Edward Perkins has had a problem with the status quo for a long time.

From humble beginnings on his grandparents’ farm in Louisiana in the segregated South, experiencing class and racial injustice firsthand, he resolved to make a difference.

Perkins, a former ambassador to apartheid-era South Africa, the United Nations and Australia, spoke at Chapman’s Law School on Thursday night about serving as a diplomat on behalf of the United States. This year marks the 20th anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s release from prison, in which Perkins helped play an instrumental role. He touched on points as diverse as meeting President Reagan and staring down South African President P.W. Botha, to offering suggestions for how the U.S. should approach foreign policy regarding China and Africa.

Perkins came to Chapman for free because he thinks Orange County is a place where many innovative things happen. He spoke in the previous week at Stanford University, University of Southern California and University of California, Berkeley.

“Chapman’s a good place to say things publicly. People here are going to make a difference,” Perkins said. “And the high level of scholarship is a draw too.”

Perkins moved to Pine Bluff, Ark., at 14, where he first experienced city life and segregation. He later moved to Portland, Ore., where he graduated from high school and decided to become a diplomat. After stints in the Army and Marines in Korea and Japan, and using the G.I. Bill to get a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland and a master’s from USC, he started his 40-year diplomatic career. He was appointed ambassador to Liberia, an African nation founded by freed American slaves, by President Reagan.

However, a much more dramatic post came when, as an African-American, he was appointed ambassador to South Africa.

“This was a critical time for U.S. relations to South Africa. There was a lot of social upheaval,” said Timothy Canova, associate dean of academic affairs at the School of Law. “My guess is that his diplomatic experience, as well as his race, all made a difference.”

Perkins was impressed by Reagan, and dispelled rumors of the president’s shaky reputation on race relations.

“I was surprised at the depth of his knowledge,” Perkins said. “I had heard several things about Reagan, all unfavorable, especially when it came to black people.”

It was not a controversy-free appointment. Black leaders in both the United States and South Africa thought of Perkins as an appeaser, a lackey for Reagan’s much maligned “constructive engagement” policy in South Africa, essentially entering into diplomatic relations with South Africa despite its institutionalized segregation. But Perkins didn’t get it easy from the white Afrikaner population either.

“I walked the streets of Pretoria and was hissed at by white mothers pushing strollers. Not because I was the American ambassador, but because I was a black man using the sidewalk,” Perkins said. “President Botha and I never had a civil word. He used some of the most racist language I’ve ever heard when around me.”

Slowly, the radical African nationalist groups including the African National Congress, as well as black American leaders such as Jesse Jackson, warmed to Perkins. Botha had a stroke and F.W. de Klerk became the next president. Perkins came back to the U.S. and less than a year later, Mandela was released from prison on his own terms. Perkins later served at the United Nations and as the ambassador to Australia, ultimately working with four presidents.

“It’s very important that we have foreign policy experts come to Chapman,” said junior Melissa Rubbelke, public relations and advertising major. “He gave great insights on what to do for the future.”

Perkins encouraged future relations with the African continent to be more proactive, but discussed in length the U.S.’s relationship with China, a totalitarian regime akin to that of the Soviet Union and South Africa.

“China moves an inch at a time toward human rights, and we must work with them” Perkins said. “The alternative is to have no relationship at all, and that would be totally dysfunctional.”


Contact this reporter: ryan.murray@thepantheronline.com