Randall Robinson opened the door of Freedom in South Africa and Challenged America

"We want our brothers and sisters in South Africa to know that we are with them today, we will be with them tomorrow, and we will be with them until their final freedom." – Randall Robinson, 1985 National Urban League Conference, Washington, D.C.

Thousands had gathered to hear TransAfrica founder and president Randall Robinson address the National Urban League 75th Anniversary Conference.

He almost didn’t make it to his own speech. Earlier in the day, he and then-National Urban League President John E. Jacob, along with dozens of other Urban Leaguers, had been arrested at the South African Embassy during a peaceful mass protest against apartheid.

I was arrested during a protest at the same embassy just a few months later. It remains among the great honors of my life to have stood in that movement alongside the man who was singularly responsible for forcing the United States to confront the apartheid regime in South Africa.

Robinson died last week at the age of 81.

That July 1985 protest drew 1,500 people, most of whom were there to take part in the National Urban League Conference--where U.S. policy toward South Africa was a major theme. During the demonstration, before he and Jacob were arrested, Robinson said they were delivering ''the knock of freedom on the door of the South African Embassy.”