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ABSTRACT
In October 1979, the International Stoke Mandeville Games Federation (ISMGF) imposed a lifetime ban on Maggy Jones, a medal-winning British Paralympian. Her crime: distributing leaflets about the healthcare disparities in apartheid South Africa. Two years later, Bernard Leach, the British record holder in the freestyle swim, withdrew from the International Stoke Mandeville Games in protest when he learned that South Africa planned to send a team. ISMGF administrators took a softer line towards Leach, however, because the swimmer partnered with the British Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) to transform his withdrawal into a public relations weapon against Paralympic administrators. In recent years, historians have expanded our knowledge of the external struggle against apartheid, one of the most sustained and significant transnational movements of the twentieth century. This struggle, a notable antecedent of the Black Lives Matter movement, played out in all realms of sport, yet little has been written about campaigns of anti-apartheid solidarity within the Paralympic movement. This study of Paralympic protests and the politics of public critique adds to this literature, centres athlete agency in British disability sport, and offers an important perspective on sport, race, and protest to better understand the Black Lives Matter movement.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Cobus Rademeyer, ‘Guttmann’s Ingenuity: The Paralympic Games as Legacy of the Second World War’, Historia 60, no. 1 (2015): 47–59; Nikki Wedgwood, ‘Hahn versus Guttmann: Revisiting ‘Sports and the Political Movement of Disabled Persons’, Disability and Society 29, no. 1 (2014): 129–42.
2 Patrick Barclay, ‘Disabled Anti-Apartheid Athlete is Banned’, The Guardian, 13 October 1979, 24.
3 David Legg, Claudia Emes, David Stewart, and Robert Steadward, ‘Historical Overview of the Paralympics, Special Olympics, and Deaflympics’, Palaestra 20 (2004): 30–56.
4 Joan Scruton to Bernard Leach, 15 July 1981, MSS.AAM132, Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) Archives, Bodleian Libraries, Oxford, United Kingdom (hereafter AAM Archives).
5 Bernard Leach, ‘Stoke Mandeville and Apartheid’, August 1981, https://tonybaldwinson.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/stoke-mandeville-and-apartheid-etc.pdf (Accessed 9 November 2020); Bernard Leach, ‘The Media, Disabled People, and Apartheid’, in Sport, Disabled People, and the Fight Against Apartheid, Disabled People Against Apartheid (May 1983), https://tonybaldwinson.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/1983-05-sport-disabled-people-and-the-fight-against-apartheid-may-1983.pdf (Accessed 9 November 2020); ‘Cruel Target of Political Hatred’, The Daily Mail, 25 July 1981, 6.
6 Colin Adamson, ‘Red Agitators Behind Disabled Games Row—MP’, The Sunday Express, 20 July 1981, in Leach, ‘Stoke Mandeville and Apartheid’.
7 Steve Bailey, Athlete First: A History of the Paralympic Movement (Chichester, UK: Wiley, 2008); John Gold and Margaret Gold, ‘Access for All: The Rise of the Paralympic Games’, Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health 127, no. 3 (2007): 133–43; Ian Brittain, ‘South Africa, Apartheid and the Paralympic Games’, Sport in Society 14, no. 9 (2011): 1165–81; Cobus Rademeyer, ‘Sport for People with Disabilities as Factor in Reshaping the Post-apartheid South African Sporting Society’, Journal for Contemporary History 42, no. 1 (2017): 81–98.
8 The name of the ‘Paralympics’ changed over time. The official title of the ‘Torontolympiad’, for example, was the 1976 Olympiad for the Physically Disabled. For consistency, we call all such games as they are known today as the Paralympics. On the 1976 games, see David Grieg, ‘Splitting Hairs: The Struggle between the Canadian Federal Government and the Organizing Committee of the 1976 Torontolympiad Concerning South African Participation’, in Onward to the Olympics: Historical Perspectives on the Olympic Games, ed. Gerald P. Schaus and Stephen R. Wenn (Waterloo, Canada: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2007), 297–307; Charles Little, ‘The Paralympic Protest Paradox: The Politics of Rhodesian Participation in the Paralympic Games, 1960–1980’, Proceedings of the International Symposium for Olympic Research (2008): 123–31; Amanda Schweinbenz, ‘Diplomatic Hypocrisy: The Canadian Government and the 1976 Toronto Olympiad for the Physically Disabled’, International Journal of Sport & Society 11, no. 2 (2020): 1–10.
9 Ian Brittain, The Paralympic Games Explained, 2nd edition (London: Routledge, 2016); Ian Brittain and Aaron Beacom, eds., The Palgrave Handbook of Paralympic Studies (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018); P. David Howe, The Cultural Politics of the Paralympic Movement: Through an Anthropological Lens (London: Routledge, 2008); Bailey, Athlete First.
10 Danielle Peers, ‘(Dis)Empowering Paralympic Histories: Absent Athletes and Disabling Discourses’, Disability and Society 24, no. 5 (2009): 659.
11 Ian Brittain, From Stoke Mandeville to Stratford: A History of the Summer Paralympic Games (Champaign, IL: Common Ground Publishing, 2012); ‘Olympic Ban on Disabled Athlete in Apartheid Row’, The Glasgow Herald, 20 October 1979, 5.
12 Bailey, Athlete First, 24.
13 Julie Anderson, ‘“Turned into Taxpayers”: Paraplegia, Rehabilitation and Sport at Stoke Mandeville, 1944–56’, Journal of Contemporary History 38, no. 3 (2003): 461–75; Gold and Gold, ‘Access for All’; and Brittain, Paralympic Games Explained.
14 Gold and Gold, ‘Access for All’, 135.
15 Brittain, ‘South Africa, Apartheid and the Paralympic Games’; Andrew Novak, ‘Politics and the Paralympic Games: Disability Sport in Rhodesia-Zimbabwe’, Journal of Olympic History 16, no. 1 (2008): 47–55.
16 Joan Scruton to Liz Finkelstein, 29 April 1981, MSS.AAM132, AAM Archives.
17 Brittain, ‘South Africa, Apartheid and the Paralympic Games’, 1172. On Olympic boycotts, see Allen Guttmann, The Olympics: A History of the Modern Games, 2nd Edition (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2002); and Christopher Hill, Olympic Politics: Athens to Atlanta 1896–1996 (Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1996).
18 Apartheid laws that entrenched existing racial segregation divided South African society into four main ‘races’ with names that shifted over time and by context. See Deborah Posel, ‘What's in a Name? Racial Categorisations under Apartheid and Their Afterlife’, Transformation 47 (2001): 50–74.
19 That slogan emerged in the 1970s from South African Council on Sport, about which see Douglas Booth, ‘The South African Council on Sport and the Political Antinomies of the Sports Boycott’, Journal of Southern African Studies 23, no. 1 (1997): 51–66. On the isolation of South African sport, see Robert Archer and Antoine Bouillon, The South African Game: Sport and Racism (London: Zed Books, 1982); and Douglas Booth, The Race Game: Sport and Politics in South Africa (London: Frank Cass, 1998). On South Africa’s most popular sports of cricket, rugby, and football, see Bruce Murray and Christopher Merrett, Caught Behind: Race and Politics in Springbok Cricket (Johannesburg & Scottsville: Wits University Press & University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2004); David Black and John Nauright, Rugby and the South African Nation: Sport, Cultures, Politics, and Power in the Old and New South Africas (Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1998); and Peter Alegi, Laduma! Soccer, Politics and Society in South Africa (Scottsville, South Africa: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2004).
20 Gavin Schaffer, ‘“The Limits of the ‘Liberal Imagination”: Britain, Broadcasting and Apartheid South Africa, 1948–1994’, Past & Present 240, no. 1 (2018): 244.
21 Patrick Barclay, ‘Disabled Anti-Apartheid Athlete is Banned’, The Guardian, 13 October 1979; Joan Scruton to Liz Finkelstein, 29 April 1981. Both in MSS.AAM132, AAM Archives.
22 Brittain, From Stoke Mandeville to Stratford, 121.
23 Rademayer, ‘Sport for People with Disabilities’, 84.
24 To counter the growing international boycott of South African teams, Vorster in 1971 launched ‘multi-national’ sport that allowed competition among South Africa’s four ‘racial’ groups, each treated as a distinct ‘nation’. See Joan Brickhill, Race against Race: South Africa’s ‘Multi-national’ Sport Fraud (London: International Defence and Aid Fund, 1976); and Gustav Venter, ‘Experimental Tactics on an Uneven Playing Field: Multinational Football and the Apartheid Project during the 1970s’, International Journal of the History of Sport 36, no. 1 (2019): 83–103.
25 Brittain, ‘South Africa, Apartheid and the Paralympic Games’.
26 Scarlett Cornelissen, ‘“Resolving ‘the South Africa Problem’”: Transnational Activism, Ideology and Race in the Olympic Movement, 1960–91’, International Journal of the History of Sport 28, no. 1 (2011): 155.
27 Andrew Novak, ‘Disability Sport in Sub-Saharan Africa: From Economic Underdevelopment to Uneven Empowerment’, Disability and the Global South 1, No. 1 (2014): 44–63.
28 Ludwig Guttmann, ‘Reflection on the 1976 Toronto Olympiad for the Physically Disabled’, Paraplegia 14 (1976): 225–40.
29 Maggy Jones, ‘Silence in Sport’, in Sport, Disabled People, and the Fight Against Apartheid, Disabled People Against Apartheid (May 1983), https://tonybaldwinson.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/1983-05-sport-disabled-people-and-the-fight-against-apartheid-may-1983.pdf (Accessed 17 February 2021).
30 ‘Health Care in South Africa’, Anti-Apartheid Health Committee, MSS.AAM132, AAM Archives.
31 Brian Wilson, ‘Protests Leads to Sports Ban’, The Observer, 21 October 1979, 2.
32 Lorna Edwards, ‘Letter to the Editor: Why Mrs. Jones was Banned from Paraplegic Sport’, The Guardian, 16 October 1979, 12.
33 Brian Wilson, ‘Protests Leads to Sports Ban’, The Observer, 21 October 1979, 2.
34 ‘Support Maggy Jones’, Anti-Apartheid Movement, issued by the Anti-Apartheid Health Committee, MSS.AAM132, AAM Archives.
35 Patrick Barclay, ‘Disabled Anti-Apartheid Athlete is Banned’, The Guardian, 13 October 1979, MSS.AAM132, AAM Archives.
36 Donald Dewar questioning Alexander Fletcher, House of Commons Debate (hereafter HC Deb), series 5, vol. 972, 30 October 1979, c473W; Donald Dewar questioning Hector Monro, HC Deb, series 5, vol. 972, 26 October 1979, c319-20W.
37 Nicholas Sarantakes, Dropping the Torch: Jimmy Carter, the Olympic Boycott, and the Cold War (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011); James Ivey, ‘Double Standards: South Africa, British Rugby, and the Moscow Olympics’, The International Journal of the History of Sport 36, no. 1 (2019): 104–21.
38 Roy Hughes, HC sitting, series 5, vol. 981, 17 March 1980, cc31-168.
39 On the history of the AAM, see Roger Fieldhouse, Anti-apartheid: A History of the Movement in Britain (London: Merlin Press, 2005).
40 ‘Support Maggy Jones’, Anti-Apartheid Movement, issued by the Anti-Apartheid Health Committee, MSS.AAM132, AAM Archives.
41 Richard Leaman to British Sports Council Secretary, 17 October 1979, MS 2069/1, Leeds University Library, Leeds, United Kingdom (hereafter Leeds University Library); Michelin Mason, Mary Woodhouse, Patricia Carr, and Keith Armstrong to BPSS Secretary, 18 February 1980, MS 2069/1, Leeds University Library.
42 ‘Maggy Jones--Banned Disabled Sportswoman’, The Support Maggy Jones Committee, MS 2069/1, Leeds University Library.
43 ‘It is Significant and Disturbing That … ’, SIA, personal notes. No name, date, or author given, MS 2069/1, Leeds University Library.
44 ‘Maggy Jones--Banned Disabled Sportswoman’, The Support Maggy Jones Committee, MS 2069/1, Leeds University Library.
45 ‘Support Maggy Jones’, Anti-Apartheid Movement, issued by the Anti-Apartheid Health Committee, MSS.AAM132, AAM Archives.
46 Bernard Leach, ‘Stoke Mandeville and Apartheid’, August 1981.
47 ‘Moss Side Gym Stories: Why I Swim … ’ BBC Sounds, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p03wnkf6 (Accessed November 9, 2020).
48 ‘British Paraplegic Sports Society: Conditions of Acceptance - Great Britain Team’, n.d., MSS.AAM132, AAM Archives.
49 Bernard Leach, ‘The Media, Disabled People, and Apartheid’, in Sport, Disabled People, and the Fight Against Apartheid, Disabled People Against Apartheid (May 1983).
50 Bernard Leach, ‘Stoke Mandeville and Apartheid’, August 1981.
51 ‘Text of Bernard Leach’s Letter Withdrawing from the 1981 International Stoke Mandeville Games’, MSS.AAM132, AAM Archives.
52 Bernard Leach, ‘Stoke Mandeville and Apartheid’, August 1981.
53 Joan Scruton to Bernard Leach, 15 July 1981, MSS.AAM132, AAM Archives.
54 ‘MP’s Attack Ban on Disabled Athletes’, The Times, 5 August 1985, 1.
55 Alan Roulstone, ‘Vic Finkelstein, Disability Rights and Lessons for Contemporary Social Work’, Critical and Radical Social Work 1, no. 2 (2013): 247–52.
56 ‘Anti-Apartheid Demo at Stoke Games: South Africans Laugh it Off’, Aylesbury Bucks Herald, 30 July 1981, 1
57 Ibid.
58 Brenda Robbins to Chris Childs, 27 May 1982, MSS.AAM132, AAM Archives.
59 Hugh Herbert, ‘Putting Politics Into Sport’, The Guardian, 1 August 1981, 15.
60 ‘All are Welcome’, 28 July 1982, MSS.AAM132, AAM Archives.
61 ‘SHAMEFUL’, The Sunday Telegraph, 26 July 1981, 18. [Capitalisations in text].
62 ‘Disabled Games Protest’, The Guardian, 27 July 1981, in Leach, ‘Stoke Mandeville and Apartheid’.
63 ‘Cruel Target of Political Hatred’, The Daily Mail, 25 July 1981, 6.
64 Andrew McEwen, ‘Ban Hits Games of Hope’, The Daily Mail, 25 July 1981 in Leach, ‘Stoke Mandeville and Apartheid’.
65 Colin Adamson, ‘Red Agitators Behind Disabled Games Row—MP’, The Sunday Express, 20 July 1981, in Leach ‘Stoke Mandeville and Apartheid’.
66 Bernard Leach, ‘The Media, Disabled People, and Apartheid’, in Sport, Disabled People, and the Fight Against Apartheid, Disabled People Against Apartheid (May 1983).
67 Maggy Jones, ‘Silence in Sport’, in Sport, Disabled People, and the Fight Against Apartheid, Disabled People Against Apartheid (May 1983).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Cam Mallett
Cam Mallett is a graduate student in the History and Philosophy of Sport concentration of the Kinesiology Department at Pennsylvania State University.
Michelle M. Sikes
Michelle M. Sikes is an Assistant Professor of Kinesiology, African Studies, and History at Pennsylvania State University. She completed her D.Phil. at the University of Oxford. Prior to joining the faculty at Penn State, she taught at the University of Cape Town and Stellenbosch University in South Africa.