The Night Malcolm X Spoke at the Oxford Union

BLOOD MONEY / no more arms for South Africa. -Placard held by Tony Abrahams at protest of South African ambassador's visit to Oxford, June 17, 1964

Then the Oxford University Conservative Association (OUCA) overreached. They invited de Wet back to Oxford the following Wednesday, to speak in a room they had rented in the Union building. "Now that the crucial day is over and the demonstration has taken place," explained the OUCA chairman, "I don't think there will be any serious trouble. " Proudfoot was not so sure. "I hear, with gloom and misgiving," she wrote to the proctors, that the students are organizing a "bigger and better 'demo" outside the Lamb and Flag pub (where J. R. R Tolkien and C. S. Lewis famously discussed their fantasy stories). Although she went on record-as if she needed to-saying "how v. much I dislike and distrust this 'demo' weapon, which the young now find such fun," she worried that the tide had turned in favor of student protest. The proctors, she noted, had to be wary, since "a great many senior members of the University are supporters of JACARI, so that, to take any formal action against this group might well be to invite considerable trouble. "88 Proudfoot was right about the likelihood of a demonstration and wider support for JACARI. And when the proctors ignored the warning about formal action, her prediction of trouble also turned out to be spot on.