Mass meetings protest the Van Riebeeck tercentenary

Facing the Suppression of Communism Act, the CPSA dissolved publicly. Members later reorganized underground as the South African Communist Party.

The ANC and allied organizations organized a stay-at-home and day of mourning following the May Day killings and in protest against apartheid laws.

The act authorized compulsory residential and business segregation and became a major legal instrument for mass forced removals from multiracial neighbourhoods.

Every resident was assigned a racial classification. These classifications determined residence, schooling, employment, political rights and everyday movement under apartheid.

The law created state-controlled tribal, regional and territorial authorities. It laid administrative foundations for the Bantustan system and excluded Africans from common citizenship.

Thousands attended the Day of the Volunteers shortly before civil disobedience began. Participants committed themselves to disciplined, nonviolent defiance of apartheid laws.

Multiracial groups deliberately violated curfews, pass laws and segregation regulations. More than 8,000 volunteers were arrested during the country's largest civil-disobedience campaign to that date.

Authorities arrested campaign leaders under the Suppression of Communism Act in an attempt to disrupt the expanding civil-disobedience movement.

Twenty campaign leaders were convicted under the Suppression of Communism Act and received suspended prison sentences. Repression intensified but the campaign greatly expanded ANC membership.

The government gained broad authority to declare states of emergency, detain people and rule by proclamation. The measure responded directly to mass resistance.