Barbara Johns leads a student strike at Moton High School

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...

General Assembly resolution 395(V) stated that apartheid policy was based on doctrines of racial discrimination. The resolution strengthened international criticism of South Africa’s treatment of...

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...

The General Assembly expanded its consideration of discrimination in South Africa to the wider apartheid question. International attention moved beyond the treatment of one community toward the...