Albert J. Luthuli papers

1906-1975 [bulk 1940-1960]

Albert John Luthuli, 1898-1967, African leader in the Republic of South Africa and former Zulu chief; president of the African National Congress (ANC); first African to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, 1960, for his role in the non-violent struggle against apartheid. The Albert J. Luthuli papers document Chief Luthuli's leadership in the struggle against the apartheid system in South Africa and the growth of the ANC after 1949 into a mass based and increasingly militant freedom organization. Included are materials from the 1952 Defiance Campaign; the 1955 Congress of the People which gave birth to the Freedom Charter; the Treason Trials of ANC leaders; the Rivonia Trial; the struggle against the pass laws and other discriminatory legislation; and the international movement against the apartheid system. Other documents pertain to the Federation of South African Women, the Bantu Education Act, A.G.W. Champion, the Pan Africanist Congress, the Non-European Unity Movement, the ANC Youth League, the campaign against the Coloured Affairs Department (Anti-CAD), the South African labor movement, and Swaziland and the Bantustan system.