Research Catalog

Details

Description

1. 7 lin. ft. (7 archival boxes)

Summary

1. Joel Carlson South African legal files, 1958-1990, chronicles Carlson's legal career in South Africa through the late 1960s and early 1970s. Modeling Carlson's own mapping of his life and career in No Neutral Ground, the collection highlights the kinds of cases that Carlson understood to define his anti-apartheid work - prison abuse investigations and the defense of political detainees - as well as his representation of Winnie Mandela and members of her family. Primarily organized chronologically by case type and individual case, the collection consists largely of correspondence legal documents relating to the trail and the defendants and news clippings.

Subject

1. Black people > Legal status, laws, etc > South Africa
2. South Africa > Social conditions
3. Apartheid > Law and legislation > South Africa
4. Anti-apartheid movements
5. South Africa > Race relations
6. Imprisonment > South Africa
7. Mandela, Nelson, 1918-2013
8. Lawyers > South Africa
9. Political prisoners > South Africa
10. Crimes against humanity > South Africa
11. Carlson, Joel, 1926-2001
12. Lawyers > New York (State) > New York
13. Apartheid > South Africa
14. Criminal justice, Administration of > South Africa
15. Mandela, Winnie

Call number

1. Sc MG 646

Note

1. Photographs transferred to Photographs and Prints Division.

Source (note)

1. Joel Carlson

Biography (note)

1. Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in February 1926, Joel Carlson was a lawyer who devoted his legal career to opposing apartheid. Through the 1960s and 1970s, he developed a reputation for defending Black South Africans in a variety of cases including removal from homelands, arbitrary arrests and detention, torture cases, and pass law violations. Carlson eventually opened his won civil rights practice, exposing Apartheid atrocities, which made him a target among government officials and the South African police. After years of harassment and numerous threats against his life, Carlson left Johannesburg in 1971, relocating to New York. In 1994, Carlson revisited South Africa, serving as a United Nations observer in the country's first free elections. He died of leukemia in Manhaset, New York, in 2001.

Author

1. Carlson, Joel, 1926-2001.

Title

1. Joel Carlson South African legal files, 1958-1990.

Biography

1. Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in February 1926, Joel Carlson was a lawyer who devoted his legal career to opposing apartheid. Through the 1960s and 1970s, he developed a reputation for defending Black South Africans in a variety of cases including removal from homelands, arbitrary arrests and detention, torture cases, and pass law violations. Carlson eventually opened his won civil rights practice, exposing Apartheid atrocities, which made him a target among government officials and the South African police. After years of harassment and numerous threats against his life, Carlson left Johannesburg in 1971, relocating to New York. In 1994, Carlson revisited South Africa, serving as a United Nations observer in the country's first free elections. He died of leukemia in Manhaset, New York, in 2001.

Connect to:

1. Finding Aid

Research call number

1. Sc MG 646