Lesson plan 1: Timeline & quotes from the 1950s & 60s
The ANC Centenary 2012
Activity
Resources
Objective: To investigate some of the early apartheid
laws through film, quotes & chronological events.
Outcome: To recognise some of the apartheid laws &
consider their impact on black South Africans.
Film clip: ‘Have You Heard From Johannesburg: Road
What is apartheid?
To Resistance’ - 2.5 min film clip
www.clarityfilms.org/haveyouheardfromjohannesburg What laws of discrimination
were there?
Activity Sheet 1: Timeline 1900s - 1960s
Who were some of the key
people involved in creating or
Activity Sheet 2: Quotes 1950s & 1960s
opposing apartheid?
Useful information: the apartheid laws
What impact did apartheid
There were 148 laws to implement apartheid. For a
have on black South Africans
list of some of the key laws see the additional
in the 1950s and 1960s?
information section.
Sexual contact and marriage between black and white
Subject links
South Africans was forbidden.
History
Separate public facilities were set up for blacks and
English
whites – facilities were worse if you were black.
Citizenship
Residential areas were segregated. The best areas
were kept for whites.
Black and white children went to different schools.
Black schools had poor facilities and were designed to
educate children to become labourers.
The movement of black people into areas reserved for
whites was controlled by means of the pass laws.
Without a pass book you could be arrested. If a black
person wanted to move to a different area, or to get a
job, permission had to be stamped in the pass book.
Black people had to live in particular areas and were
forced from their homes into poor townships, like
Soweto, often a long way from their jobs. The
ACTIVITIES
Video: Watch the video clip ‘Road to Resistance.’
Ask pupils: ‘What do you think apartheid is?’ Discuss
the most surprising facts that pupils have learnt &
write down three laws which discriminated against
black South Africans in the 1950s & 60s.
Chronological events: Give pupils a copy of Activity
Sheet 1: Timeline 1900s – 1960s. Can they recognise
any of the events in the timeline from watching the
film? How many apartheid laws can they find?
Matching quotes to events: Now read the quotes &
excerpts on Activity Sheet 2: Quotes 1950s & 60s &
match them to the correct event on your timeline.
Discuss and reflect:
What impact do you think the apartheid laws had on
black South Africans? Imagine living through that
time. How would your life have been restricted &
how might this have made you feel?
Key questions
townships were rigidly controlled by the police.
Answers: Activity Sheet 2
A: 1950 the introduction of the Race Classification Act.
The excerpt is taken from ‘The strange world of racial
classification’ www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice .
B: Police Commander D H Pienaar, quoted by the BBC,
following the Sharpeville Massacre on 21 March 1960.
C: 1953. Dr Hendrik Verwoerd, South African minister
for native affairs (prime minister from 1958 to 66),
speaking about his government's education policies in
the 1950s.
D: Nelson Mandela’s statement from the dock at the
Rivonia Trial, 1964. At the conclusion of the trial
Mandela was found guilty on four charges of sabotage
and sentenced to life imprisonment.
E: BBC news report on the Sharpeville Massacre, 21
March 1960 see www.bbc.co.uk/onthisday