Sophiatown removals covered by Drum, 1950s

One of the important political events covered by Drum journalists and photographers in the 1950s was the Sophiatown forced removals. This picture was taken in November 1959 on one of the last days of the removal. Á¢â‚¬Å“Big machines and men with picks beat down the last walls of Sof'town. Take a last look and say goodbye. Sophiatown, the city that was within a city, the Gay Paris of Johannesburg, the notorious Casbah gang den, the shebeeniest of them all. Sophiatown is now breathing for the last time. I was robbed on her streets, beaten up in her dark corners and I will never forget the day when a women friend of mine was grabbed from me by Sophiatown's tough sons. Her people do not like the fact that she is being murdered and I sympathise with them because she was a free city. There was Aunt Babes, in Edith Street. Bright's place in Tucker and opposite him the Carlton Hotel, run by a Chinaman. She also had her respectable citizens. There was Dr. A.B. Xuma, the African M.D., and Mr J. R. Rathebe, who reminded everybody that he was once in America. Sophiatown will also boast that it built two gentlemen who fell in love with her, Anthony Sampson and Father Trevor Huddleston.