UC Berkeley Remembers Mandela
BERKELEY (CBS) – Hundreds gathered at a memorial for Nelson Mandela at UC Berkeley's Sproul Plaza on Saturday. Guests speakers recalled the university's role in the struggle to end apartheid in the 1980s.
Sproul Plaza was the scene of many protests against apartheid and students demanded the university move its endowment money away from companies doing business in South Africa.
The University of California Board of Regents voted to divest $3.1 billion in 1986. The following year, Congress passed the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act. President Reagan votoed the bill, but Congress overrode him.
Mandela later said he felt the University's divestment was a turning point in abolishing white minority rule in South Africa.
Mandela died in his Johannesberg home Dec. 5 at age 95.
The South African leader's body was transported to his hometown of Qunu, in rural South Africa, on Saturday. He will be buried there on Sunday.
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