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Fact Check & Politics
Joe Biden & South Africa
Did Senator Biden stand against apartheid?
President Biden claimed today in his Martin Luther King Jr. Day Holiday speech that he fought against apartheid in South Africa. Almost immediately he was called a liar.
I thought that was interesting. In 1985–86 when the key pieces of legislation were passed bringing the white minority regime in South Africa to its knees, Democrats were united.
I remember. I was involved loosely with student organizations that opposed the regime’s apartheid system. As Black Americans gained their basic civil rights in America before I was aware, I felt Black South Africans should have the same. I went to meetings. I went to protest events. I stood outside hotels and protested with others when members of the apartheid regime came to Washington D.C.
I wrote poetry that was anti-apartheid and read it in public. I wrote essays. I studied the topic. When the sanctions bill came up, I tried to educate others why we needed this law.
In the end, that victory was won. Millions of people worked for that to happen. Did Joe Biden fight apartheid?
Well, I am not sure if it should be phrased like that but when the key sanctions bill came up in 1986, Senator Joe Biden of…
