The Sharpeville Massacre: Remembering the Impact of Apartheid
On this day in 1960, police opened fire on unarmed native Africans protesting apartheid laws in Sharpeville, South Africa, killing 69 and injuring 180. This tragic event highlights the impact of apartheid and the need for social justice.
Ibram X. Kendi
Partner • #GirlDad • Scholar @BU_Tweets • Dir @AntiracismCtr • @NationalBook Award Winner • #1 NYT Bestselling Author • MacArthur Fellow • Surviving Cancer 🐍
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The Sharpeville massacre took place in northern South Africa on this day in 1960. Police opened fire on unarmed native Africans who were protesting apartheid laws, killing 69 and injuring 180. US politicians and investors did not totally join the global outrage. A 🧵 1/ pic.twitter.com/pZAYv3YFa2
— Ibram X. Kendi (@DrIbram) March 21, 2023 -
The U.S. State Department did quickly denounce the massacre. It released a statement that said the U.S. "deplores violence in all its forms and hopes that the African people of South Africa will be able to obtain redress for legitimate grievances by peaceful means." 2/ pic.twitter.com/tbjYWfQs1A
— Ibram X. Kendi (@DrIbram) March 21, 2023 -
And yet, as historian James H. Meriwether writes in his book, "Proudly We Can Be Africans," Pres. Eisenhower and Secretary of State Christian Herter did not approve the U.S. statement. They considered it too extreme and worried it would jeopardize US-South African relations. 3/
— Ibram X. Kendi (@DrIbram) March 21, 2023 -
South Africa's economy suffered after the Sharpeville massacre. Historian James Campbell writes that so much investment capital left South Africa in 1960 that U.S. investors decided to donate $150 million to the South African government, approximately $1.5 billion today. 4/ pic.twitter.com/bLeMd3ESbn
— Ibram X. Kendi (@DrIbram) March 21, 2023 -
Days after the massacre, Mississippi's Jim Crow legislators condemned the “disrespect for the forces of law and order." They commended SA "for its steadfast policy of segregation and the staunch adherence of their traditions in the face of overwhelming external agitation." 5/ pic.twitter.com/ok0W6jNLuH
— Ibram X. Kendi (@DrIbram) March 21, 2023 -
I visited South Africa last summer, where I learned firsthand what I had been reading about for years. All that happened before and after the Sharpeville massacre OTD in 1960. An unrelenting anti-apartheid movement that inspired a global antiracist movement for decades. 6/6 pic.twitter.com/EXsrHnhxBZ
— Ibram X. Kendi (@DrIbram) March 21, 2023