Randall Robinson, civil rights activist and lawyer, dies at 81

Randall Robinson, a social justice activist and lawyer known for his advocacy against South African apartheid and for Haitian democracy, has died. He was 81.

Death details for Randall Robinson

Robinson died Friday in St. Kitts, the Caribbean island where he spent the last two decades of his life, of aspiration pneumonia.

Robinson was one of the leaders of the Free South Africa Movement, which began in the 1980s and pushed to end apartheid. He “led a range of foreign policy campaigns in his life-long advocacy in defense of democracy and justice in Africa and the Caribbean,” a press release from Robinson’s family says.

Activist

Born in Richmond, VA, Robinson attended Norfolk State University on a basketball scholarship before being drafted into the U.S. Army. He obtained a law degree from Harvard Law School and became a civil rights lawyer focused on U.S. foreign policy toward nations with civil rights concerns such as South Africa and Haiti.

Mr. Randall Robinson and his wife wait for the helicopter that will take them to the airport. They were here to attend the inauguration ceremony of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide who was returned as President of Haiti during Operation Uphold Democracy and Operation Restore Democracy. Mr. Robinson staged a hunger strike during the former U.S. policy on Haiti. Operation / Series: UPHOLD DEMOCRACY (Photo Credit: United States Marine | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Randall_Robinson_photo.jpg)

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Robinson founded the Washington, D.C.-based foreign policy advocacy organization TransAfrica in 1977 to promote “diversity and equity in the foreign policy arena and justice for the African World” including the African diaspora, according to the group’s mission statement. He served as the president of the organization until 2001.

Robinson pushed hard for reparations for Black Americans, including the publication of his book “The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks”. Unfortunately,  his efforts received less public and political support. Eventually he became disenchanted by the ongoing struggle for racial equity and left the U.S. with his family to settle on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts, where he lived his last two decades of life upon his death.