March 30, 2022 • 33 mins
This 1956 march was a protest against pass laws that were part of South Africa’s system of apartheid – and specifically the requirement that women carry passes. The protest was simultaneously part of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, and the movement for women’s rights.
Research:
- "Apartheid." Gale World History Online Collection, Gale, 2021. Gale In Context: World History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/NUBLZL400705235/WHIC?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-WHIC&xid=a66fcd94
- International Women’s Day. “National Women's Day in South Africa is a powerful day for equal rights.” https://www.internationalwomensday.com/Missions/15556/National-Women-s-Day-in-South-Africa-is-a-powerful-day-for-equal-rights
- Akpan, Idara . “The 1956 Women’s March in Pretoria.” South African History Online. https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/1956-womens-march-pretoria
- South African History Online. “The 1956 Women’s March, Pretoria, 9 August.” https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/1956-womens-march-pretoria-9-august
- Pan Africanism Today Secretariat. “The lessons of South Africa’s 1956 Women’s March resonate to this day.” 8/9/2020. https://peoplesdispatch.org/2020/08/09/the-lessons-of-south-africas-1956-womens-march-resonate-to-this-day/
- Ogola, Esther. “South Africa: The icons behind the 1956 women’s march.” BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-africa-55106942
- Till, Christopher. “Our Triumphs and Our Tears: Women’s Struggles in 20th Century South Africa.” Apartheid Museum. https://www.apartheidmuseum.org/uploads/files/Our-Triumphs-and-Our-Tears.pdf
- Lenser, Amber Michelle, "The South African Women's Movement: The Roles of Feminism and Multiracial Cooperation in the Struggle for Women's Rights" (2019). Theses and Dissertations. 3397. https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/3397
- South African History Online. “Women’s Charter.” https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/womens-charter
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. Today we
are going to talk about a protest that took place
in nineteen fifty six in Pretoria, South Africa. This was
(00:24):
a protest against pass laws that were part of South
africa system of apartheid, and specifically the requirement that women
carry passes. So this protest was simultaneously part of the
anti apartheid movement in South Africa and also the movement
for women's rights. It's been quite a while since we've
talked about apartheid on the show, so we're going to
(00:46):
start with some of that context. And to be clear,
this involves centuries of South African history, so it is
not going to be a comprehensive look at all of this. Uh.
It is an overview that's meant to give folks who
aren't familiar a sense of how the system of apartheid evolved,
especially as it related to these past laws. Also, for
(01:08):
a lot of the time that we're talking about, laws
in South Africa separated its population into four groups. There
was European or white black, which at various points was
described using terms like native and Bantu, colored or a
multi racial and Indian, and Indian was a catch all
term describing basically anyone from Southeast Asia unless we are
(01:32):
using the proper names of things like organizations or laws
or quoted material. Just for the psych of simplicity, we're
gonna stick with the terms white black, multi racial, and
Asian rather than drawing from this more dated terminology. The
British and the Dutch each started trying to establish settlements
and garrisons in Southern Africa in the seventeenth century. European
(01:56):
control of the area passed back and forth between Britain
and the Dutch East India Company until the early nineteenth
century at the start of the Napoleonic Wars, when Britain
reannexed South Africa to keep it from falling into the
hands of the French. British efforts at colonization expanded really
rapidly from there, and this led to intense conflict between
(02:17):
Britain and the region's many African nations and people's The
British really envisioned the society they were establishing in Southern
Africa as one that was for Europeans only, so the
British army forced the area's African nations and people's off
of their lands in a series of attacks and wars.
(02:38):
There was also conflict between British colonists and the Boers,
or people with Dutch, German and Huguenot ancestry. As Britain
established a larger and larger presence in South Africa, English
replaced Dutch as the dominant European language. British currency also
replaced Dutch currency, and of course, many Boers found the
(02:59):
shift away from their predominantly Dutch origins threatening. Britain also
outlawed slavery in eighteen thirty four, which prompted many Boers
to try to move to areas outside of British control
so they could retain their enslaved labor. Eventually, the Boers
established the Orange Free State and the South African Republic
also known as Transvaal, leaving Britain in control of the
(03:21):
Cape of Good Hope Colony and the Colony of Natal
and each of these colonies, white governments took steps to
try to control and restrict the movements of the local
black population, including through systems of discrimination and segregation. Starting
in eighteen fifty six, each of the four colonies passed
laws that were known as the Masters and Servants Acts.
(03:44):
These laws criminalized things like going on strike and breaking
employment contracts, and while they theoretically applied to anyone who
was employed, in practice they were mostly enforced only for
black people. Diamonds were discovered in Kimberly and eighteen sixty seven,
leading to a huge rush to the area and to
(04:04):
dow beers claiming a monopoly on the South African diamond trade.
As part of this, the colonies tried to annex even
more land and to consolidate neighboring states, further reducing the
amount of land the black population of South Africa was
allowed to access and to live on. The discovery of
diamonds also led to a huge disruption among many African communities,
(04:27):
as there was a demand for men to work in
the mines, leaving women to continue caring for their families
while also picking up the agricultural work that was necessary
to sustain them. In eighteen ninety three, the Orange Free
State instituted a pass system. Passes were essentially internal passports
that were necessary to move around within the state, but
(04:50):
they were required only for the state's black population, and
protests against these passes started as soon as they were introduced.
Requiring only black people to carry identification documents was discriminatory
and insulting, and because the passes were legally mandated, they
also provided an easy excuse for white authorities to hassle
(05:13):
people of color. Another law passed in the Orange Free
State in nineteen o seven established a requirement that black
domestic workers carry a service book, which detailed exactly where
they worked, and it had to be carried at all times.
If a person was caught without their service book three times,
they could be ejected from the town where they lived.
(05:36):
The South African War, also called the Second Boer War,
had taken place roughly alongside all of this, starting in
eighteen nine and ending in nineteen o two. This war
was between Britain and the Borer colonies of the South
African Republic and the Orange Free State. The British had
promoted the idea of equal laws and equal liberty, so
(05:57):
many black South Africans sided with Britain in this conflict,
hoping to have a more just and equitable existence once
the war was over. Instead, an all white delegation held
a series of meetings in nineteen o eight and nineteen
o nine, which led to the South Africa Act. This
was an act that united the four colonies under an
(06:19):
all white government, with the exception of black and multi
racial people who met specific wealth requirements. Only white people
had the right to vote, and the few members of
parliament who were supposed to represent the interests of South
Africa's black population were appointed, not elected. Only about a
fifth of the population of South Africa was white, so
(06:41):
this left the vast majority of people living in South
Africa with no representation in the government, then no direct
involvement in the political process. Black South Africans held a
convention as these constitutional meetings were being held, but it
wasn't officially recognized and it had no formal polityical power.
At the same time, after the Union of South Africa
(07:04):
went into effect in nineteen ten, it did seem like
some progress toward equality might be more possible than it
was before, particularly in terms of the Orange Free States
pass laws. People had already been protesting and circulating petitions
to try to have the pass laws overturned, but now
the petitions could be delivered to Prime Minister Louis Botha,
(07:25):
rather than the government of the Orange Free State. In
March of nineteen twelve, a group of black and multiracial
women from Orange Free State took a petition containing at
least five thousand signatures to the Prime Minister. The Prime
Minister didn't respond to this petition, so a group of
women instead appealed to Henry Burton, Minister of Native Affairs.
(07:48):
Burton had a reputation for trying to protect people of
color in South Africa, but he seems to have been
reluctant to weigh in on this. The so called native
question had been threaded through the efforts to establish a
minority white government in a region where white people were
a tiny percentage of the population, and the government taking
(08:10):
action on the Orange Free States pass laws had the
potential to just turn one province's laws into a much
more national issue. So he argued that the pass books
were a local issue that needed to be handled within
the province, not something to be handled by the South
African government. If Burton was hoping to avoid the development
(08:31):
of a national movement against discrimination in South Africa, that
did not work. The South African National Native Congress was
formed in nineteen twelve, and it became the African National
Congress or a n C in ninety three. We'll get
some more about how this developed after a sponsor break.
(08:58):
We are focused mainly on path Us laws in today's episode,
but they were of course, by far not the only
laws that contributed to the apartheid system that developed in
South Africa. As European colonies grew and expanded their influence,
the non white population of South Africa was increasingly forced
into smaller and smaller areas of land. Eventually, this evolved
(09:22):
into the formal establishment of segregated communities, which were the
only places that people of color were allowed to live.
For example, in the nineteen teens, people who tried to
move out of rural areas and the Orange Free State
mostly wound up in vay Hook, location outside of the
Free State capital of Bloemfontein. White authorities tried to implement
(09:43):
a past system to control people's movements into and out
of vay Hook. They also targeted black women, specifically claiming
that black women were engaging in sex work. Some black
women had also started supporting themselves by brewing and selling beer,
which white authorities claimed was damaging society. In May of
(10:04):
nineteen thirteen, a civil disobedience campaign started in the Orange
Free State. People started refusing to carry passes and just
saying they were prepared to be arrested. Women gathered and
tore up or burned their passes outside of government buildings.
A cycle of demonstrations and arrests went on all through
(10:24):
nineteen thirteen. In nineteen fourteen, the Prime Minister finally agreed
to review Orange Free States pass laws, but they remained
on the books until nineteen eighteen, with protests and demonstrations
against them going on at various points throughout those years.
Although the idea of mandatory passes faded from the forefront,
(10:46):
other discriminatory laws were passed over the following years. The
Natives Urban Areas Act of nineteen twenty three gave local
authorities the right to establish segregated areas on the outskirts
of cities and industrial areas and to force black people
to move into those areas. Cities or employers were expected
(11:06):
to provide housing in these areas, but money to maintain
that housing also came from things like fines and rent
that were charged to the people who were forced to
live there. In nineteen twenty seven, the law in South
Africa effectively treated black women as miners rather than as
full adults with any sort of legal authority. By nineteen thirty,
(11:28):
only thirteen percent of the land area in South Africa
was open for black people to live on. For context,
by that point, South Africa had a black population of
about twenty million people and a white population of about
four million people, so those roughly one fifth of the
population had control of eighty seven percent of the land.
(11:51):
The quality of the land was part of it too.
The reserves that were designated for black people were generally
the poorest land with access to the fewest sources. Prior
to the nineteen thirties, most domestic workers in South Africa
had been men, but by the mid thirties that started
to shift. More women started traveling or moving to cities,
(12:12):
some just looking for work, others trying to reunite with
husbands or other family members who had done the same.
Cities and provincial government started passing more restrictive laws to
try to allow black people to enter cities only to
work and not to live. Because people tried to find
some way to live closer to the places they worked,
(12:35):
squatter camps were established around the perimeters of cities, and
of course those camps were then targeted by white communities
who did not want them to be there. The all
white National Party came to power in South Africa after
the nineteen forty eight election, and while segregation and other
forms of discrimination had existed in South Africa since the
(12:56):
start of colonization, it was this party that implemented the
set of laws that came to be known as apartheid.
These built on existing laws and systems of discrimination, including
ones that we have not discussed in this episode because
there were so many we would just read a list
if we tried to get into them. All. Yeah, some
of the biggest laws that were passed after the National
(13:17):
Party came to power. This is an overview. There was
the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act that was passed in
nineteen forty nine. It prohibited marriages between white people and
people of any other racial group. The Population Registration Act
of nineteen fifty legally classified anyone in South Africa as black, white,
(13:38):
or colored. Initially, Asians were included in the colored group,
but they were separated out into their own category of
Indian later on. The group areas Act of nineteen fifty
outlined where people of different races could live, with people
who were in the wrong places forced to move. And again,
with more than eighty percent of South Africa designated for
(14:01):
whites only, the Bands Who Authorities Act of nineteen fifty
one established so called home lands for black South Africans,
with those whole lands given a purportedly independent status, but
anybody who moved into one of those homelands lost their
South African citizenship and any rights and privileges that went
(14:22):
along with it. The African National Congress and the South
African Indian Congress started a campaign of coordinated civil disobedience
in response to these and other laws, known as the
Defiance Campaign for the Defiance of Unjust Laws, that was
launched on June nineteen fifty two, with volunteers doing things
(14:43):
like intentionally using whites only facilities and being arrested and
jailed as a result. Women were part of the Defiance campaign.
The a n C had started to allow women as
members in nineteen forty three and the a n C
Women's League had been established in nine Then, in addition
to the laws we just mentioned and others, there was
(15:05):
the Natives Abolition of Passes in Coordination of Documents Act
of nineteen fifty two. This repealed earlier pass laws that
were still on the books, and it introduced a new
standardized passbook that all black men would be required to carry.
Requiring only black men to carry papers would have been
(15:26):
discriminatory on its own, but this passbook also went way
beyond something like a passport or a basic I D.
It contained the person's photograph and information about where they
were from, but it also included unemployment record, tax records, fingerprints,
and police records. In addition to these requirements, this law
(15:48):
also required black people to get a permit if they
wanted to move, and anybody arriving in a city to
try to find work had to have a permit within
seventy two hours of getting there. Initially, this act applied
only to black men, but a lot of black women
also lived and worked in cities or otherwise needed to
move around South Africa for their lives and their work.
(16:11):
The Native Laws Amendment Act, which was also passed in
nineteen fifty two, had further tightened requirements on where non
white people were allowed to live in work, and its
terms exempted women who met specific criteria from needing to
carry passes, but in many cities and towns, local authorities
started requiring them anyway. This started mainly in the Western Cape,
(16:34):
where the government had established a restrictive quote colored preference
area with strict controls on who could enter and who
could live there. So, in addition to the other work
they were doing with the Defiance campaign, women in South
Africa were pushing back on the requirements for women to
carry passes. On January fourth, ninety three, hundreds of people
(16:56):
protested in Cape Town. Dora Tamana of the a See
Women's League gave a speech that set in part quote,
we women will never carry these passes. This is something
that touches my heart. I appeal to you young Africans
to come forward and fight. These passes make the road
even narrower for us. We have seen unemployment, lack of
(17:18):
accommodation and families broken because of passes. We have seen
it with our men, who will look after our children
when we go to jail for a small technical offense
not having a pass. Tomato was also part of the
Federation of South African Women when it was established in
nineteen fifty four. Other founders included Amina Cachalia, Lillian Goy,
(17:43):
Ray Simons and Helen Joseph. The leaders of the Federation
of South African Women came from all of South Africa's
racial groups, and it was meant to be an organization
for all women of all races, with goals related to
equality regardless of sex and equality regardless of race. The
Federation of South African Women held its first conference in
(18:04):
Johannesburg on April seventeenth, nineteen fifty four. A women's charter
that was drafted at the conference began with this preamble quote,
We the women of South Africa, wives and mothers, working
women in housewives, African, Indians, European and Colored hereby declare
our aim of striving for the removal of all laws, regulations,
(18:27):
conventions and customs that discriminate against us as women, and
that deprive us in any way of our inherent right
to the advantages, responsibilities, and opportunities that society offers to
any one section of the population. The charter then walks
through an overview of the state of affairs in South Africa,
(18:48):
including its systems of discrimination and poverty, and the loss
of social structures in African and Asian communities which had
been dismantled through colonization. It also noted that the women
of South Africa were legally treated as miners with little
access to education or support. This charter also outlined a
(19:08):
set of aims. They were quote the right to vote
and to be elected to all state bodies without restriction
or discrimination. The rights of full opportunities for employment with
equal pay and possibilities of promotion and all spheres of work.
Equal rights with men in relation to property, marriage, and children.
And for the removal of all laws and customs that
(19:30):
deny women such equal rights. For the development of every
child through free compulsory education for all. For the protection
of mother and child through maternity homes, welfare clinics, crushes
and nursery schools in countryside and towns, through proper homes
for all, and through the provision of water, light, transport, sanitation,
(19:51):
and other amenities of modern civilization. For the removal of
all laws that restrict free movement, that prevent or hinder
the right of free association and activity in democratic organizations,
and the right to participate in the work of these organizations.
To build and strengthen women's sections in the national liberatory movements,
(20:13):
the organization of women in trade unions and through the
People's Varied Organization to cooperate with all other organizations that
have similar aims in South Africa as well as throughout
the world to strive for permanent peace throughout the world.
In nineteen fifty five, a multi racial group of people
(20:34):
and organizations meant in Cliptown at the Congress of the People.
The Freedom Charter that was drafted at this congress incorporated
the aims from the Women's Charter. But we will talk
about how the nineteen fifty six protest that was coordinated
by a lot of these same women evolved after a
sponsor break. As soon as national, provincial, and local governments
(21:04):
in South Africa started requiring that women carry passes, women
started refusing to do it, including refusing to even have
a pass issued to them, and Winburg, Orange Free State
employers personally escorted black employees to the pass office, telling
them that they were just being issued papers that would
allow them to travel freely. Once people realized what was
(21:27):
really going on, women in Winburg organized a march to
the magistrate's court and burned their passes publicly. On March
ninety five, about two thousand women of all races marched
to the Union Buildings in Pretoria, which are the seat
of the South African government, to protest the pass laws.
(21:47):
After this, the Federation of South African Women started planning
a larger protest march, one that would again involve women
of all races. This was the march that took place
on August nine, nineteen fifty six x. This was a Thursday,
chosen because black domestic workers had Thursdays off and organizers
wanted as many women as possible to be able to attend.
(22:10):
Women who didn't live in Pretoria arrived in the area
the night before, and on the ninth they walked to
the Union Buildings and groups of two and three because
non white people were not permitted to gather in large groups.
Somewhere between ten thousand and twenty thousand women ultimately arrived
at the Union Buildings and it took two and a
half hours to get everyone inside the area where the
(22:32):
protests was taking place. Many women had their children with
them or the children that they were paid to care for.
Some were dressed in their domestic uniforms, some in traditional clothing.
There was a really broad spectrum of ethnicity, race, and
class represented. Leaders of the march included Raheema Musa, Lillian Goy,
(22:53):
Helen Joseph, and Sophia Williams. At the age of eighteen.
Williams was the youngest of the march leaders, and she
later married and became Sophia Williams Dubrain. The leaders of
the march had a petition with about fourteen thousand signatures
which they were going to present to Prime Minister J. G.
Straight Um. This petition read quote, we the women of
(23:15):
South Africa have come here today. We African women know
too well the effect of this law upon our homes,
our children. We who are not African women, know how
our sisters suffer. For to us, an insult to African
women is an insult to all women. That homes will
be broken up when women are arrested under past laws.
(23:37):
That women and young girls will be exposed to humiliation
and degradation at the hands of past searching policemen. That
women will lose their right to move freely from one
place to another. We voters and vote lists, call upon
your government not to issue passes to African women. We
shall resist until we have one for our children. Their
(23:57):
fundamental rights of freedom, just and security. A group of
representatives who tried to enter the Union buildings were also
turned away because they were integrated. March leader Lillian Goi
was quoted as saying, quote, the women of Africa are outside.
They built this place and their husbands died for this.
Although the plan had been to present this petition to
(24:19):
the Prime Minister, he and his staff had left the building,
so once some of the women were finally allowed inside,
they left piles of signed petitions outside his office. In
the end, the assembled women stood outside the Union buildings
in silence for half an hour before leaving. They also
sang a freedom song. Part of it translates to when
(24:40):
you strike a woman, you strike a rock. This became
a slogan for women's liberation in South Africa, sometimes followed
by subsequent lines that are translated as you have dislodged
a boulder, you will be crushed, well choked up. Those
are great. It's a slogan that's still shows up on
(25:01):
on posters and at protests and things, both in South
Africa and elsewhere. So this march did not lead to
an end to pass requirements for women, but women's activism
did influence when and how those laws were enforced. For
the most part, enforcement started in more rural areas where
fewer of the women were organized and there wasn't as
(25:22):
much of a social support network for resisting the laws.
From their enforcement rolled out to bigger towns and cities,
with enforcement starting in Johannesburg in nineteen fifty eight. However,
this march was a turning point in the movement for
women's liberation in South Africa and for women's involvement in
the fight against apartheid. As we mentioned earlier, women had
(25:45):
been part of this from the beginning, but the African
National Congress had only started allowing women as full members
in nineteen forty three. This nineteen fifty six march was
the largest demonstration that the Federation of South African Women
had coordinated up to that point, so this made women's
ongoing political involvement just that much more visible, and that
(26:07):
involvement was carried on through a campaign of civil disobedience,
with women refusing to carry passes and facing arrest as
a result. So many women did this in Johannesburg that
the jail became seriously overcrowded, but this also led to
concerns within the A and C about how to pay
for the legal fees of the arrested women. Ultimately, the
(26:30):
A and C ended the formal anti past disobedience campaign
for this reason. The leaders of the march also faced consequences.
I mean, everybody who was doing this work was doing
so at risk to their life and the lives of
their families. In nineteen fifty six, a hundred and fifty
six people in South Africa were tried for treason. This
(26:50):
included marchers and organizers Helen Joseph, Lillian Nigoy, Bertha Mashaba,
and Francis Bard, among others. Although all the defendants in
that trial were found not guilty, it lasted until nineteen
sixty one and it was an intentionally traumatizing experience for
the people facing trial. Some of the defendants, including Nelson Mandela,
(27:12):
were tried for treason a second time in nineteen sixty
three and sixty four, and that time convicted. Although the
women's march to Pretoria was peaceful, later demonstrations against apartheid
became violent. In nineteen fifty nine, authorities in Durban started
trying to enforce pass laws and to stop women from
brewing and selling beer. This led to a series of
(27:36):
riots in nineteen sixty in which nine police officers were killed. Then,
on March twenty first, nineteen sixty, police opened fire during
a demonstration against pass laws and Sharpville, killing at least
sixty nine people and wounding almost two hundred more. This
became known as the Sharpville massacre, and it's simultaneously raised
(27:56):
international awareness and criticism of apartheid condition in South Africa,
and it also led the government to crack down further
on the anti apartheid movement. Afterward, the government banned both
the African National Congress and the Pan Africanist Congress and
imprisoned many of their leaders or forced them into exile.
(28:17):
Resistance to apartheid and violent response to that resistance continued
for years. In nineteen seventy six, the government made the
study of Afrikaans mandatory in schools, and in response, the
South African Students Movement began coordinating protests among children. On
June sixteenth, nineteen seventy six, thousands of children took part
(28:39):
in a protest march that was met by police who
fired live ammunition and tear gas at them. This led
to an uprising in which hundreds of people were killed.
The international community responded with increasing restrictions and sanctions against
South Africa. Apartheid laws in South Africa finally began to
be dismantled in the nineteen eighties. The Natives Abolition of
(29:01):
Passes and Coordination of Documents Act of nineteen fifty two
was repealed. In nineteen eighty six, South African President FW
de Clerk called for a total end to apartheid. After
being elected in nineteen eighty nine. He repealed the bands
on anti apartheid organizations and allowed exiled political leaders to
(29:21):
return to South Africa. An interim constitution was drawn up
in nineteen ninety three, and in nineteen ninety four, South
Africa held its first non racial democratic election. On August nine,
the Women's Day holiday was observed in South Africa for
the first time, and all of August is observed as
(29:42):
Women's Month. A re enactment of the march was held
for its fiftieth anniversary in two thousand and six, with
many of the original marchers participating. Today, annual Women's Day
observances in South Africa often include reflections on how far
things have come and how far they still have to go.
For example, I watched recordings of a lot of Women's
(30:04):
Day speeches from one and they included things like an
ongoing epidemic of gender based violence in South Africa and
how the COVID nineteen pandemic has affected women. Do you
have a little listener mail? I do I have listener mail.
It's about another serious episode of the show. But uh
not an email that I would call up setting it anyway. Uh.
(30:26):
This is from Robin. Robin wrote, Holly and Tracy, I
just listened to your episode about the Holadamoor. It meant
a lot to me. I live in Alberta, which, as
you noted, has a huge Ukrainian population. I had not
known that or much Ukrainian history when I moved here,
so it's been a fun learning curve from me. I
grew up in the States and have been listening to
(30:48):
YouTube since shortly before I moved. I really love how
Alberta continues to honor. Honor is spelled with a you
and so then Robin has a brother Seas. Since moving here,
I've adopted most Canadian spell things. I even say z
not z these days. Uh. So, to return to how
Alberta has has honored Ukraine, UM, I thought I would
(31:09):
share a couple of the cool things in my area
that mark this historic connection. City Hall in Edmonton has
the first public monument in Canada remembering the holadam or
I don't think the picture doesn't justice. I still remember
being struck by it the first time I saw it.
A town in eastern Alberta has a giant pissnka that
(31:30):
is a Ukrainian Easter egg. Um. And there's an article
that Robin included that says, uh, this assumes that you
know that the yellow head is part of the Cross
Canada Highway. And so the link is to an article
at Wikipedia. Uh, that's about this gigantic structure of one
(31:51):
of these eggs, and it really is very beautiful and striking.
The thing that the invasion brought to light was the
historic connections between Ukrainian immigrants and First Nations people. Here's
an article about that from a p t in an
indigenous news source. Uh. And the article that is linked
is about Ukrainian and First Nations women coming together through
(32:15):
scarves that are related to each of these two different groups.
So um, all of that is so interesting. And then
Robin says, I'm including a picture of our new puppy
because everyone deserves cute puppy pictures. He is the goodest boy.
This is a very fluffy chocolate brown dog with little
(32:36):
chocolate brown nose and chocolate brown eyes. And I want
to put pets is very fluffy fur uh. So thank
you Robin for this email and these links. I had
never seen any of these things before. I had seen
those Easter eggs, but I didn't notice that I didn't
know the name of them, so that was all very cool.
(32:56):
So um, if anyone else would like to send us
an email or at history podcast at iHeart radio dot com.
We're all over social media at missed in History, so
you'll find our Facebook, Twitter, pintereston Instagram, and you can
subscribe to our show on I heart radio app or
wherever you like to get your podcasts. Stuff you Missed
(33:20):
in History Class is a production of I heart Radio.
For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the iHeart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. Today we
are going to talk about a protest that took place
in nineteen fifty six in Pretoria, South Africa. This was
(00:24):
a protest against pass laws that were part of South
africa system of apartheid, and specifically the requirement that women
carry passes. So this protest was simultaneously part of the
anti apartheid movement in South Africa and also the movement
for women's rights. It's been quite a while since we've
talked about apartheid on the show, so we're going to
(00:46):
start with some of that context. And to be clear,
this involves centuries of South African history, so it is
not going to be a comprehensive look at all of this. Uh.
It is an overview that's meant to give folks who
aren't familiar a sense of how the system of apartheid evolved,
especially as it related to these past laws. Also, for
(01:08):
a lot of the time that we're talking about, laws
in South Africa separated its population into four groups. There
was European or white black, which at various points was
described using terms like native and Bantu, colored or a
multi racial and Indian, and Indian was a catch all
term describing basically anyone from Southeast Asia unless we are
(01:32):
using the proper names of things like organizations or laws
or quoted material. Just for the psych of simplicity, we're
gonna stick with the terms white black, multi racial, and
Asian rather than drawing from this more dated terminology. The
British and the Dutch each started trying to establish settlements
and garrisons in Southern Africa in the seventeenth century. European
(01:56):
control of the area passed back and forth between Britain
and the Dutch East India Company until the early nineteenth
century at the start of the Napoleonic Wars, when Britain
reannexed South Africa to keep it from falling into the
hands of the French. British efforts at colonization expanded really
rapidly from there, and this led to intense conflict between
(02:17):
Britain and the region's many African nations and people's The
British really envisioned the society they were establishing in Southern
Africa as one that was for Europeans only, so the
British army forced the area's African nations and people's off
of their lands in a series of attacks and wars.
(02:38):
There was also conflict between British colonists and the Boers,
or people with Dutch, German and Huguenot ancestry. As Britain
established a larger and larger presence in South Africa, English
replaced Dutch as the dominant European language. British currency also
replaced Dutch currency, and of course, many Boers found the
(02:59):
shift away from their predominantly Dutch origins threatening. Britain also
outlawed slavery in eighteen thirty four, which prompted many Boers
to try to move to areas outside of British control
so they could retain their enslaved labor. Eventually, the Boers
established the Orange Free State and the South African Republic
also known as Transvaal, leaving Britain in control of the
(03:21):
Cape of Good Hope Colony and the Colony of Natal
and each of these colonies, white governments took steps to
try to control and restrict the movements of the local
black population, including through systems of discrimination and segregation. Starting
in eighteen fifty six, each of the four colonies passed
laws that were known as the Masters and Servants Acts.
(03:44):
These laws criminalized things like going on strike and breaking
employment contracts, and while they theoretically applied to anyone who
was employed, in practice they were mostly enforced only for
black people. Diamonds were discovered in Kimberly and eighteen sixty seven,
leading to a huge rush to the area and to
(04:04):
dow beers claiming a monopoly on the South African diamond trade.
As part of this, the colonies tried to annex even
more land and to consolidate neighboring states, further reducing the
amount of land the black population of South Africa was
allowed to access and to live on. The discovery of
diamonds also led to a huge disruption among many African communities,
(04:27):
as there was a demand for men to work in
the mines, leaving women to continue caring for their families
while also picking up the agricultural work that was necessary
to sustain them. In eighteen ninety three, the Orange Free
State instituted a pass system. Passes were essentially internal passports
that were necessary to move around within the state, but
(04:50):
they were required only for the state's black population, and
protests against these passes started as soon as they were introduced.
Requiring only black people to carry identification documents was discriminatory
and insulting, and because the passes were legally mandated, they
also provided an easy excuse for white authorities to hassle
(05:13):
people of color. Another law passed in the Orange Free
State in nineteen o seven established a requirement that black
domestic workers carry a service book, which detailed exactly where
they worked, and it had to be carried at all times.
If a person was caught without their service book three times,
they could be ejected from the town where they lived.
(05:36):
The South African War, also called the Second Boer War,
had taken place roughly alongside all of this, starting in
eighteen nine and ending in nineteen o two. This war
was between Britain and the Borer colonies of the South
African Republic and the Orange Free State. The British had
promoted the idea of equal laws and equal liberty, so
(05:57):
many black South Africans sided with Britain in this conflict,
hoping to have a more just and equitable existence once
the war was over. Instead, an all white delegation held
a series of meetings in nineteen o eight and nineteen
o nine, which led to the South Africa Act. This
was an act that united the four colonies under an
(06:19):
all white government, with the exception of black and multi
racial people who met specific wealth requirements. Only white people
had the right to vote, and the few members of
parliament who were supposed to represent the interests of South
Africa's black population were appointed, not elected. Only about a
fifth of the population of South Africa was white, so
(06:41):
this left the vast majority of people living in South
Africa with no representation in the government, then no direct
involvement in the political process. Black South Africans held a
convention as these constitutional meetings were being held, but it
wasn't officially recognized and it had no formal polityical power.
At the same time, after the Union of South Africa
(07:04):
went into effect in nineteen ten, it did seem like
some progress toward equality might be more possible than it
was before, particularly in terms of the Orange Free States
pass laws. People had already been protesting and circulating petitions
to try to have the pass laws overturned, but now
the petitions could be delivered to Prime Minister Louis Botha,
(07:25):
rather than the government of the Orange Free State. In
March of nineteen twelve, a group of black and multiracial
women from Orange Free State took a petition containing at
least five thousand signatures to the Prime Minister. The Prime
Minister didn't respond to this petition, so a group of
women instead appealed to Henry Burton, Minister of Native Affairs.
(07:48):
Burton had a reputation for trying to protect people of
color in South Africa, but he seems to have been
reluctant to weigh in on this. The so called native
question had been threaded through the efforts to establish a
minority white government in a region where white people were
a tiny percentage of the population, and the government taking
(08:10):
action on the Orange Free States pass laws had the
potential to just turn one province's laws into a much
more national issue. So he argued that the pass books
were a local issue that needed to be handled within
the province, not something to be handled by the South
African government. If Burton was hoping to avoid the development
(08:31):
of a national movement against discrimination in South Africa, that
did not work. The South African National Native Congress was
formed in nineteen twelve, and it became the African National
Congress or a n C in ninety three. We'll get
some more about how this developed after a sponsor break.
(08:58):
We are focused mainly on path Us laws in today's episode,
but they were of course, by far not the only
laws that contributed to the apartheid system that developed in
South Africa. As European colonies grew and expanded their influence,
the non white population of South Africa was increasingly forced
into smaller and smaller areas of land. Eventually, this evolved
(09:22):
into the formal establishment of segregated communities, which were the
only places that people of color were allowed to live.
For example, in the nineteen teens, people who tried to
move out of rural areas and the Orange Free State
mostly wound up in vay Hook, location outside of the
Free State capital of Bloemfontein. White authorities tried to implement
(09:43):
a past system to control people's movements into and out
of vay Hook. They also targeted black women, specifically claiming
that black women were engaging in sex work. Some black
women had also started supporting themselves by brewing and selling beer,
which white authorities claimed was damaging society. In May of
(10:04):
nineteen thirteen, a civil disobedience campaign started in the Orange
Free State. People started refusing to carry passes and just
saying they were prepared to be arrested. Women gathered and
tore up or burned their passes outside of government buildings.
A cycle of demonstrations and arrests went on all through
(10:24):
nineteen thirteen. In nineteen fourteen, the Prime Minister finally agreed
to review Orange Free States pass laws, but they remained
on the books until nineteen eighteen, with protests and demonstrations
against them going on at various points throughout those years.
Although the idea of mandatory passes faded from the forefront,
(10:46):
other discriminatory laws were passed over the following years. The
Natives Urban Areas Act of nineteen twenty three gave local
authorities the right to establish segregated areas on the outskirts
of cities and industrial areas and to force black people
to move into those areas. Cities or employers were expected
(11:06):
to provide housing in these areas, but money to maintain
that housing also came from things like fines and rent
that were charged to the people who were forced to
live there. In nineteen twenty seven, the law in South
Africa effectively treated black women as miners rather than as
full adults with any sort of legal authority. By nineteen thirty,
(11:28):
only thirteen percent of the land area in South Africa
was open for black people to live on. For context,
by that point, South Africa had a black population of
about twenty million people and a white population of about
four million people, so those roughly one fifth of the
population had control of eighty seven percent of the land.
(11:51):
The quality of the land was part of it too.
The reserves that were designated for black people were generally
the poorest land with access to the fewest sources. Prior
to the nineteen thirties, most domestic workers in South Africa
had been men, but by the mid thirties that started
to shift. More women started traveling or moving to cities,
(12:12):
some just looking for work, others trying to reunite with
husbands or other family members who had done the same.
Cities and provincial government started passing more restrictive laws to
try to allow black people to enter cities only to
work and not to live. Because people tried to find
some way to live closer to the places they worked,
(12:35):
squatter camps were established around the perimeters of cities, and
of course those camps were then targeted by white communities
who did not want them to be there. The all
white National Party came to power in South Africa after
the nineteen forty eight election, and while segregation and other
forms of discrimination had existed in South Africa since the
(12:56):
start of colonization, it was this party that implemented the
set of laws that came to be known as apartheid.
These built on existing laws and systems of discrimination, including
ones that we have not discussed in this episode because
there were so many we would just read a list
if we tried to get into them. All. Yeah, some
of the biggest laws that were passed after the National
(13:17):
Party came to power. This is an overview. There was
the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act that was passed in
nineteen forty nine. It prohibited marriages between white people and
people of any other racial group. The Population Registration Act
of nineteen fifty legally classified anyone in South Africa as black, white,
(13:38):
or colored. Initially, Asians were included in the colored group,
but they were separated out into their own category of
Indian later on. The group areas Act of nineteen fifty
outlined where people of different races could live, with people
who were in the wrong places forced to move. And again,
with more than eighty percent of South Africa designated for
(14:01):
whites only, the Bands Who Authorities Act of nineteen fifty
one established so called home lands for black South Africans,
with those whole lands given a purportedly independent status, but
anybody who moved into one of those homelands lost their
South African citizenship and any rights and privileges that went
(14:22):
along with it. The African National Congress and the South
African Indian Congress started a campaign of coordinated civil disobedience
in response to these and other laws, known as the
Defiance Campaign for the Defiance of Unjust Laws, that was
launched on June nineteen fifty two, with volunteers doing things
(14:43):
like intentionally using whites only facilities and being arrested and
jailed as a result. Women were part of the Defiance campaign.
The a n C had started to allow women as
members in nineteen forty three and the a n C
Women's League had been established in nine Then, in addition
to the laws we just mentioned and others, there was
(15:05):
the Natives Abolition of Passes in Coordination of Documents Act
of nineteen fifty two. This repealed earlier pass laws that
were still on the books, and it introduced a new
standardized passbook that all black men would be required to carry.
Requiring only black men to carry papers would have been
(15:26):
discriminatory on its own, but this passbook also went way
beyond something like a passport or a basic I D.
It contained the person's photograph and information about where they
were from, but it also included unemployment record, tax records, fingerprints,
and police records. In addition to these requirements, this law
(15:48):
also required black people to get a permit if they
wanted to move, and anybody arriving in a city to
try to find work had to have a permit within
seventy two hours of getting there. Initially, this act applied
only to black men, but a lot of black women
also lived and worked in cities or otherwise needed to
move around South Africa for their lives and their work.
(16:11):
The Native Laws Amendment Act, which was also passed in
nineteen fifty two, had further tightened requirements on where non
white people were allowed to live in work, and its
terms exempted women who met specific criteria from needing to
carry passes, but in many cities and towns, local authorities
started requiring them anyway. This started mainly in the Western Cape,
(16:34):
where the government had established a restrictive quote colored preference
area with strict controls on who could enter and who
could live there. So, in addition to the other work
they were doing with the Defiance campaign, women in South
Africa were pushing back on the requirements for women to
carry passes. On January fourth, ninety three, hundreds of people
(16:56):
protested in Cape Town. Dora Tamana of the a See
Women's League gave a speech that set in part quote,
we women will never carry these passes. This is something
that touches my heart. I appeal to you young Africans
to come forward and fight. These passes make the road
even narrower for us. We have seen unemployment, lack of
(17:18):
accommodation and families broken because of passes. We have seen
it with our men, who will look after our children
when we go to jail for a small technical offense
not having a pass. Tomato was also part of the
Federation of South African Women when it was established in
nineteen fifty four. Other founders included Amina Cachalia, Lillian Goy,
(17:43):
Ray Simons and Helen Joseph. The leaders of the Federation
of South African Women came from all of South Africa's
racial groups, and it was meant to be an organization
for all women of all races, with goals related to
equality regardless of sex and equality regardless of race. The
Federation of South African Women held its first conference in
(18:04):
Johannesburg on April seventeenth, nineteen fifty four. A women's charter
that was drafted at the conference began with this preamble quote,
We the women of South Africa, wives and mothers, working
women in housewives, African, Indians, European and Colored hereby declare
our aim of striving for the removal of all laws, regulations,
(18:27):
conventions and customs that discriminate against us as women, and
that deprive us in any way of our inherent right
to the advantages, responsibilities, and opportunities that society offers to
any one section of the population. The charter then walks
through an overview of the state of affairs in South Africa,
(18:48):
including its systems of discrimination and poverty, and the loss
of social structures in African and Asian communities which had
been dismantled through colonization. It also noted that the women
of South Africa were legally treated as miners with little
access to education or support. This charter also outlined a
(19:08):
set of aims. They were quote the right to vote
and to be elected to all state bodies without restriction
or discrimination. The rights of full opportunities for employment with
equal pay and possibilities of promotion and all spheres of work.
Equal rights with men in relation to property, marriage, and children.
And for the removal of all laws and customs that
(19:30):
deny women such equal rights. For the development of every
child through free compulsory education for all. For the protection
of mother and child through maternity homes, welfare clinics, crushes
and nursery schools in countryside and towns, through proper homes
for all, and through the provision of water, light, transport, sanitation,
(19:51):
and other amenities of modern civilization. For the removal of
all laws that restrict free movement, that prevent or hinder
the right of free association and activity in democratic organizations,
and the right to participate in the work of these organizations.
To build and strengthen women's sections in the national liberatory movements,
(20:13):
the organization of women in trade unions and through the
People's Varied Organization to cooperate with all other organizations that
have similar aims in South Africa as well as throughout
the world to strive for permanent peace throughout the world.
In nineteen fifty five, a multi racial group of people
(20:34):
and organizations meant in Cliptown at the Congress of the People.
The Freedom Charter that was drafted at this congress incorporated
the aims from the Women's Charter. But we will talk
about how the nineteen fifty six protest that was coordinated
by a lot of these same women evolved after a
sponsor break. As soon as national, provincial, and local governments
(21:04):
in South Africa started requiring that women carry passes, women
started refusing to do it, including refusing to even have
a pass issued to them, and Winburg, Orange Free State
employers personally escorted black employees to the pass office, telling
them that they were just being issued papers that would
allow them to travel freely. Once people realized what was
(21:27):
really going on, women in Winburg organized a march to
the magistrate's court and burned their passes publicly. On March
ninety five, about two thousand women of all races marched
to the Union Buildings in Pretoria, which are the seat
of the South African government, to protest the pass laws.
(21:47):
After this, the Federation of South African Women started planning
a larger protest march, one that would again involve women
of all races. This was the march that took place
on August nine, nineteen fifty six x. This was a Thursday,
chosen because black domestic workers had Thursdays off and organizers
wanted as many women as possible to be able to attend.
(22:10):
Women who didn't live in Pretoria arrived in the area
the night before, and on the ninth they walked to
the Union Buildings and groups of two and three because
non white people were not permitted to gather in large groups.
Somewhere between ten thousand and twenty thousand women ultimately arrived
at the Union Buildings and it took two and a
half hours to get everyone inside the area where the
(22:32):
protests was taking place. Many women had their children with
them or the children that they were paid to care for.
Some were dressed in their domestic uniforms, some in traditional clothing.
There was a really broad spectrum of ethnicity, race, and
class represented. Leaders of the march included Raheema Musa, Lillian Goy,
(22:53):
Helen Joseph, and Sophia Williams. At the age of eighteen.
Williams was the youngest of the march leaders, and she
later married and became Sophia Williams Dubrain. The leaders of
the march had a petition with about fourteen thousand signatures
which they were going to present to Prime Minister J. G.
Straight Um. This petition read quote, we the women of
(23:15):
South Africa have come here today. We African women know
too well the effect of this law upon our homes,
our children. We who are not African women, know how
our sisters suffer. For to us, an insult to African
women is an insult to all women. That homes will
be broken up when women are arrested under past laws.
(23:37):
That women and young girls will be exposed to humiliation
and degradation at the hands of past searching policemen. That
women will lose their right to move freely from one
place to another. We voters and vote lists, call upon
your government not to issue passes to African women. We
shall resist until we have one for our children. Their
(23:57):
fundamental rights of freedom, just and security. A group of
representatives who tried to enter the Union buildings were also
turned away because they were integrated. March leader Lillian Goi
was quoted as saying, quote, the women of Africa are outside.
They built this place and their husbands died for this.
Although the plan had been to present this petition to
(24:19):
the Prime Minister, he and his staff had left the building,
so once some of the women were finally allowed inside,
they left piles of signed petitions outside his office. In
the end, the assembled women stood outside the Union buildings
in silence for half an hour before leaving. They also
sang a freedom song. Part of it translates to when
(24:40):
you strike a woman, you strike a rock. This became
a slogan for women's liberation in South Africa, sometimes followed
by subsequent lines that are translated as you have dislodged
a boulder, you will be crushed, well choked up. Those
are great. It's a slogan that's still shows up on
(25:01):
on posters and at protests and things, both in South
Africa and elsewhere. So this march did not lead to
an end to pass requirements for women, but women's activism
did influence when and how those laws were enforced. For
the most part, enforcement started in more rural areas where
fewer of the women were organized and there wasn't as
(25:22):
much of a social support network for resisting the laws.
From their enforcement rolled out to bigger towns and cities,
with enforcement starting in Johannesburg in nineteen fifty eight. However,
this march was a turning point in the movement for
women's liberation in South Africa and for women's involvement in
the fight against apartheid. As we mentioned earlier, women had
(25:45):
been part of this from the beginning, but the African
National Congress had only started allowing women as full members
in nineteen forty three. This nineteen fifty six march was
the largest demonstration that the Federation of South African Women
had coordinated up to that point, so this made women's
ongoing political involvement just that much more visible, and that
(26:07):
involvement was carried on through a campaign of civil disobedience,
with women refusing to carry passes and facing arrest as
a result. So many women did this in Johannesburg that
the jail became seriously overcrowded, but this also led to
concerns within the A and C about how to pay
for the legal fees of the arrested women. Ultimately, the
(26:30):
A and C ended the formal anti past disobedience campaign
for this reason. The leaders of the march also faced consequences.
I mean, everybody who was doing this work was doing
so at risk to their life and the lives of
their families. In nineteen fifty six, a hundred and fifty
six people in South Africa were tried for treason. This
(26:50):
included marchers and organizers Helen Joseph, Lillian Nigoy, Bertha Mashaba,
and Francis Bard, among others. Although all the defendants in
that trial were found not guilty, it lasted until nineteen
sixty one and it was an intentionally traumatizing experience for
the people facing trial. Some of the defendants, including Nelson Mandela,
(27:12):
were tried for treason a second time in nineteen sixty
three and sixty four, and that time convicted. Although the
women's march to Pretoria was peaceful, later demonstrations against apartheid
became violent. In nineteen fifty nine, authorities in Durban started
trying to enforce pass laws and to stop women from
brewing and selling beer. This led to a series of
(27:36):
riots in nineteen sixty in which nine police officers were killed. Then,
on March twenty first, nineteen sixty, police opened fire during
a demonstration against pass laws and Sharpville, killing at least
sixty nine people and wounding almost two hundred more. This
became known as the Sharpville massacre, and it's simultaneously raised
(27:56):
international awareness and criticism of apartheid condition in South Africa,
and it also led the government to crack down further
on the anti apartheid movement. Afterward, the government banned both
the African National Congress and the Pan Africanist Congress and
imprisoned many of their leaders or forced them into exile.
(28:17):
Resistance to apartheid and violent response to that resistance continued
for years. In nineteen seventy six, the government made the
study of Afrikaans mandatory in schools, and in response, the
South African Students Movement began coordinating protests among children. On
June sixteenth, nineteen seventy six, thousands of children took part
(28:39):
in a protest march that was met by police who
fired live ammunition and tear gas at them. This led
to an uprising in which hundreds of people were killed.
The international community responded with increasing restrictions and sanctions against
South Africa. Apartheid laws in South Africa finally began to
be dismantled in the nineteen eighties. The Natives Abolition of
(29:01):
Passes and Coordination of Documents Act of nineteen fifty two
was repealed. In nineteen eighty six, South African President FW
de Clerk called for a total end to apartheid. After
being elected in nineteen eighty nine. He repealed the bands
on anti apartheid organizations and allowed exiled political leaders to
(29:21):
return to South Africa. An interim constitution was drawn up
in nineteen ninety three, and in nineteen ninety four, South
Africa held its first non racial democratic election. On August nine,
the Women's Day holiday was observed in South Africa for
the first time, and all of August is observed as
(29:42):
Women's Month. A re enactment of the march was held
for its fiftieth anniversary in two thousand and six, with
many of the original marchers participating. Today, annual Women's Day
observances in South Africa often include reflections on how far
things have come and how far they still have to go.
For example, I watched recordings of a lot of Women's
(30:04):
Day speeches from one and they included things like an
ongoing epidemic of gender based violence in South Africa and
how the COVID nineteen pandemic has affected women. Do you
have a little listener mail? I do I have listener mail.
It's about another serious episode of the show. But uh
not an email that I would call up setting it anyway. Uh.
(30:26):
This is from Robin. Robin wrote, Holly and Tracy, I
just listened to your episode about the Holadamoor. It meant
a lot to me. I live in Alberta, which, as
you noted, has a huge Ukrainian population. I had not
known that or much Ukrainian history when I moved here,
so it's been a fun learning curve from me. I
grew up in the States and have been listening to
(30:48):
YouTube since shortly before I moved. I really love how
Alberta continues to honor. Honor is spelled with a you
and so then Robin has a brother Seas. Since moving here,
I've adopted most Canadian spell things. I even say z
not z these days. Uh. So, to return to how
Alberta has has honored Ukraine, UM, I thought I would
(31:09):
share a couple of the cool things in my area
that mark this historic connection. City Hall in Edmonton has
the first public monument in Canada remembering the holadam or
I don't think the picture doesn't justice. I still remember
being struck by it the first time I saw it.
A town in eastern Alberta has a giant pissnka that
(31:30):
is a Ukrainian Easter egg. Um. And there's an article
that Robin included that says, uh, this assumes that you
know that the yellow head is part of the Cross
Canada Highway. And so the link is to an article
at Wikipedia. Uh, that's about this gigantic structure of one
(31:51):
of these eggs, and it really is very beautiful and striking.
The thing that the invasion brought to light was the
historic connections between Ukrainian immigrants and First Nations people. Here's
an article about that from a p t in an
indigenous news source. Uh. And the article that is linked
is about Ukrainian and First Nations women coming together through
(32:15):
scarves that are related to each of these two different groups.
So um, all of that is so interesting. And then
Robin says, I'm including a picture of our new puppy
because everyone deserves cute puppy pictures. He is the goodest boy.
This is a very fluffy chocolate brown dog with little
(32:36):
chocolate brown nose and chocolate brown eyes. And I want
to put pets is very fluffy fur uh. So thank
you Robin for this email and these links. I had
never seen any of these things before. I had seen
those Easter eggs, but I didn't notice that I didn't
know the name of them, so that was all very cool.
(32:56):
So um, if anyone else would like to send us
an email or at history podcast at iHeart radio dot com.
We're all over social media at missed in History, so
you'll find our Facebook, Twitter, pintereston Instagram, and you can
subscribe to our show on I heart radio app or
wherever you like to get your podcasts. Stuff you Missed
(33:20):
in History Class is a production of I heart Radio.
For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the iHeart
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Stuff You Missed in History Class News
Hosts And Creators
Holly Frey
Tracy Wilson
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