NPR News Now On the Air Inside NPR Your Stations Your Turn Search
All Things Considered Home Page30th Anniversary of ATC
The History...

The Hosts...

The Best of...

All Things Considered

1985

  • Violence breaks out regularly in South African black townships and the government declares a state of emergency. The U.S. joins a worldwide movement by establishing sanctions against this apartheid nation.
  • Longtime commentator Kim Williams says farewell in an ATC interview; she dies of cancer shortly thereafter.
  • On the Nov. 12 show, ATC airs interviews that reporter Mike Hanna conducted in a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa, with a white couple, Jeff and Carol Kokaine.

    Hanna: "Everybody accepts that the society is changing. To what degree would you be prepared for it to happen? Would you, for example, object to having neighbors who are black?"

    Carol: "Well, that's a bit of a difficult question to answer. They're totally different to the way we do. You generally find, I think, whites are quieter. Blacks can be terribly noisy. From that point of view, I might object to the noise side of it."

    Jeff: "No, I wouldn't object if they could sort of come up to the sort of same socio-economic standards that we're at. And, you know, they can only achieve that by proper education and that sort of thing. And it's quite obvious to us that they don't want education. They burn their schools down…."

    Hear the broadcast.