Historical Organization
ANC Youth League
ANC Youth League
Details
Organization Timeline
The ANC Youth League holds its founding meeting
📅 10 September 1944At the Bantu Men’s Social Centre in Johannesburg, the League’s founding meeting elected Anton Lembede president and placed Mandela, Ashby Mda, Oliver Tambo, and Walter Sisulu on its executive. The...
The ANC adopts a Programme of Action
📅 17 December 1949The ANC adopted a Programme of Action calling for mass action, civil disobedience, strikes, boycotts, and non-cooperation. The change grew from Youth League pressure and collective organizing,...
Police kill protesters during the May Day stay-away
📅 1 May 1950A one-day stay-away against the banning of communist leaders drew workers in Johannesburg and Soweto. Police violence killed Black protesters; Mandela sheltered overnight in a nurses’ dormitory. He...
The ANC Youth League joins a national work stoppage
📅 26 June 1951The ANC Youth League joined the Transvaal Indian Congress in organizing a national work stoppage. The action followed planning among congress organizations and drew a particularly strong response in...
Mandela urges communities to resist Bantu Education
📅 1 April 1955An indefinite school boycott began in protest against the Bantu Education Act, which placed Black education under tighter state control and prepared children for subordinate roles in an apartheid...