Bureaucrats of Liberation narrates the history of the Southern Africa Project of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Right under law, a civil rights organization founded in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy. Between 1963 and 1994, the Southern Africa Project connected lawyers from Namibia, South Africa, and the United States. Within the Project’s network, activist lawyers exchanged funding resources, provided logistical support for political trials, and mediated new voting and governmental systems.

The Project’s history provides a lens into twentieth century geopolitics tied to anti-apartheid, decolonization, Cold War, and movements agitating against white supremacy. In doing so, it pays careful attention to the Project’s different eras, beginning with US Executive Branch officials helming the effort and evolving into a space where more activist-oriented attorneys on both sides of the Atlantic drove its mission and politics.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abbreviations
Notes on Terminology
Acknowledgements

Introduction

Part One: 1960s and Precedents
Chapter One: Two Regions, (Nearly) One Legal Tradition
Chapter Two: Settings
Chapter Three: Beginning(s) of the Project

Part Two: 1970s
Chapter Four: Cause Lawyering and Litigation in the 1970s
Chapter Five: Black Consciousness in South Africa and the US
Chapter Six: Supportive Projects: Black Women Against Apartheid

Part Three: 1980s
Chapter Seven: Prosecuting Frenzies and Deaths in the 1980s
Chapter Eight: US Activism and the Free South Africa Movement
Chapter Nine: Namibia, Sanctions and Apartheid’s Death Grip

Part Four: 1990s and Antecedents
Chapter Ten: Transitions During the 1990s

Epilogue
Appendix A: Southern Africa Project-Funded Trials
Appendix B: Southern Africa Project Correspondent Attorneys
Notes
References
Index