1950 — Johannesburg's Bloody May Day

On May 1, 1950, a general strike against South Africa's apartheid laws brought Johannesburg's townships to a standstill. Workers in Alexandra, Orlando West, and Sophiatown stayed away in protest, and a young Nelson Mandela was among the marchers who filled the streets that day.

Police answered with live fire, killing eighteen protesters and wounding thirty. The bloodshed did not quiet the townships. Instead it hardened the struggle, as the ANC called a National Day of Protest to answer the shootings. In Parliament, the government moved the other way, pushing through the Suppression of Communism Act and widening its power to crush dissent.