Jesse Jackson

Mandela Hall: A History of the 1985 Divest Protests

The sound of voices travels across campus, carried by chilly April gusts that rattle the chains on the doors of Hamilton Hall. It is day five of the blockade, which has taken over the steps of the building. Blankets, newspapers, and books litter the ground, and overhead a makeshift tarp rustles in the wind, partially obscuring the large banner reading "MANDELA HALL." Next door, in Hartley Hall, protesters take refuge under warm blankets, while leading members of the blockade continue their hunger strike, already more than two weeks in.

It is April 9, 1985. Easter Sunday was two days ago, and just yesterday famed folk singer and social activist Pete Seeger joined Columbia students in calling for the University's full divestment from firms operating or conducting business in apartheid South Africa.

During that fateful month in 1985, a protest movement in favor of divestment from the National Party of South Africa's apartheid regime rocked Columbia to its core. What began as a gathering of seven students around the entrance of Hamilton morphed into a mass movement that involved students from across the undergraduate and graduate communities. Jesse Jackson spoke to a crowd of 5,000 students on the steps of Hamilton, while more than 1,000 students guarded the entrance to the building at the peak of the protests.