-
Apartheid begins after the 1948 general election.
-
The African National Congress starts the Defiance Campaign. Volunteers begin a peaceful resistance to apartheid by breaking the laws they feel are wrong.
-
Nelson Mandela and Tambo opens the first Black legal firm in South Africa.
-
A law is passed that creates a separate education system for blacks and whites.
-
Nelson Mandela was charge with high treason and found not guilty. Nelson Mandela is arrested with several other people for fighting against apartheid. Mandela is charged with treason, but after a four-year trial he is found not guilty.
-
Separate homelands are created for the major black groups. The government passes new laws to create separate homelands, called Bantustans. The government does this to stop blacks from being citizens of South Africa.
-
The apartheid requires blacks to carry passbooks, which have personal information such as name, date of birth, and photos. Protestors show up at the Sharpeville police station without their passbooks, a riot starts. Police kill 69 people.
-
Mandela gets arrested for treason. Mandela is arrested for his role in bombing government targets and sentenced to life in prison.
-
Rhodesia illegally gains independence from Great Britain.
-
South Africa is expelled from the United Nations and isn't let back in until 1994 when the appatheid is over.
-
High school students in Soweto start a protest for better education systems for blacks. Police break up the protest with tear gas and bullets. More than 600 people we're killed.
-
President Frederik Willem de Klerk ends the ban on the African National Congress. President Frederick Willem de Klerk ends the ban on the African National Congress in 1990.
-
Nelson Mandela is released from prison after 27 years of being in jail with the help of President de Klerk.
-
Nelson Mandela becomes president of the ANC.
-
The country's first election that allowed both whites and blacks to vote, Nelson Mandela becomes elected president of South Africa. He is the first black president in the history of South Africa. Nelson Mandela finally ends apartheid.