Defiance of Unjust Laws campaign. We had sit-ins. We had civil disobedience in the early 1950s, before the wonderful movement here in the United States. And I led a small batch of whites, mainly students, into the post office supporting the struggle of blacks who were denied equal facilities or integrated facilities throughout the country. They wouldn't arrest us. It was kind of embarrassing. We sat there trying to be heroic and militant and the cops wouldn't arrest us. They whipped off any blacks who sat on seats marked for whites only. Eventually we were arrested. I was taken to court. The magistrate saw I was 17 and said, "Oh, a juvenile." From then on my name wasn't mentioned. He asked if my mother was in court. She nervously stood up and he said, "I'm sending you home to the care of your mother." And that was a terrible slap in the face for this young militant revolutionary, being sent into the care of his mother. So that was my first act, my first confrontation if you like, with the state, while I was still a law student.

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