Apartheid Timeline

By ChrisTerry94

  • Founding of the ANC

    ANC = African National Congress
    It is the South Africa's governing political party, founded by
    Founded by John Dube, Pixley ka Isaka Seme, and Sol Plaatje

  • Congress Youth League founded

    Founded by by Nick Gombart, Ashley Peter Mda, Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo.
    It.marked the rise of a new generation of leadership of South Africa's black African population.

  • Defiance Campaign

    The Defiance Campaign was presented by the ANC at a conference held in Bloemfontein, South Africa.

  • Sharpeville Massacre

    South African police opened fire on a crowd of black protestors, killing 69 people and wounding 180 at the police station in Sharpeville.
    Police claimed that the protestors were stoning them.

  • Albert Luthuli wins the Nobel Peace prize

    He was the president of the ANC and the first African American to be award the Nobel Peace prize.
    Was awarded it for advocating non-violent resistance to racial discrimination in South Africa.

  • Spear of the Nation formed

    Translated from Umkhonto we Sizwe, it was the armed wing of the ANC which fought against the South African apartheid government.

  • Nelson Mandela sentenced to life in prison

    Nelson Mandela received a life sentence for committing sabotage against South Africa’s apartheid government, avoiding a possible death sentence.

  • The Soweto Uprising

    High-school students in Soweto, South Africa, protested for better education. Police fired teargas and live bullets into the marching students.

  • Steve Biko dies in police custody

    Died in a hospital in Pretoria. Was transferred 740 miles from Port Elizabeth to Pretoria for medical attention following a seven-day hunger strike.

  • Desmond Tutu wins the Nobel Peace prize

    Desmond Tutu was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace, "not only as a gesture of support to him and to the South African Council of Churches of which he is leader, but also to all individuals and groups in South Africa who, with their concern for human dignity, fraternity and democracy, incite the admiration of the world."

  • Nelson Mandela released from prison

    Was imprisoned for treason in 1964
    He was released by president F.W. de Klerk when he removed the ban on the African National Congress.

  • Nelson Mandela becomes president of South Africa

    After the end of the Apartheid regime, he was elected in the first free elections of South Africa.
    Before the 1991 end of Apartheid, blacks in South Africa did not even have the right to vote.