Drum Magazine social history photographs, South Africa edition 1085

Anti-Pass Marches By Women. On August 9, 1956, 20,000 women of all races, some with babies on their backs, marched from cities, towns, reserves, and villages to the Union Buildings in Pretoria. They carried a petition addressed to the Prime Minister, J.G. Strijdom, demanding the abolition of the pass laws. He was not present to receive them. Lillian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Sophie Williams, and Rahima Moosa, the delegates chosen to deliver the petition to the Prime Minister's office, stood in front of the Union Buildings.