Father Joseph Wittstock

Andy: During my early presentations about race, I was often asked how Jim Crow segregation compared to South Africa’s apartheid. What was daily life like in South Africa? University students asked me how the racial attitudes of White South Africans compared to those of Southern Whites during Jim Crow. Until I spent many hours with Fr. Joseph, a White South African, my answer was always, “Good question, but I don’t know enough to comment.”

Afterword · p. 296

From 1948 on, “Whites Only” notices appeared in every conceivable place. Laws and regulations mandated or enforced segregation in various public facilities, including taxis, ambulances, hearses, buses, trains, elevators, benches, lavatories, parks, church halls, town halls, cinemas, theaters, cafes, restaurants, hotels, schools, and universities. It was also official policy to prevent interracial contact in sports: no integrated teams and no competitions between teams of different races in South Africa, and no integrated teams representing South Africa abroad. I remember signs like these and “Blacks Prohibited” and “Non-Whites Only.” However, I suspect that fewer signs were required in South Africa by the time my conscious memories began, because apartheid had become the status quo by then to most people, at least until the early 1970s.

Afterword · Apartheid (1948-1994) · p. 301

Andy and I compared our memories. Both of us remember “Whites” and ‘White Only” signs in public. However, Andy remembers signs on water fountains. I do not, because public water fountains in South Africa were not available until relatively recently. I do not recall seeing any public water fountains until I came to America. Andy does not remember signs in the Jim Crow South labeled Mullatos (U. S. equivalent of Coloureds in South Africa), because the Jim Crow laws recognized Mullatos as Blacks, and no signs labeled Asians because Jim Crow laws applied only to Blacks and Whites.

Afterword · Apartheid (1948-1994) · p. 302

During apartheid, signs referring to Asians, Coloureds, and Blacks were not required as frequently as signs that read Whites Only. For example, everyone in South Africa knew that all parks in every city and town were for Whites Only. Because park benches were marked “Whites Only,” no other signs were necessary. The benches under the shade trees in front of the King William’s Town Post Office, now known as Qonce (Map 8.2), were also marked Whites Only because no benches were provided for anyone else. Finally, because South African national parks were exclusively for Whites, no signs to that effect were necessary on facilities inside the gates.

Afterword · Apartheid (1948-1994) · p. 302

There were no signs in Sacred Heart indicating where to sit, but we didn’t need them. Whites always filled every pew on the left side. Small clusters of Asians and Coloureds sat in the first few pews on the right side, with late-arriving Whites filling in behind. I do not know how or when the seating pattern began, or whether it ever had a purpose. Our congregation, including me, continued to sit that way throughout the years my family worshipped there, even after socially minded White priests asked the congregation, on several occasions, to disperse among each other. At the time, the suggestions felt awkward to me—and, I imagine, to the entire parish—because they were 18 Fr. Joseph: Long before apartheid began, some measure of segregation between Whites and Non-Whites had been the norm in South Africa, as in most of the rest of the Western world. I believe this practice of racial segregation finally began to change in places like Europe and England after World War II. At the same time, South Africa went the other way and adopted strict apartheid. Until then, the Roman Catholic Church and other churches in South Africa organized themselves to fit the segregated system that existed at the time. Thus, from the beginning of the Catholic Church’s presence in South Africa, church institutions included a set of separate schools, seminaries, and hospitals for Whites only, and another set for everyone else. made before the political situation had moved far enough toward integration. These efforts made the priests appear overly unrealistic and idealistic, despite their noble intentions.

Afterword · Church · p. 348

Thousands of us (all Whites) received what eligible South Africans referred to as “call-up” papers, which assigned each recipient to their branch (Army, Navy, or Air Force) and unit of the SADF and informed the recipient when to report for duty. Recipients who sought deferments returned their papers with the appropriate application and awaited the result. Recipients without deferments were required to report for duty at a designated time and place. “Call-up papers” were issued annually, and thus, deferment had to be requested each year as well. I am unsure of the SADF’s criteria for assigning someone to a particular branch of the Army, Navy, or Air Force. Any failure to report would result in arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment for up to seven years. 23 Andy: Fr. Joseph was called up in 1979, during the early tenure of South African President Botha (1978-1989), a firm supporter of apartheid. I found an article in the New York Times (by David F. Burns, September 16, 1979) that summarized the state of the SADF at the time. Burns noted that President Botha had already doubled the time conscripts were required to serve, from 1 to 2 years. Burns also wrote that Botha was encouraging increasing numbers of Indians, Coloureds, and Blacks to enlist in the Army, and Indians and Coloureds to enlist in the Navy and Air Force. At the time Burns’ article appeared, the Army included the first combat-trained Black unit – a battalion of about 400 Black men with White officers. Of interest for current purposes, Burns illustrated the difference in military pay by comparing the annual pay of new recruits with high school educations as follows: Whites, $3,600; Indians and mixed-race (Coloured), $3,025; and Blacks, $2,210. Burns summarized race in the military with: “There is no mandated segregation, but the practice so far has been to group the races in separate units and to provide separate canteens, washing facilities and other amenities when Non-Whites are attached to a White unit. My Times, “South Africa Recruiting More Blacks for Its Army,” September 16, 1979, https://mytimes.com/1979/09/16/south-africa-recruiting-more-Blacks-forits-army-south-africa-in.html.

Afterword · Seminary Year 2 (1976) · p. 372