Cheryl Johnson-Odim Collection

About the Collection

A related collection to the Chicago Anti-Apartheid Movement collection, the Cheryl Johnson-Odim Collection is comprised of materials related to Dr. Johnson-Odim’s time as a community activist. During this period, she campaigned against the South African policy of apartheid through various grassroots organizations, bringing awareness to the Chicago area about the injustices committed. In addition to documents created by those groups, the collection holds materials Dr. Johnson-Odim used for her reference, including United Nations reports and newspaper and magazine articles. The collection also has materials that provide a general background on apartheid and life for people of color in South Africa.

Collection Inventory

The Cheryl Johnson-Odim Collection online inventory guide shows the contents of the collection held at Columbia College Chicago. Please contact us with any questions.

Biography

Cheryl Johnson-Odim was born in 1948 in Ohio and spent most of her childhood in New York. She was first introduced to the injustices of apartheid in South Africa in 1963, when her school music teacher brought her to sing on a radio show with Harry Belafonte, with whom he was friends. Belafonte, who was already active in anti-apartheid movements, brought Johnson-Odim and her classmates along to a performance by a troupe of South African dancers whose United States tour he was sponsoring.

She studied at the City College of New York before transferring to Youngstown State University in Ohio, and did her graduate studies at Northwestern University. A Fulbright Fellowship to Nigeria in 1975 cemented her desire to study African history. Johnson-Odim has been active in higher education in Chicago since the 1970s, working as a professor at Northwestern University and Loyola University, a dean at Columbia College Chicago, and most recently as provost of Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois.

Related Resources

Oral History interviews conducted by Columbia College Chicago students with members of the Chicago apartheid protest community, including Cheryl Johnson-Odim's interview. She was re-interviewed about activities 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.

Lisa Brock Collection An educator and activist, she assembled the Chicago Anti-Apartheid Movement collection, then donated her own collection of materials.

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.