Womens March Flashcards
What did all men have to carry with them
All African men had to carry’reference’ books or ‘pass’ books or ‘the dompas’.
What were pass books used by the government to do
Passes were used to control the movement of African male workers.
What did pass books contain
What did it give the government
Passes contained information about a person’s employment and gave the apartheid government control over black workers.
Why were pass books on of the most hated laws
African men had to stand in line for hours to have their pass books renewed.
Police stopped men in the streets, or woke them up at night to check their pass books.
Africans were arrested under the pass laws if they didn’t have their pass books with them
Indian and coloured people were also discriminated against and did not have equal rights
But they were not treated as bad as the blacks why is this
the government did not want all oppressed people to join together in protest, so they used a strategy called ‘divide and rule’.
PASS LAWS FOR WOMEN
In 1952 the government declared that African women had to carry passes.
What’s is the women decided to do
women in the Congress Alliance decided to protest. .
PASS LAWS FOR WOMEN
How did they protest
On 9 August 1956, 20 000 women marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria, where the head offices of the apartheid government was situated , to protest against passes for women.
PASS LAWS FOR WOMEN
What were they planning to do when they arrived
The leaders of the march were carrying a petition signed by hundreds of thousands of women which T hey wanted to hand over to Prime Minister Strijdom, but he would not come out to meet them.
PASS LAWS FOR WOMEN
Was the March a success
Some people say that it’s was a failure, as Strijdom was not crushed.
most African women were carrying passes.
But there were other reasons that the made the march a triumph:
1.it showed that women from all over the country could become together against apartheid laws.
Women from all ‘racial groups’ participated. Even though only African women were being forced to carry passes, white, coloured and Indian women who cared for human rights for all, joined the march in solidarity.
2.Resistance irritated and embarrassed the apartheid government.
The importance of the event is remembered every year on 9 August. In our new democracy, this day is celebrated as a holiday - National Women’s Day.
