1953 – Death of Pixley ka Isaka Seme, ANC Founder

Pixley ka Isaka Seme, a founder of the African National Congress (ANC) and one of South Africa’s earliest Black lawyers, died on June 6, 1953. Educated at Columbia University and Oxford, Seme was a leading intellectual who played a crucial role in organizing Black South Africans into a unified political front. In 1912, he co-founded the South African Native National Congress, which later became the ANC. His advocacy emphasized education, legal rights, and African unity. Seme’s vision helped lay the groundwork for the ANC’s eventual leadership in the anti-apartheid struggle. Though overshadowed by later figures like Mandela and Tambo, Seme’s foundational contributions to Black political mobilization in South Africa remain critical to its historical arc.