We Charge Genocide takes Black Americans’ claims to the UN

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...

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...

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...

Governor Evelyn Baring declared a state of emergency in Kenya during the struggle against colonial rule associated with Mau Mau. Emergency powers enabled intensified repression. The confrontation...