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South Africa becomes a unified state with the British Empire -
The vision was was to unite Africans and secure their right to vote -
The ANC youth leauge writes its manifesto -
The national party wins the 1948 general election -
Formally divided South Africa up into territories where the different race groups had to live. -
designed to promote the separation of races by outlawin sexual relations and procreation. passed by the NP gov -
The ANC adopts the ANC Youth Leauge's Manifesto, aka the Programme of action as the offical platform -
was legislation of the national government in apartheid South Africa which banned the Communist Party of South Africa and proscribed any party or group subscribing to communism -
was presented by the state as a device for land betterment but its practical significance forced removal or slaughter of cattle belonging to african reservist -
Divided territories designated for blacks into “bantustans” (or “homelands”) based upon 10 tribal groupings. -
The ANC, SACP, ACPO co-ordinate a May Day strike. The police opened fire on the protesters killing 18 and wounding 30 people. -
On June 26 the ANC called for a general strike and a day of mourning in protest at the May day murders -
Required that every person be classified within a hierarchy specified as white, colored, Asian or Bantu (black African).
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National Party introduced it to enforce racial segregation, and to remove all non-white people from the voters' system. -
The pass Laws Act permitted the Auhtoirtes to enforce segregation of the black and white communites through black citites and required black South Africans over the age of 16 to carry a pass book -
The ANC Defiance Campaign of 1952 was the largest scale non-violent resistance ever seen in South Africa. -
Empowered the government to declare states of emergency and increased penalties for protestors.
The penalties included fines, imprisonment and whippings. -
Enforced the segregation of all public facilities.
The main aim was to eliminate any and all contact between white people and other races. -
Provided an inferior and separate education for black children and youth. -
complemented the 1950 groups areas act and armed the government with bureaucratic machinery that would finally allow it to carry out its policies of the force urban resettlement of africans. -
The Freedom Charter united people of all racial origins in a common struggle to end apartheid and to establish a non-racial democratic state. It formed the basis of the country’s democratic Constitution of 1996. -
Congress of the People was held over two days in Kliptown, around 7 000 people from anti-apartheid groups attended -
was a trial in Johannesburg in which 156 people, including Nelson Mandela, were arrested in a raid and accused of treason in South Africa -
ANC women marched to the Prime Minister’s office to deliver a petition calling for the abolition of the pass laws. -
A group of radicalized activists split away from the ANC to form the PAC. -
In March of 1960 during a PAC demonstration against pass books in Sharpeville, the police opened fire, killing 69 black protestors, injuring 186. -
British Prime Minister Harold Macmillar delivered his “Winds of Change” speech, suggesting that Black nationalism was a force that had to be acknowledged and accepted. -
The ANC and the PAC were outlawed. Due to his overall ‘responsibility’ for the Pass Protest in Sharpeville, Sobukwe was arrested and jailed until 1969 (he was then released on house arrest and died several years later). -
UN Resolution 1598 condemns apartheid -
Members of both the PAC and ANC felt they had no alternative but to turn to armed resistance. In the ANC, Mandela set up a militant wing called Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation) which launched a campaign sabotage against property . -
In the PAC, Leballo set up a militant wing called Poqo (Pure), which launched a campaign of terrorism against Individuals. -
South Africa declared itself a republic. Its request to remain a member of the commonwealth is rejected by the British government. -
Police surrounded the meeting, recorded names of people signing the charter, used this to arrest 156 of them and put them on trial the following year (see
1956 Treason Trial) -
UN Resolution 1761 encourages members "separately or collectively, in conformity with the charter" to break trade and diplomatic relations with South Africa. -
African Resistance Movement (ARM) was a group made up largely by white students who had been part of the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS). On 24 July 1964, Frederick John Harris, a member of ARM, planted a time bomb in the Johannesburg station. -
Mandela and other leaders of the MK were given life sentences and sent to Robben Island. By imprisoning leaders of MK and the ANC, the government broke the strength of the ANC inside South Africa. At the same time this increased international criticism of apartheid
The United Nations condemned the trial and initiated steps to introduce sanctions. It is at this point that Mandela assumes iconic status as the de facto leader of the antiapartheid struggles -
Ten leaders of the African National Congress were tried for 221 acts of sabotage designed to overthrow the apartheid system. Often referred to as "the trial that changed South Africa” in October 1963, ten leading opponents of apartheid went on trial for their lives on charges of sabotage.
