1979 - Black South African Students Launch Anti-Apartheid Protests in Port Elizabeth

On June 3, 1979, a wave of student-led anti-apartheid protests erupted in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, led by Black students defying government-imposed Bantu Education policies. The protests, organized through underground student councils and church networks, opposed racially inferior education and police brutality following a series of detentions under the 1976 Terrorism Act. While the 1976 Soweto Uprising is widely known, these 1979 Port Elizabeth protests are largely unrecognized outside South Africa. The demonstrations drew harsh crackdowns from the apartheid regime, including mass arrests, school closures, and violent dispersals by police. Despite repression, the actions in Port Elizabeth galvanized broader resistance across Eastern Cape and laid the groundwork for growing student involvement in the United Democratic Front (UDF) in the early 1980s. This lesser-known event reflects how grassroots Black resistance persisted between the major flashpoints in South Africa’s liberation struggle, sustained by youth activism in smaller but pivotal cities.