Remembering when the late South African leader came to Boston in 1990.
06/23/1990 Barry Chin Nelson Mandela visit to Boston. Ted Kennedy & Ray Flynn ted kennedy / teddy kennedy / senator kennedy / sen. kennedy / edwardmkennedy
On June 23, 1990, just four months after being released from prison after 27 years, Nelson Mandela visited Boston. The anti-apartheid leader arrived in the city as part of a trip to the United States that included stops in several major cities, but it was Boston–the place that housed two of his daughters, Makaziwe Mandela-Amuah and Zenani Mandela-Dlamini, and six of his grandchildren while he was incarcerated.
‘’The city of Boston has been responsible for looking after my child,’’ Mandela said upon his arrival.
His visit was jam-packed, beginning with a visit to Madison Park High School in Roxbury. Though his stop there was brief, his message was clear:
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“If there is any appeal I can make it is that young people of Boston and of the United States must take it on themselves to receive the highest education possible.’’
From there, Mandela continued to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Dorchester, where he met with members of the Kennedy family, including Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Senator Edward M. Kennedy.
Peter J. Howe and Diane E. Lewis recalled this stop in The Boston Globe the next day: “Joking to Kennedy family members and local politicians, Mandela said, ‘Right now, I consider myself an honorary Irishman from Soweto,’ the black ghetto outside Johannesburg.’’
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Later in the day, Mandela, who would become President of the African National Congress the following year, stood before an estimated 250,000 on the Esplanade–his largest audience of the day. The event included performances from Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Jackson Browne, and many more.
Governor Michael Dukakis was one of many to greet the leader, saying, “Though you were an ocean away, we in Massachusetts have been at your side. … Today you will be greeted by hundreds of thousands of people to whom you have brought hope and inspiration and a sense of what is possible when a love of freedom knows no fear.’’
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Mandela’s visit was considered a momentous event in 1990, considering his lack of connection to the city. Less than two decades before, Boston was very much divided, both in its schools and in its neighborhoods. As Wil Haygood wrote in the Globe the next day, “Where, once, in memory recent enough to touch, someone viciously jabbed a black man with an American flag at an antibusing demonstration, and blood as red as the American flag dropped once again on a nation’s eyelid.’’
Yet, by the end of the ’80s, Mandela’s message of unity was not only welcomed, it was met with great anticipation from the people of Boston.
“It was the first time that I recall standing and looking out at a massive audience and seeing white and black, young and old, people from the neighborhoods, people from the suburbs,’’ former mayor Ray Flynn told WBUR. “It was almost like a Celtics celebration, only this had a greater significance than even that.’’
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