1956 — Women's March on Pretoria

On August 9, 1956, some 20,000 women of all races marched on Pretoria's Union Buildings against the pass laws apartheid was forcing on Black women. Led by Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa, and Sophia Williams-De Bruyn, they delivered 14,000 petitions, then stood in silence for 30 minutes before singing "Wathint' Abafazi, Wathint' Imbokodo" — you strike a woman, you strike a rock.

The prime minister refused to meet them, and the passes came anyway. But the march became legend, its song and silence remembered long after that day in Pretoria. August 9 is now South Africa's National Women's Day.