Moving the mountain of apartheid: the 1966–1969 Banks Campaign and the rise of economic tools to end South African apartheid

Abstract

This article details the 1966–1969 “Banks Campaign,” a movement led by seminarians, clergy, and civil rights activists to pressure ten American banks to stop lending money to the South African apartheid government. Ultimately successful, the Banks Campaign served as a catalyst for many similar, and eventually larger, anti-apartheid solidarity campaigns that were focused on wrestling control over the circulation of money and goods to and from South Africa. Despite its success and significance, scholars have largely overlooked the Banks Campaign. Based on archival research and interviews with some of the movement’s protagonists, this article deepens our understanding of this central component of the early anti-apartheid movement in the United States.