The Defiance Campaign begins

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.

While the state celebrated three centuries of white settlement, the ANC and SAIC held mass meetings and called for defiance of six discriminatory laws.

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

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.

The apartheid state took control of African schooling and designed education to prepare Black children for subordinate labour. Communities, teachers and the ANC opposed the system.

Women from different racial and political organizations formed FEDSAW and adopted a Women's Charter demanding political, economic and social equality.