About this site

This resource is hosted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, but was compiled and authored by Padraig O’Malley. It is the product of almost two decades of research and includes analyses, chronologies, historical documents, and interviews from the apartheid and post-apartheid eras.

1955

The government announces that women must carry passes

February 1955

About 60 000 people are forcibly removed from Johannesburg's Western Areas as part of the policy of Group Areas Act. These areas then became white areas and renamed Triumph

5 March 1955

The South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU), the first non-racial union is formed

April 1955

Both teachers and students stage a massive boycott of Bantu Education and schools

22 April 1955

Walter Sisulu holds an interview with prominent members of the ANC over the boycotting of schools

6 June 1955

Walter Sisulu, together with a number of listed persons and members of the ANC, attend a secret meeting where plans are discussed to persuade members of the Residents Committee and Native Advisory Boards to join the ANC

26 June 1955

The Freedom Charter is adopted at the Congress of the People in Kliptown. Albert Luthuli, Yusuf Dadoo and Father Trevor Huddleston are each awarded the Isithwalandwe - the nation's highest honour

August 1955

An article by Sisulu appears in the pamphlet Workers Unity under the heading "The Allegiance of the Trade Union and Liberatory movements in Africa" in which he describes the oppression of the mass (non-whites) under imperialism

9 August 1955

Over 20 000 women march to the Union Buildings in Pretoria against the extention of passes to women

1 October - 2 October 1955

Walter Sisulu attends a function in Orlando in honour of Lillian Ngoyi, recently returned from Russia

This resource is hosted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, but was compiled and authored by Padraig O’Malley. Return to theThis resource is hosted by the site.