Article "A Glimpse of South Africans"

Article "A Glimpse of South Africans"

Alumni Bulletin

The winter 1960 Alumni Bulletin featured the account of Park P. Dickerson (RC '55) and his time at University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, as a Rotary Foundation Fellow. Dickerson discusses South Africa's culture, the people, race relations, and his own experiences. While Dickerson was in South Africa, he learned about race relations in the country: there were the "Europeans"/"whites" and "non-Europeans"/"non-whites." Dickerson defined apartheid as "the complete separation of the races in every walk of life," and "more comprehensive and consistent than the policy of segregation." The South African Nationalist Party supported and implemented apartheid because they believed that the Bantu peoples native to South Africans could develop socially, economically, and politically through total separation. The Nationalist Party envisioned separate territories for blacks and whites where each race would not have rights in the other race's territory. Dickerson outlined the implications of apartheid that he experienced while abroad, such as the legal segregation of University of Witwatersrand despite disagreement from the Chancellor and the school.

Dickerson, Park. “A Glimpse of South Africans.” University of Richmond Alumni Bulletin XXIII, no. 2 (January 1960): 3, 28.

January 1960

English

University of Richmond Alumni Bulletin