The Sharpeville massacre
Police open fire on a crowd protesting the pass laws, killing 69 people; the ANC and PAC are banned, and the liberation movements turn to armed struggle.
- Sharpeville Massacre, 21 March 1960 — South African History Online
- Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report — Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa (1998)
- A History of South Africa — Leonard Thompson and Lynn Berat, Yale University Press (2014)
- South Africa: The Rise and Fall of Apartheid — Nancy L. Clark and William H. Worger, Routledge (2016)
On 21 March 1960 the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), a breakaway from the ANC led by Robert Sobukwe, called on Black men to leave their passes at home and present themselves for arrest at police stations. In the township of Sharpeville, south of Johannesburg, a crowd of several thousand gathered outside the police station. Police opened fire, killing 69 people and wounding around 180; many were shot in the back as they ran.
- Sharpeville Massacre, 21 March 1960 — South African History Online
- Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report — Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa (1998)
The shootings caused a global outcry and a run on the South African economy. The government declared a state of emergency, detained thousands, and on 8 April banned the ANC and PAC. Convinced that non-violence had reached its limits, ANC leaders including Nelson Mandela formed an armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (“Spear of the Nation”), which began a sabotage campaign in December 1961. In 1961 South Africa also became a republic and left the Commonwealth.
- A History of South Africa — Leonard Thompson and Lynn Berat, Yale University Press (2014)
- South Africa: The Rise and Fall of Apartheid — Nancy L. Clark and William H. Worger, Routledge (2016)
- Long Walk to Freedom — Nelson Mandela, Little, Brown (1994)
Mandela and other leaders were arrested and, at the Rivonia Trial, sentenced to life imprisonment in June 1964. For a generation, the leaders of the struggle were in prison or exile.
- Statement from the dock at the opening of the defence case in the Rivonia Trial, 20 April 1964 — Nelson Mandela, Nelson Mandela Foundation (1964)
- Nelson Mandela — Encyclopaedia Britannica
Why it matters today
21 March is Human Rights Day in South Africa and, worldwide, the UN's International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Nelson Mandela signed the 1996 Constitution into law at Sharpeville. The massacre is remembered as the moment peaceful protest was met with bullets, and the start of thirty years of underground and exiled struggle.