1957 Alexandra bus boycott
Buss boycot in Alexandra, Johannesburg, South Africa
The 1957 Alexandra bus boycott was a protest undertaken against the Public Utility Transport Corporation (PUTCO) by the people of Alexandra in Johannesburg, South Africa.
It is generally recognised as being one of the few successful political campaigns of the Apartheid era, by writers and activists such as Anthony Sampson and Chief Albert Luthuli.
Ruth First said of the Boycott: "not since the days of the Defiance Campaign had Africans held so strategic a position."
Background
In 1940, South African authorities passed the Electoral Laws Amendment Act, the law provided for the compulsory registration of White voters only. During this time, the gap between family income did not meet the essential needs because of higher prices of rent, transport and taxes. Protests by the African Peoples Organization (APO) against this Act did not succeed. The ANC established a 'Department of Social Welfare' to investigate the needs of the increasingly urban population.
In 1940, the first major Alexandra bus boycott was held. In 1943, the bus fare increased from 5 cents to 6 cents; a new bus boycott took place in August 1943, with Nelson Mandela and tens of thousands of other protesters. They did not take a bus, but instead walked the 9 miles from Alexandra Township to the center of Johannesburg. A longer boycott took place in 1944, also in Alexandra, lasting seven weeks.
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