Mandela’s moral authority fueled UC divestment push

Tributes continue to honor Nelson Mandela, including from all around California. A candlelight vigil is planned tonight in South L.A. Mandela had a strong connection to California. In the mid-1980s, while Mandela was still in prison, University of California student leaders launched a movement to force the university to divest from companies doing business in South Africa. The U.C. divestment push succeeded, and soon the state of California followed suit. Ultimately, billions of dollars in state investments were redirected, helping to ratchet up international pressure on South Africa’s apartheid government to release Mandela. KCRW spoke to Pedro Noguera, professor of education at New York University, who was student body president at U.C. Berkeley and the leader of the divestment movement in 1985 and 1986. He told KCRW that the movement was inspired by Mandela’s moral example….