About the Collection
A related collection to the Chicago Anti-Apartheid Movement collection, the Lisa Brock Collection contains materials related to Dr. Brock's time as a community activist and on her research into South Africa.
Collection Inventory
The Lisa Brock Collection online inventory guide lists the contents of her collection held at Columbia College Chicago. Please contact us with questions.
Biography
Dr. Lisa Brock is a Glendale, Ohio native, is an educator, activist, and author. A Fulbright-Hays Scholar, she holds a PhD in History from Northwestern University and has spent her life in social justice movements, including the struggle to end the South African Apartheid government.One notable 1981 Chicago protest campaign in which she was involved was to stop the Springboks, South Africa's rugby team, from competing in Chicago. The protest was part of a nationwide coalition, the Stop the Apartheid Rugby Tour (SART), who formed to assist in the sports boycott of apartheid South Africa. Matches in New York City, Rochester, NY, and Chicago, IL were cancelled because of these protests.
Her Chicago teaching career includes the School of the Art Institute and Columbia College Chicago, where she served as associate professor of the Department of African History and Diaspora Studies, then as chair of the Department of Humanities, History, and Social Sciences. In 2007, she encouraged her fellow local activists to donate materials, which led to the creation of the Chicago Anti-Apartheid Movement Collection at Columbia College Chicago. She left Illinois for Michigan to serve as the founding Academic Director of the Arcus Center for Social Justice and Leadership at Kalamazoo College, where she also served as an associate professor in history.
She remains focused on topics of anti-racism, gender equality, inequity, and oppression through public speaking and published works. She currently serves as a JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) coordinator, facilitating conversations about how to enact social justice within communities, institutions, and businesses.
Related Resources
Oral History interviews conducted by Columbia College Chicago students with members of the Chicago apartheid protest community, includes the Lisa Brock interview. She was re-interviewed in 2023 in this oral history.
Chicago Anti-Apartheid Movement Collection Highlights the grassroots organizations during the 1980s and 1990s that formed to protest international issues of apartheid and how activists operated to reach a common goal.
Cheryl Johnson-Odim Collection A Chicago area community activist and educator who was involved in the TransAfrica and Free South African movements, among others .
Rozell (Prexy) Nesbitt Collection An activist and organizer of anti-apartheid groups in the Midwest and abroad.
Orlando Redekopp Collection A Chicago area community activist and 1994 South African election observer.
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Southern African Network Newsletter
Columbia College Chicago
South Africa Network newsletter about the decision to disband SART as the goal of this organization was successfully met, and the change of name from SART to SAN, the Southern African Network, along with a list of its goals.
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Stop the Apartheid Rugby Tour (SART) Rally flyer
Columbia College Chicago
Announcement of a September 12 rally in Chicago against the South African rugby team playing a match in Chicago. Speakers at the rally include: Gus Savage, Danny Davis, Lew Myers, Dennis Brutus, Joan Elbert, and Harold Rogers.
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Stop the Apartheid Rugby Tour Coalition Poem
Columbia College Chicago
The Stop the Apartheid Rugby Tour Coalition poem about the protest of the South African rugby planned match in Chicago, Illinois.
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Stop the Apartheid Rugby Tour (SART)/Chicago
Lisa Brock
Press release about the Springboks South African rugby team tour to New Zealand, that was met with a large social protest by HALT (Halt All Racists Tours) and calling for awareness and support for the Chicago protest rally against the South African team on September 12, 1981.
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Stop the Apartheid Rugby Tour (SART) letter
Lisa Brock
Letter about the South African rugby team's plan to play a match in Chicago on September 19, 1981 and an invitation to readers to join in the efforts and protests against this match taking place.
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Stop the Apartheid Rugby Tour (SART) / Chicago
Lisa Brock
An invitation from SART to SWAPO (South West Africa People's Organization) to join them at a rally in support of opposing the Springbok rugby match in Chicago.
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SART/CHICAGO Stop the Apartheid Ruby Tour press release
Columbia College Chicago
"Chicago labor, religious, black and community groups today announced the formation of a broad coalition, Stop the Apartheid Rugby Tour (SART/CHICAGO) to oppose the September 19 rugby sports match in the Chicago area sponsored by the Midwest Rugby Football Union."
A press release from the Black Coalition Against the Rugby Tour organization, " composed of numerous Black organizations and individuals who have come together to fight against this scheduled tour to Chicago by the Springboks and to exemplify our support for our brothers and sisters in South Africa who are still oppressed by the white supremacist apartheid South African government" is also present. These groups formed in protest of the planned September 19, 1981 rugby match in Chicago.
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Stope the Apartheid Rugby Tour (SART) Statement
Columbia College Chicago
Press release announcing the formation of this broad-based coalition, SART, to "prevent the tour to Chicago, Albany and New York City of the South African national rugby team, the Springboks", including the groups' goals and list of other organizations who also stood in opposition to the United States rugby matches.
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"Apartheid Rugby is Not Sport"
Columbia College Chicago
Photograph of woman on the roof of a car holding a sign reading Apartheid Rugby is Not Sport. The vehicle, a Cadillac, has a license plate that reads RUGBY 2. The image was taken in protest against the South African rugby team, the Springboks, planned matches in 1981 with United States rugby teams, including Chicago, in violation of the United Nations Sports Ban.
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"Don't Play Ball With South Africa!"
Columbia College Chicago
Newsletter produced by the Clergy and Laity Concerned organization to alert Chicagoans about the planned Chicago rugby game with the South African rugby team, the Springboks. Also reported is news about the Clark Amendment for United State Restraint in Southern Africa.
