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Margaret Burnham, a founding board member and our clerk, brings to South Africa Partners a long history as a human rights lawyer, teacher and activist. Margaret is widely known and respected for her work in the international human rights movement. She began her legal career representing political activists like Angela Davis in the 1970s. She has served as a judge in Massachusetts and as the director of the National Conference of Black Lawyers. Today she practices civil rights law with the Boston firm of Burnham & Hines and she teaches political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is the chairman of the National Center of Afro-American Artists and a board member of the Algebra Project.
Margaret has been a leader in the anti-apartheid movement for three decades. She served on the boards of the International Defense and Aid Fund and the Fund for a Free South Africa. In 1993, Margaret was appointed by President Nelson Mandela to an international commission investigating human rights violations within the African National Congress. Reflecting on the process, Margaret said, "It was unprecedented for a liberation organization to investigate its own possible human rights violations. The interest in full disclosure outweighed the organization's natural interest in hiding its own mistakes." The Motsuenyane Commission's findings helped set the stage for the later work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Margaret's unique experiences and broad expertise have proved invaluable to South Africa Partners.
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