Divestment and lemon meringue pie: anti-apartheid movements at the University of Florida in Gainesville

Abstract

Abstract This paper will analyze the 40-day sleep-in and protest at the University of Florida to illustrate the growing popular support for the anti-apartheid movement amongst student and citizen activists in the 1980s. Particular focus will be paid to the issue of divestment, student protests, and public action that called for the university to remove itself from financially supporting the apartheid regime. It will show that student organizations like the UF Coalition for Divestment for South Africa and the Student Coalition Against Apartheid and Racism (SCAAR) represented a wave of public support that dominated this period and acted as a small but crucial component in the eventual toppling of apartheid.