“Long Night’s Journey Into Day” is the Academy-Award winning documentary that presents four of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission cases. One of those hearings centered on the 1993 murder of American Amy Biehl in South Africa. A Fulbright scholar, Amy was in Cape Town working against apartheid.

The Biehl family offered forgiveness to those responsible for their daughter’s death and created a foundation in her honor and to carry her work forward. The foundation funds educational, environmental, health education and other programs for South African youth. Amy’s mother, Linda, will speak to the Milton Academy community on October 6, 2004, as a Margo Johnson lecturer.

“Amy's legacy lives inside so many people. It drives her mother to continue her work and flourishes among the staff of the Amy Biehl Foundation Trust in Cape Town,” reads the foundation’s Web site (http://www.amybiehl.org). “Her legacy has inspired young people in the United States and has been a source of opportunity to thousands of South African youth. Amy's legacy thrives in the hearts of all of us who knew her and thousands of people she never met who have been inspired by her story.

“Perhaps most amazingly, her legacy lives through two men who played a big role in her death. Today, Ntobeko Peni and Easy Nofemela spread Amy's legacy throughout their community in South Africa. It is their transformation that truly represents the powerful legacy of Amy Biehl. Their transformation is what Amy was working for.”

The Margo Johnson Lecture, named for Margo Johnson, headmistress of the Milton Academy Girls' School from 1949-1982, brings accomplished women to the Milton campus.