The oppressive nature of these apartheid laws sparked some resistance within the Black South African community , and several oppositional groups were formed . One of these groups that emerged was the ANC ( African National Congress ) , a group which eventually became involved in many resistance activities . One movement the ANC got involved in was a defiance campaign in the Black suburb of Sharpeville . This eventually led to the Sharpeville massacre , where 69 Black South Africans were killed , and 180 more were injured . This event resulted in the bloodiest apartheid protest that South Africa would see , and in the moment the Black South African community was horrified . In response , the following week was full of demonstrations , protests and marches . Because of this , the South African government saw fit to declare a state of emergency , and arrested thousands of people who had been protesting . Numbers approached 10,000 people by May , and many of these people were not released for months afterwards . Also in the fallout of the Sharpeville massacre , the South African government banned any organisations that were considered a threat to public safety or public order . This included organisations such as the ANC and the PAC ( another organisation that was committed to activism for Black South Africans through peaceful protesting ) . Under apartheid , Black women were affected to an extreme degree due to discriminatory racial and gender laws . There were not many opportunities for women to become political leaders , as many organisations allowed male membership only , so not many women did get very involved with politics . There were several organizations that let women join , or had entirely separate organizations there for women to join , one such being the ANCWL or ANC Women ’s League . In a protest of the '' Natives ( Abolition of Passes and Coordination of Documents ) Act of 1952 '' as mentioned above and several other pieces of legislation , many women participated in movements against the government for the first time in the form of the Defiance campaign . The defiance campaign was a movement organized in part by the ANC because of new apartheid legislation from the government . Women were not the only people to take part in this campaign , but the inclusion of women is noteworthy because this was the first campaign to see major participation from women . The movement itself involved thousands of Black citizens doing nonviolent things that would normally be considered as civil disobedience , such as going into areas that only White people were allowed into , or burning their pass books . The idea behind the movement , was that if enough Black people flooded the South African prison and judicial system , then it would force the government to reform the apartheid laws . Thousands of people were arrested in a matter of months , but the campaign did not accomplish its goal of forcing radical change . However , it did capture the attention of the global community , and that of the United Nations . In time the UN would launch an investigation into the apartheid policy
Sharpeville massacre
Sharpeville massacre
Racism in South Africa