Bantu Women’s League protests against pass laws

The Bantu Women's League (BWL) under its first president Charlotte Maxeke, undertook a passive resistance on 7 January 1919 against the application of pass laws to women. What precipitated the 1919 protest was the government's threat to reintroduce pass laws for women which had been relaxed due to earlier protests. As a response to these developments, the Bantu Women's League (BWL) was formed in 1918 as a branch of the ANC. Charlotte Maxeke was elected as its first president.  That same year Maxeke led a women's deputation from the BWL to the Prime Minister Louis Botha to argue against the imposition of passes. The 1919 protest was not the first women's public expression of discontent against the pass system. As early as 1913 protests against were launched in the the Orange Free State after the government introduced new legislation that requiring women to carry passes.  The government was forced to withdraw the rule for a while.  The BWL continued to fight against the imposition of passes on black women and in 1922 they had achieved some success as the South African government conceded that women should not be obliged to carry passes. Despite these concessions, the government tightened the law in 1923 when it passed the Native (Black) Urban Areas Act No 21. Under this Act, the existing pass system was extended as the only black women allowed to live in urban areas were those who were domestic workers. Events of BWL precipitated the formation of the African National Congress (ANC) Women's League in 1948.