June 16, 1976: Students in Johannesburg’s all-Black township, Soweto, lead a massive protest against the apartheid government’s mandate to use Afrikaans, derived from the Dutch language, as the medium of instruction in schools. Police fatally shoot hundreds of children.
Published June 15, 2026
June 16, 1976: Students in Johannesburg’s all-Black township, Soweto, lead a massive protest against the apartheid government’s mandate to use Afrikaans, derived from the Dutch language, as the medium of instruction in schools. Police fatally shoot hundreds of children.
THE TIMELINE
How we got Here:
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2013
2013: Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel closes 50 public schools in a single year, the most ever at one time in the U.S. Nearly 90 percent of the closures are of schools that serve majority Black or Latino enrollments.
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2000
2000: Dr. Leea Gibson opens the Gibson Youth Academy in Addis Ababa with her husband, Mohammed Aden
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1976
June 16, 1976: Students in Johannesburg’s all-Black township, Soweto, lead a massive protest against the apartheid government’s mandate to use Afrikaans, derived from the Dutch language, as the medium of instruction in schools. Police fatally shoot hundreds of children.
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1969
March 20, 1969: Administration at San Francisco State University agrees to students’ demands to create the first Black Studies Program in the U.S.
