Helenard Joe Hendrickse (better known as Allan) was born on 22 October 1927 in Uitenhage, Eastern Cape, as the fifth of the seven children of Maria and Charles William Hendrickse, both school teachers. Hendrickse was involved in the fight against apartheid for more than three decades, rising to prominence - including membership of the cabinet and chairmanship of the Ministers' Council in the former Tricameral Parliament House of Representatives - through Labour Party ranks.In 1945 he graduated from Livingstone High School in Cape Town where many of his teachers belonged to the Non-European Unity Movement.After earning a bachelor's degree in social anthropology and a diploma in theology at the Uiversity of Fort Hare,he was ordained a minister in the Congregational Church,then acted as an assistant minister in his father's church and taught secondary school in Uitenhage for 18 years.
In 1969 Hendrickse entered politics as a founder member of the coloured Labour Party (LP) under the leadership of Sonny Leon.He became the new party's chairperson and was elected to the Colored Persons' Representative Council (CRC),a toothless institution which the LPpropose to destroy from within.In December 1978 Hedrickse replaced the increasingly cautious Leon as leader of the LP, which then forced the dissolution of the CRC in 1980 by repeatedly refusing to pass its budget.The absurdity of his position was exemplified in 1987 when P.W.Botha publicly derided him on prime-time television for swimming on a whites-only Port Elizabeth beach to protect segregation laws.Later that year Botha demanded his resignation from the cabinet after Hendrickse in a speech had described Botha's behavior as like that of "a rat in a corner".