The UN identifies apartheid as racial discrimination

The Netherlands transferred sovereignty following years of Indonesian resistance and negotiations. The transfer recognized a political independence that Indonesians had proclaimed in 1945 and defended...

Kwame Nkrumah announced Positive Action in Accra, calling for strikes, boycotts and noncooperation to press for self-government. Collective withdrawal of labour and cooperation challenged the...

India’s Constitution came into force, establishing a republic and prohibiting untouchability. B. R. Ambedkar’s role in constitution-making connected institutional change to the struggle of communities...

The ANC called a day of mourning and a general strike against repression and the Suppression of Communism Act. Workers’ absence and public protest connected political rights to collective...

UNESCO issued The Race Question, challenging claims that biological differences justified racial superiority. The intervention contested the authority of knowledge used to rationalize unequal...

Barbara Johns led students out of Robert Russa Moton High School in Farmville, Virginia, to protest inferior conditions in segregated education. Their organizing helped produce a lawsuit later...

The Civil Rights Congress presented We Charge Genocide to United Nations representatives. The petition alleged that killings and systemic abuses against Black Americans violated the Genocide...

Students and other protesters demanded recognition of Bangla in what was then East Pakistan. Police killed demonstrators during the language movement. This was a conflict within a postcolonial...

Activists held mass demonstrations as the government celebrated the tercentenary of Jan van Riebeeck’s arrival. The protests prepared resistance to unjust laws and challenged the public celebration of...

Volunteers deliberately violated apartheid restrictions in the Defiance Campaign organized by the ANC and its allies. Participants courted arrest through disciplined collective action. The campaign...