The Role of Human Rights Education in Social Movements: Case Studies in South Africa and the United States

Abstract

Legalized racial discrimination, in the form of segregation, is a part of the United States’ recent history. It ended with the Civil Rights Act, which passed in 1964. It is part of South Africa’s even more recent history, in the form of apartheid. The apartheid system was dismantled in the early 1990s. Legal discrimination ended in both countries in large part due to massive social movements, the civil rights movement in the United States and the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. Human rights education played an essential role in these social movements. Now a movement of its own, the human rights education movement, at present, is growing in South Africa and the United States. This paper will examine the role of human rights education in the anti-apartheid movement and the civil rights movement, and review a few specific cases of organizations and networks that are contributing to the growth of the human rights education movement in each country today.