DECLARATION OF CONSCIENCE ON SOUTH AFRICA, 1957

[In 1957, a Declaration of Conscience on South Africa was initiated, under the auspices of the American Committee on Africa, by an international sponsoring committee led by Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Very Reverend James A. Pike and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It was signed by many world leaders.]

Preamble

Freedom and human dignity are in grave jeopardy in the Union of South Africa today. The Government of that nation continues to extend relentlessly its racist policy of apartheid into the economic, educational, religious and other areas of life. The countless indignities inflicted on millions of South African people represent a long and tragic reversal of freedom.

The Government has arrested and charged with high treason 156 men and women of all races, including some of the foremost non-white leaders whose main endeavour appears to have been to strive for equal rights for all. Hundreds of non-white families have been evicted from their homes and their land has been turned over to whites. After twenty-one years of virtual disenfranchisement of the Africans, now the Coloured voters are being deprived of the right of voting with the Europeans. The Bantu Education Act, the goal of which is to prepare Africans for a subservient role in a white man’s society, is being vigorously implemented. In recent months, the South African Government has dared to declare its power to forbid men of different colour to worship God together and has even extended this oppressive apartheid policy into the medical services by ordering the rigid segregation of nurses.

All men who believe in human dignity and the principle that freedom is not the prerogative of a single ethnic group no longer dare to remain silent in the face of this widening repression of reason and justice. As a matter of conscience we call upon freedom-loving people everywhere to adhere to this declaration.

Declaration

We support the overwhelming majority of the South African people, non-white and white, in their determination to achieve the basic human rights that are the rightful heritage of all men. In the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted on December 10, 1948, by the General Assembly of the United Nations, we declare our conviction:

That no Government may with justice discriminate against any of its people because of "race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status." The Government of the Union of South Africa does so discriminate against all of its people whose skins are other than white.
That "all are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law." The Government of the Union of South Africa has denied the equality of its people before the law and written inequality into the law.
That "everyone has the right to leave the country, including his own, and to return to his country." The Government of the Union of South Africa has denied to many of its leading citizens the right to leave their own country.
That "everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression." The South African Government has victimised white and non-white leaders who have exercised this right.
That "everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country." Only one-fifth of the citizens of South Africa control the Government and have forcibly denied participation in it to the remaining four-fifths who constitute the majority.

We call on all men devoted to these principles to join in supporting this Declaration of Conscience and in designating December 10, 1957, Human Rights Day, as a Day of Protest against the organised inhumanity of the apartheid policies of the Government of South Africa.

We ask them to join us in calling on the Government of the Union of South Africa to honour its moral and legal obligations as a signatory to the United Nations Charter by honouring the Declaration of Human Rights.

We call upon members of all free associations – churches, universities, trade unions, business and professional organisations, veterans and other groups – to petition their organisations and their governments to use their influence to bring about a peaceful, just and democratic solution in South Africa.

We call upon all men and women to mobilise the spiritual and moral forces of mankind on this Day of Protest to demonstrate to the Government of the Union of South Africa that free men abhor its policies and will not tolerate the continued suppression of human freedom. We seek to persuade the South African Government, before it reaches the point of no return, that only in democratic equality is there lasting peace and security.

List of signers (partial)

Dr. C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar: India, lawyer
Dr. Andre Akakpo: Mouvement Populaire Togolais, Togo
Inejiro Asanuma,: Secretary General, Socialist Party, Japan
Rt. Rev. Sante Uberto Barbieri: Methodist Bishop, Argentina
Anthony Wedgwood Benn: Member of Parliament, Great Britain
Ahmed Ben Salah: Secretary of State for Public Health, Tunisia
Samuel Hugo Bergman: Philosopher, Israel
Abdul Aziz Bin Ishak: Minister of Agriculture, Malaya
G. D. Birla: Industrialist, India
Boerhanoedin: Minister for Economic Affairs, Indonesia
Prof. Pere Bosch-Gimpera: Historian, Mexico
Vera Brittain: Author, Great Britain
Benjamin Britten: Composer, Great Britain
Fenner Brockway: Member of Parliament, Great Britain
Prof. Martin Buber: Philosopher, Israel
Arthur A. Calwell: Deputy Leader, Labour Party, Australia
Pablo Casals: Cellist, Spain
Abayomi Cassell: Attorney General, Liberia
Dr. George Catlin: Professor of Political Science, Great Britain
C. Chagla: Chief Justice of Bombay, India
John M. Chang: Vice-President, Korea
W.M. Chirwa: Member of Parliament, Nyasaland
Norman Cousins: Editor, Saturday Review, USA
Salvador de Madariaga: Historian, Spain
U. N. Dhebar: President, Indian National Congress
Alioune Diop: Director, Presence Africaine, France
T. C. Douglas: Premier of Saskatchewan, Canada
Patrick Duncan: Organiser, Liberal Party, South Africa
Ismail El-Azhari: Former Premier, Sudan
Chief Anthony Enahoro: Minister, Western Region, Nigeria
Rev. W.E. Farndale: Former President, Methodist Conference, Great Britain
Dr. Erich Fromm: Psychoanalyst, USA
K.A. Gbedemah: Minister of Finance, Ghana
Arne Geijer: President, International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, Sweden
Rabbi Israel Goldstein: President, World Confederation of General Zionists, USA
Rt. Rev. W.D.L. Greer: Bishop of Manchester, Great Britain
John Gunther: Author, USA
V.R. Haya de la Torre: Leader of Popular Revolutionary Alliance, Peru
Dr. Ellen Hellmann: Social Anthropologist, South Africa
Jarl Hjalmarson: Leader, Conservative Party, Sweden
Rev. Fr. Trevor Huddleston, C.R.: Great Britain
Aldous L. Huxley: Author, Great Britain
Abdullahi Issa: Prime Minister, Somalia
Dr. Ernest Jones: Psychoanalyst, Great Britain
Dr. C.G. Jung: Psychoanalyst, Switzerland
Toyohiko Kagawa: Clergyman and social worker, Japan
Dr. John Karefa-Smart: Minister of Lands, Mines and Labour, Sierra Leone
Rashidi M. Kawawa: General Secretary, Tanganyika Federation of Labour
Elia Kazan: Theatrical and motion picture director, USA
Alexander Kerensky: Former Premier of the Russian Republic
Anna Kethly: Minister of State of Free Hungary in exile
Abdulla Khalil: Prime Minister, Sudan
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.: Clergyman, USA
Joseph Koevago: Former Mayor of Budapest, Hungary
Prof. Leo Kuper: University of Natal, South Africa
Herbert H. Lehman: Former Senator, USA
David Lewis: National Chairman, Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, Canada
Haakon Lie: Secretary General, Norwegian Labour Party
Trygve Lie: Former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Norway
Archibald MacLeish: Poet, USA
Thurgood Marshall: Director, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, USA
Kingsley Martin: Editor, New Statesman and Nation, Great Britain
Andre Maurois: Historian, France
Daniel Mayer: Member of Parliament, France
Tom Mboya: General Secretary, Kenya Federation of Labour
Asoka Mehta: Joint Secretary, Praja Socialist Party, India
Archbishop Michael: Greek Archdiocese of North and South America, USA
James A. Michener: Author, USA
Bhadrakali Misra: President, Praja Parishad Party, Nepal
Macial Mora: Member of the Senate, Chile
Frank Moraes: Editor, Times of India, Bombay
Edmund S. Muskie: Governor of Maine, USA
Dr. G.M. Naicker: President, South African Indian Congress
Reinhold Niebuhr: Philosopher and Theologian, USA
Dr. Martin Niemoeller: Evangelical Church, Germany
Julius Nyerere: President, Tanganyika African National Union
Chief J.A.O. Odebiyi: Minister of Education, Western Region, Nigeria
J.H. Oldenbroek: General Secretary, International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, Netherlands
Sylvanus Olympio: Premier, Togo
Aden Abdulla Osman: President of Legislative Assembly, Somalia
Alan Paton: Author, Chairman of Liberal Party, South Africa
Alberto Gainza Paz: Editor, La Prensa, Argentina
Morgan Phillips: General Secretary, Labour Party, Great Britain
Very Rev. James A. Pike: Dean, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, USA
Otto Probst: Secretary, Socialist Party, Austria
C.V. Raman: Physicist, India
Rt. Rev. R. Ambrose Reeves: Bishop of Johannesburg
D.R. Regni: President, Nepal National Congress
Walter P. Reuther: President, United Automobile Workers, USA
David Riesman: Social Scientist, USA
Bertrand Russell: Philosopher, Great Britain
Rev. Michael Scott: Director, Africa Bureau, Great Britain
Leopold Sedar-Senghor: President, Bloc Populaire Senegellais, Senegal
Ignazio Silone: Author, Italy
Ganga Sharan Sinha: Chairman, Praja Socialist Party, India
Rev. Donald O. Soper: Past President, Methodist Conference, Great Britain
Pitirim A. Sorokin: Sociologist, USA
Viscount Stansgate: Great Britain
Masaburo Suzuki: Chairman, Social Democratic Party, Japan
Lorenzo M. Tanada: Co-Chairman, Nationalist Citizens Party, Philippines
Arnold Toynbee: Historian, Great Britain
Dr. Henry P. Van Dusen: President, Union Theological Seminary, New York, USA
Evert Vermeer: Chairman of the Labour Party, Netherlands
Dr. Bruno Walter: Conductor, USA