Lutuli lived through ever-increasing repression
Of South African blacks, white control and segregation.
Blacks were forced to lose their land and citizenship rights,
And membership in black groups was banned: next they might
Support social or political rights for non-Whites…
He was a kind, college teacher, then speaker, and then ran
The African National Congress, where he stood solidly
For equality. He was jailed, surveilled and his travel banned.
In their liberation struggle, blacks tried protesting peacefully.
So the police massacred sixty-nine indiscriminately,
Jailing 18,000 (for non-crimes). It was time
For an end to apartheid in South Africa. He
Tore up his Pass card, the law controlling parts “Whites only,”
And he called for U.N. sanctions against their crimes.
June Edvenson 