The Freedom Charter
1955 · Event
At Kliptown, 3,000 delegates of the Congress Alliance adopt the demands collected from ordinary people across the country: 'South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white.' The state answers with a four-year treason trial of 156 leaders — and the Charter becomes the constitution-in-waiting it remains until 1994.
On these timelines: The Fall of Apartheid, Sub-Saharan Africa, Master
More from The Fall of Apartheid
- Apartheid (1948)
- Soweto uprising (1976)
- Sharpeville massacre (1960)
- Mandela imprisoned (Rivonia Trial) (1964)
- The National Party wins on apartheid (1948)
- Mandela inaugurated as President (1994)
- De Klerk takes power (1989)
- The assassination of Chris Hani (1993)
Around 1955
- Vietnam War (American phase) (1965)
- Cuban Revolutionary War (1953)
- Suez Crisis (1956)
- US Civil Rights Movement (1954)
- Indian independence and Partition (1947)
- Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
- Berlin Airlift (1948)
- Chinese Civil War (resumed) (1945)
- Korean War (1950)
- Decolonisation of Africa (1952)