Tutu Leads 30,000: Cape Town's Anti-Apartheid March
Desmond Tutu led 30,000 people through the streets of Cape Town on September 13, 1989, in the largest anti-apartheid march in South African history. The protest came just weeks before President F.W. de Klerk took office and began dismantling apartheid. Tutu had spent the previous decade organizing nonviolent resistance, comparing apartheid to Nazism in international forums, and shaming Western governments into imposing economic sanctions. He was arrested, threatened, and had his passport confiscated multiple times. The Cape Town march demonstrated that the anti-apartheid movement had grown beyond any government's ability to suppress it. De Klerk unbanned the ANC and released Nelson Mandela five months later.
September 13, 1989
37 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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