Desmond Tutu Born - Oct. 7, 1931

Desmond Tutu was born on this day in 1931.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to This Day in History Class from how Stuff
Works dot Com and from the desk of Stuff You
Missed in History Class. It's the show where we explore
the past one day at a time with a quick
look at what happened today in history. Hello and welcome
to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and it's October seventh.

(00:21):
Desmond Tutu was born on this day in nineteen thirty one.
He was born in South Africa, and he's most known
for his non violent work against apartheid in South Africa.
He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for this work
in nineteen eight four. Apartheid was South africa system of
racial segregation. It had been implemented by the nation's white

(00:42):
minority government, and South Africa had already been segregated long
before this point, but in ninety eight the National Party
came to power and the National Party began formulating the
system of enforced segregation through government policy. So it was
something that the government was actively working on doing and enforcing.
The Population Registration Act of nineteen fifty sorted everyone in

(01:06):
South Africa into one of three categories. They were the
Black Africans, people who were multi racial and white people.
Later on a category was added for Asians. It was
illegal for people in these different groups to marry each other.
You could only marry a person in your same group.
Laws also outlined where each group were allowed to live

(01:28):
and operate businesses, and those businesses and public facilities were segregated.
Even though the white population of South Africa was a
really small minority, these laws favored that white population, giving
them the most advantageous places to live and work and
access to almost all of the land. The system was

(01:48):
extremely strict. It regulated every facet of life, and the
South African government was was enforcing it in law. At
the same time as in United States, the Civil rights
movement was working to dismantle these types of laws. Black
South Africans, along with some white supporters, had been resisting

(02:09):
these laws as soon as they were proposed. They had
been resisting segregation before the laws even existed. And that
brings us back to Desmond to two. After spending a
couple of years as a teacher, he attended Theological College
and he was ordained as an Anglican priest. In nineteen
seventy eight. He was appointed to be the General Secretary

(02:29):
of the South African Council of Churches, and it was
in this role that he started to become so well
known in his outspoken work against apartheid. This included non
violent protests and advocating for other nations to place economic
sanctions on South Africa. He wanted quote a democratic and
just society without racial divisions. South Africa was facing increasing

(02:53):
condemnation from other parts of the world by the time
to Too was awarded the Nobel Prize that again happened
in four The prize itself was also a signal that
the issue of South African apartheid was an important one
in the world of global humanitarian struggle. In nineteen ninety
the South African government finally started repealing these laws, and

(03:14):
a new constitution followed in nineteen ninety three. It took
effect in nineteen ninety four. That year, South Africa elected
its first black president, Nelson Mandela. Although we should note
that the social and economic effects of decades of apartheid
still persist in South Africa and they will for a
long time. You cannot reverse decades and centuries of oppression instantaneously.

(03:41):
Tutu has continued to do humanitarian work in the years
since apartheid began to be dismantled, and he's earned a
number of other awards in addition to the Nobel Peace Prize.
These include the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism in nineteen six,
the Gandhi Prize in two thousand seven, and the Presidential
Medal of Freedom in two thousand nine. At the same time,

(04:02):
he has also come under some scrutiny in recent years
for a number of statements, including some that are described
as anti Semitic. The nineteen sixty four Nobel Peace Prize
was also connected to apartheid in South Africa. As a
side note, it was awarded to Albert Lutuli, who was
President of the African National Congress and led a non
violent campaign of civil disobedience against South Africa's white minority government.

(04:26):
Desmond Tuto is still living as of the recording of
this podcast, although he has largely retired from public life.
Thanks to Christopher Aciotis for his research work on today's episode,
Antatari Harrison for all of her audio work on this podcast.
You can subscribe to the Stay in History Class on
Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, and wherever else you get your podcasts,
and you can Tune in tomorrow for a moment of

(04:47):
heroism immortalized in film.