Donald Woods, White South African News Editor Who Fought Apartheid

Jet, Oct 29, 2001

Donald Woods, the White South African anti-apartheid newspaper editor immortalized in the 1987 movie Cry Freedom, died of cancer in a hospital south of London. He was 67.

Woods, editor of South Africa's Daily Dispatch newspaper in East London from 1965 to 1977, made headlines when he drew the world's attention to the case of his friend, South African Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko.

Biko was arrested in September 1977 by security police and died in detention after being tortured by apartheid-era security police.

Woods wrote a biography of Biko and later an autobiography titled Asking For Trouble. The books were the basis for the film Cry Freedom, which starred Denzel Washington and Kevin Kline as Woods.