Apartheid

By CatherineBowman

  • Native Land Act

    The Natives Land Act was passed to allocate only about 7% of arable land to Africans and leave the more fertile land for whites. This law incorporated territorial segregation into legislation for the first time.

  • National Party Founded

    A political party in South Africa. Was originally an Afrikaner ethnic nationalist party that promoted Afrikaner interests in South Africa.

  • National Party Victory

    The governing party of South Africa from 1948 until 1994. Its policies included apartheid, the establishment of a South African Republic, and the promotion of Afrikaner culture.

  • ANC launches Defiance Campaign

    the first large-scale, multi-racial political mobilization against apartheid laws under a common leadership – by the African National Congress, South African Indian Congress, and the Coloured People's Congress

  • Congress Alliance formed

    An anti-apartheid political coalition formed in South Africa in the 1950s. Led by the African National Congress, was multi-racial in makeup and committed to the principle of majority rule.

  • Congress Alliance Adopts Freedom Charter

    The Freedom Charter was the statement of core principles of the South African Congress Alliance, which consisted of the African National Congress (ANC) and its allies - the South African Indian Congress, the South African Congress of Democrats and the Coloured People's Congress.

  • Treason Trials Begin

    A trial in Johannesburg in which 156 people, including Nelson Mandela, were arrested in a raid and accused of treason in South Africa in 1956.

  • Sharpeville Massacre

    An incident in the black township of Sharpeville, near Vereeniging, South Africa, in which police fired on a crowd of blacks, killing/wounding about 250 of them. It was one of the first and most violent demonstrations against apartheid in South Africa.

  • MK begins Operations

    The armed wing of the African National Congress, co-founded by Nelson Mandela in the wake of the Sharpeville massacre. Its mission was to fight against the South African government. Used violence as a strategy.

  • The Rivonia Trial

    The Rivonia Trial led to the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela and the others among the accused who were convicted of sabotage and sentenced to life.