South Africa
December 16, 1961.
The
opening paragraph from the leaflets Umkhonto We Sizwe Spear of the Nation
stated that units of the “Umkhonto We Sizwe” today carried out planned attacks against
government installations particularly those connected with the policy of
Apartheid and race discrimination.
July 4, 1962
The newspaper headlines, spoke for
themselves on that cold winter morning in July 1962. “Kantor to face sabotage
act trial.” The Sabotage Act… along with nine other
people…The other nine men were Nelson
Mandela, Walter Sisal, Dennis
Goldberg, Gavan Mbeki, Ahmed Kithara, Lionel Bernstein, Raymond Malabar, Elias
Motaoaledi, and Andrew Mlangeni.
They were arrested at Dennis Goldberg’s
home in Rivonia, all nine faced charges of “Treason.” The world was shocked. If convicted, the South African Apartheid Government
could weld out execution by firing squad.
The indictments alleged all nine men had
embarked on a campaign of sabotage.
Charge No. 1. Contravening the Suppression of the Communism
Act
Charge No. 2. Contravening the General Law
Charge No. 3. Contravening the overthrow of the South
Africa Government by revolution Law
Charge No. 4 Contravening the
airlifting of an invasion force to South Africa by foreign troops.
Charge No 5. Contravening to use
laundered communist money into the ANC. (African National Congress.)
Jack H. Cooper a lawyer from Benjamin
Joseph law firm was appointed councilor for the accused Mr. James Kantor. One
of the allegations was Kantor’s office was used to launder communist money into
the banned ANC organization. The claim was not unfounded–money was going
through Mr. Kantor’s trust account to the ANC.
But the crucial question was, to what extend was Mr. Kantor involved and
to what extend did he have knowledge of this?”
December 23, 1962
The
headlines again told the story five months later on a warm December morning. “KANTOR’S
CONFINEMENT OVER.” The newspaper wrote, James
Kantor, the Johannesburg attorney one of the ten accused in the Rivonia Trial
was acquitted in Pretoria yesterday.
Jack Cooper had done his job well. He was the only lawyer that managed to prove his
clients’ innocence in the so called “1964 Freedom Trial.” He had saved his good friend from prison, and
at same time became a legendary hero. Neither one of them realized they were making
history.
November 2, 1964
The lengthy political trial had continued
for two more long years. Finally, on a
sunny autumn Pretoria afternoon in 1964, all of the other eight accused were
found guilty by a unanimous vote of the jury. One of eight men, Nelson Mandela,
a young attorney, delivered his famous, “I am prepared to die” speech from the
dock. This speech would haunt many South Africans for the rest of their lives.
Nelson Mandela the antiapartheid icon delivered that speech so fervently, so desperately,
trying to convey to the world one last time, before he would be sentenced,
perhaps to death, of the injustices that his people had suffered under the South
Africa Apartheid Regime. He told the packed court room, “That the African
National Congress organization never wanted to cause a civil war; all they
wanted was to be free, and live and work in their country of birth like the
white man did.”
No
one, not even the most visionary of those present on that day could have imagined
what the future held. November 1994, exactly thirty years later, capped off by
a wrenching imprisonment, Nelson Mandela walked off Robben Island into the
South Africa President’s office, and became the first black president of a new
liberated South Africa.
Jack and James friendship continued. Jack had studied
law at the Witwatersrand University in Scotland, before moving to South Africa.
He never claimed that it was his enormously
illustrious lawyer skills that gave his client the distinction of being the
only one acquitted at the infamous Rivonia Trial. He said, “He had merely had to prove that his
friend wasn’t aware of the money going through his office. I did just that, but
it did not come easy. I worked day and night on the trial sparing neither
energy nor imagination. Afterwards James
hugged me and we had a party. I felt very elated – a feeling of accomplishment. After all
at the end of the day when you are in a trial, it’s you against them. It’s a
game.”
James was the
first of the nine to go to trial.
Neither he nor Jack fully comprehended just how fortunate he was during the
next two years, until it was published in the South African Journal that the
other eight men got life in prison. During
his short period of detention, James suffered what appeared to some folks to be
a nervous breakdown. His law practice deteriorated while he was in confinement and
thus, after his release he relocated to Scotland; thence lived a lawyer’s life
in Swain Valleys, Scotland.
Jack
and James knew Nelson. All the defense
lawyers in Johannesburg knew one and the other. Mandela was a colleague. They handled
cases, sometimes the same cases with different accused. They were criminal
lawyers. Lawyers who take these political cases were shunned, but they took the
cases. Serious business. That was how they made their living, Jack, James, Tambo
and the other guys.
At that period of time
living in South Africa was good, but after the trial the law practice couldn’t
support Jack and his family, and he moved to Los Angles, four children, wife and
“Crybaby” the family dog, named after his x-wife. His six grandchildren live in
Texas. Jack became a Real Estate Broker.
Jack said, “I don’t think I would go
back to live in South Africa. Thirty years is a long time. We’ve got our roots
here. Our friends are here and our children and grandchildren. Most of my friends here in L.A. are South
Africans. A lot of them went to school
with me. South Africans are in my heart where
ever they are… a very special people. There’s that warmth and the camaraderie.
However, whenever I visit South Africa now, I feel like a lonely needless person. It’s a generation gap thing I suppose. “
Jack was 76 years old when he fell down his
basement stairs and fractured his hip. Soon afterward he died.
He was buried on a Sunday, August 8th 2003 at the Trails End
Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. Jack was survived by his four children and
eight grandchildren. His first born son, Howard Cooper, speaking at the funeral
said, ‘I remember one bit of wisdom my dad gave me that seems appropriate for
today. He said, Americans need to be constantly
on guard for any sign of muted government mischief, because a hard
core of truth is as history has shown
over and over when you ask a government to handle everything, it will handle nothing well.”
The Irish Government provided James transportation
to the funeral from the Dover Ireland Air Force Base. In his suit case was a carefully folded South African
flag. Sometime after midnight the
following evening, James walked down the accordion stairs from a civilian 747
plane that Irish Command military had chartered, onto the L.A. airport tarmac.
James,
an honorary pallbearer kneeled in front of Jack’s relatives at the grave site.
They heard him weeping as he placed on the casket a South African flag alongside
the American flag. The silver casket was then lowered automatically down into
the plastic grass covered hole into a cement vault.
A Catholic
Bishop standing at the head of Jack’s grave read the urology.
“By the grace of Almighty God, his voice
resonant as the gray skies above suddenly opened and rain cascaded from the
clouds like tears, so fitting to this emotional moment. “The hour of your redemption is here a child
of God who for whatever reason has been taken into God’s graces. A Christian
who for all his mortal life lived Christ’s teachings. May his indomitable
spirit live on?
James
said, "It's been emotional for everyone who's has been involved with Apartheid through
the many years, but the fighting has finally stopped in South Africa, and my best
friend is now in heaven. He is at peace. He, he, looked like he was sleeping. Who prepared him, set him at peace; he looked
like Jack at peace. It looks like him, just not moving, just laying there. He
had to wait a long time to find peace. We all did.”
The Chinook helicopter nearby started it
engines idling. Rarely before had the Irish Government helicopter crew chosen
to remain at a funeral until the family was ready to leave the grave site. James
and his family along with the military escorts spent the night in a down town
hotel and so arrived at the Dover airport two days later. Jim and his wife were
saluted by a row of Republican Irish Guard at a waiting military van.
“That
had to be the longest ride in my life. What do you say? What do you talk about?” Jimmy said to
his wife. “There is something I’ll need to do first thing tomorrow, when I get
to my office is to begin preparation for a suit against the “South African Government
Trust Fund for the pain and anguish it caused those nine black human beings.” And as an afterthought he added, “Living the
rest of my life’s journey before I meet my best friend won’t be trouble free.”
Author Karl Wallace
