Donald Woods

Donald Woods

Donald James Woods, CBE (15 December 1933 – 19 August 2001) was a white South African journalist and anti-apartheid activist.

As editor of the Daily Dispatch from 1965 to 1977, he befriended Steve Biko, leader of the anti-apartheid Black Consciousness Movement, and was banned by the government soon after Biko's death, which had been caused by serious head injuries, sustained while in police custody. The government denied giving Biko these injuries, even though police officers admitted to beating Biko to the point of nerve and brain damage. Woods fled to London, where he continued to foster opposition to apartheid. In 1978, he became the first private citizen to address the United Nations Security Council.

Read more about Donald Woods:  Early History, Relationship With Steve Biko, Life in Exile, Return To South Africa, Cry Freedom, Final Years, Awards, Memorials, Works

Famous quotes containing the word woods:

    I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.... I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)