Dorothy Williams (activist)

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Dorothy Adams Williams (1928 - May 2011) was a South African educator who fought against apartheid. Adams was subject to a banning order and eventually left South Africa in exile; she worked with Albie Sachs in London. After her return to South Africa with her husband, Frank Williams, they were the first mixed-race couple on their street.

Biography

Adams was born in Wellington in 1928. [1] Her parents were both involved in the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AMEC). [1] She started her education in Wellington and then moved on to the Athlone Training College in Paarl. [1] She became a qualified teacher by age 17. [1] Because the AMEC didn't fight apartheid, she left the church and became more political. [1]

Adams worked as a teacher and was involved in several groups, including the Teacher's League of South Africa (TLSA), Non European Unity Movement (NEUM) and the National Liberation Front (NLF). [1] In September 1963, she was arrested while teaching at Pauw Gedenk primary school. [2] Her students watched as she was taken by police and put into a police van. [2] She was then detained in Maitland under the General Law Amendment Act, 1963 which allowed the police to detain people without a warrant for 90 days. [2] [3] In jail, she was the prisoner Albie Sachs describes in The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs (1966) whistling the "Going Home" theme from the New World Symphony by Antonín Dvořák. [2] [3] Adams was released in November 1963, but she refused to testify against any members of the TLSA. [2] Again, Adams was arrested. She was eventually banned for five years in August 1964. [2] Even after the ban ended, the Security Branch continued to surveil her movements and activities. [1] During her banning, she had trouble working and when it ended, she was threatened with another banning order. [1]

The Quakers helped her flee South Africa and settle in the United Kingdom where she gained citizenship in 1976. [1] In London, she continued to work for the Quakers and got to know Dora Taylor and Isaac Bangani Tabata. [1] In 1986, she married a peace campaigner, Frank Williams. [1] Adams was reunited with Sachs in London in 1988. [4] Adams started working at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies and also with Sachs on post-apartheid issues. [1] Sachs and Adams worked together for 3 years on research towards a new constitution for South Africa. [1]

In 1991, Adams and her husband moved back to South Africa where she worked for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission at the University of Western Cape. [1] [2] She and her husband moved back to Wellington in 1999 and were the "first mixed-race couple to live on the street that once marked the divide between white and non-white Wellingtonians." [1] Her husband died in 2006 and Adams passed away in a nursing home in May 2011. [1]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 "Dorothy Adams". South African History Online. Retrieved 3 January 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Williams, Clifford (5 May 2011). "Dorothy Williams obituary". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 3 January 2020.
  3. 1 2 Sachs, Albie (1966). The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs . London: Harvill Press, Ltd. pp.  18, 20.
  4. ↑ "Sachs Appeal". The Guardian. 12 November 1988. p. 36. Retrieved 3 January 2020– via Newspapers.com.
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