Mary-Louise Hooper (March 2, 1907 – August 14, 1987) was a American heiress and activist in the Civil Rights Movement and anti-apartheid movement. She was briefly imprisoned in Johannesburg, South Africa and subsequent exclusion from that country in 1957 and became a cause célèbre both in South Africa and the United States. Hooper was the first white member of the African National Congress, and was described by its National Executive as "one of our number, and a leading worker in the struggle for freedom and democracy", and was one of the ANC's three delegates to the first All-African Peoples' Conference in December 1958 in Accra, Ghana, and one of only two American observers at the Third All-African Peoples' Conference in Cairo, Egypt in March 1961. Hooper was also active in the NAACP, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), and was the West Coast representative of the American Committee on Africa (ACOA) from 1962 until about 1969. Hooper was the editor of the South African Bulletin from 1964 to 1968.
Early life, family and education Mary-Louise Fitkin was born on March 2, 1907, in Swampscott, Massachusetts, the only daughter and second oldest child of Susan Norris Fitkin (1870–1951), an ordained pastor in the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene, and later the founding president of the Nazarene Women's Missionary Society (now Nazarene Mission International), and Abram Edward Fitkin (1878–1933), However, Fitkin's US Passport application on January 31, 1921 indicates he was born September 18, 1876. Ancestry.com. U.S. Passport Applications, 1795–1925 [database on-line]. Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 – March 31, 1. a former evangelist and pastor who had become a businessman. Mary-Louise had three brothers: Abram, Willis "Bud" and Ralph.
Mary-Louise attended the Church of the Nazarene with her family. By the end of 1907 Mary-Louise Fitkin, her parents, and brother, Raleigh, moved to Brooklyn because of her father's increased business activities. In 1907 the Fitkin family attended the John Wesley Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene located at the corner of Saratoga Avenue and Sumpter Street, Brooklyn, then pastored by William Howard Hoople.Brooklyn Eagle (12 December 1896) p. 8; E.D. Messer, comp.Brooklyn Daily Eagle Almanac (1912):334.
Her younger brother, Willis, was born in 1908. By April 1910, the Fitkins lived in their own home on Wallis Avenue, Queens, New York. While living here, her youngest brother, Ralph was born in 1912.
In December 1919, Mary-Louise Fitkin organized the Do for Others Club, a boys' and girls' group for the Church of the Nazarene, whose purpose was to do whatever possible for the famine sufferers of India.
By January 1920 the Fitkin family resided at 271 Brooklyn Avenue, Brooklyn. By December 1926 the Fitkin family lived at 8 Remsen Street, Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn.
Mary-Louise Fitkin attended Adelphi Academy at Lafayette Avenue, St. James Place and Clifton Place, Brooklyn, New York, and after graduation, she studied at Stanford University for one year until June 1928.
Civil rights activities Mary-Louise Hooper was committed to opposing racial injustice wherever she found it, saying: "the Freedom Struggle is one – Mississippi, South Africa." Before 1955 Hooper was "involved in interracial work in California" with the Council for Civic Unity (CCU),Shirley Ann Wilson Moore, "California Council for Civic Unity", Organizing Black America: An Encyclopedia of African American Associations, http://www.bookrags.com/tandf/california-council-for-civic-unity-tf/Kenneth Burt, "California Federation for Civic Unity" (August 7, 2010), http://kennethburt.com/blog/?p=807 "the premier interracial organization working against discrimination in San Francisco, [whose] aim was to end discrimination in housing, employment, health, recreation, and welfare";Paul T. Miller, "San Francisco (California) Race Riot of 1966", in Encyclopedia of American Race Riots, ed. Walter C. Rucker and James N. Upton (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007):583. the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)."Mary-Louise Hooper", African Activist Archive, http://africanactivist.msu.edu/image.php?objectid=32-131-18D"About Mary-Louise Hooper, 1961", Africa Defense and Aid Fund of the American Committee on Africa, http://kora.matrix.msu.edu/files/50/304/32-130-B6F-84-al.sff.document.acoa000261.pdf
Anti-apartheid activities
South Africa (1955–1957) Mary-Louise Hooper, who was a Life Member of the NAACP, who had been "long active in volunteer work to better inter-racial relations", was also "an active supporter of African struggles against colonialism and apartheid"."Mary-Louise Hooper with the FLN underground", http://africanactivist.msu.edu/image.php?objectid=32-131-30C After a three-month tour of South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria, with a group of Quakers in 1955, Hooper moved to South Africa later that year, eventually buying a home in Durban, South Africa."Mary-Louise Hooper", http://africanactivist.msu.edu/image.php?objectid=32-131-18D Hooper supported the African National Congress,William Henry Robinson, comp., Nommo: An Anthology of Modern Black African and Black American Literature (Macmillan, 1972):68. and was described as "the only white person to ever work inside the African National Congress"."Woman Explains South African Defense Fund", Modesto Bee (Modesto, CA) (November 25, 1957):14.Later other white people became members of the ANC, including Joe Slovo and Albie Sachs, both of whom served as members of the ANC National Executive Committee, and Barbara Hogan, Ben Turok, and Marion Monica Spark."Hooper Tells of Opposition to Apatheid", California Tech (Pasadena, CA) (February 14, 1963):1.American Committee on Africa, Africa Today 7–8 (Indiana University Press, 1960):15, 50.
Returning to the US by June 1956 to seek permanent residence in South Africa, in San Francisco Hooper met with her friend African-American civil rights activist Ethel Ray Nance, secretary of the San Francisco branch of the NAACP; and, a week later, met with American civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author, writer and editor Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois in New York, with credentials from Chief Luthuli "authorizing her to act for him with the Committee on Africa". Travelling to London, England, through the influence of Du Bois,Letter from W. E. B. Du Bois to Kwame Nkrumah, ca. June 1956 Hooper met Trinidadian Pan-Africanist, journalist, and author George Padmore, who in turn wrote her a letter of introduction to former revolutionary Kwame Nkrumah, then Prime Minister of Gold Coast, who later became the first Prime Minister and President of Ghana, and would lead the Gold Coast to independence from Britain in 1957.Mary-Louise Hooper to W.E.B. Du Bois, (August 27, 1956) from Lagos, Nigeria: http://credo.library.umass.edu/view/pageturn/mums312-b145-i234 Hooper met with Nkrumah at least 5 times in the Gold Coast in 1956. Hooper also met with anti-apartheid activist Bishop Trevor Huddleston on that trip to London. By late August 1956 Hooper was in Lagos, Nigeria en route to her return to South Africa.
On her return to South Africa, Hooper continued to campaign for the abolition of apartheid, and worked as a volunteer aide and secretary to ANC president Chief Albert Luthuli,"Chief Albert Luthuli and Mary-Louise Hooper", http://africanactivist.msu.edu/image.php?objectid=32-131-30A"African Activist Archive Project Launches New Website", (February 12, 2009), http://allafrica.com/stories/200902120915.htmlIsmail Meer, A Fortunate Man (Zebra Press, 2002):191). and was seen as a "fairy godmother" to the ANC, providing financial support, transportation in her "Congress Special" sedan, and hosting secret ANC meetings in her home.Robert Trent Vinson, Albert Luthuli. (Ohio University Press, 2018). Ohio Short Histories of Africa series. Hooper was active in providing financial assistance and other support for those tried during the Treason Trial. By January 1957, Hooper had moved to Hillbrow,Mary-Louise Hooper, "We Shall Not Ride: The Johannesburg Bus Boycott", Africa Today 4:6 (November–December 1957):13–16. a suburb of Johannesburg.Letter from Mary-Louise Hooper to W. E. B. Du Bois (ca. February 1957): http://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/mums312-b148-i156
On March 10, 1957, Hooper was arrested and imprisoned for five days in what she described as "degrading and humiliating" conditionsFriends Journal, Vol. 3 (1957). in the Fort Prison in Johannesburg."Covering the International Scene", The Afro American (March 9, 1957)5.Africa Report, Vols. 1–5 (African-American Institute, 1971). Despite being granted permanent visa status by February 1957, Hooper was ordered to be deported from South Africa after being accused of assisting South African "negroes"."DEPORTATION ORDERED; New York Woman Had Aided South African Negroes", Special to The New York Times (March 13, 1957):24. Hooper was freed by the Rand Supreme Court on a writ of habeas corpus,"WRIT AIDS AMERICAN; Woman Fights Deportation From South Africa", The New York Times (March 15, 1957).Africa Bureau (London, England, "Unlawful Detention of American Citizen", Africa Digest 4 (Africa Publications Trust, 1957):197.Newsweek 49, Part 2 (1957):56. and later awarded damages, which she donated to the ANC.Africa Bureau (London, England), "Damages Awarded to American Citizen", Africa Digest 5 (Africa Publications Trust, 1957):66. On May 14, 1957 Eben Dönges, the Interior Minister, ordered her deportation as he believed her presence in South Africa was not in the public interest.South Africa Supreme Court, Southern Rhodesia High Court, Zimbabwe High Court, Southwest Africa High Court, Namibia Supreme Court, The South African Law Reports: Decisions of the Supreme Courts of South Africa, Vol. 2 (Juta and Co., 1958):152–158.G.A. Natesan, The Indian Review 58 (Natesan & Co., 1957):287). After fleeing South Africa via Rhodesia at the end of May 1957,George H. Favre, "White Complacency Seen in South Africa: Inroads on Civil Rights Summary Arrests Hit Africans Befriended Threat of Violence Looms", The Christian Science Monitor (June 28, 1957):2. she was excluded from re-entry by the South African government. She remained in correspondence with anti-apartheid activists, such as Nokukhanya Bhengu, wife of Albert Luthuli. They exchanged letters for decades.
All-African Peoples' Conferences (1958-1961) Hooper served as one of the three official Africa National Congress delegates and the only American delegate to the first All-African Peoples' Conference in December 1958 in Accra, Ghana."African Defense Fund Talk Due", Star-News (Pasadena, CA) (March 18, 1959):2–7.C. J. Driver and Anthony Sampson, Patrick Duncan: South African and Pan-African (James Currey Publishers, 2000):157.Scott Thomas, The Diplomacy of Liberation: The Foreign Relations of the African National Congress since 1960 (I.B.Tauris, 1996):45. Hooper was also a delegate to the 2nd Congress in Tunis, Tunisia in January 1960, and was one of only two American observers at the Third All-African Peoples' Conference in Cairo in March 1961, having been denied delegate status despite being appointed as an ANC representative by Chief Luthuli. By 1961 Hooper had made at least one trip of at least two months duration to Africa, visiting 24 African countries including Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Congo, Cameroun, Ethiopia, North Africa, and nearly all of East, Central and Southern Africa. Hooper numbered among her personal friends President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana; Tom Mboya of Kenya, Chief Luthuli, Alan Paton and Oliver Tambo of South Africa; Bishop Trevor Huddleston of Tanganyika, Kenneth Kaunda of Northern Rhodesia, Ahmed Boumendjel of Algeria and Joshua Nkomo of Southern Rhodesia.
USA (1957–1969)
California (1957–1964)