The South African writer, Abraham Hermanus de Vries, was born on Tuesday the 9^th of February, in 1937, in a small town and agricultural centre of the western Klein Karoo called, Ladismith. He matriculated at Ladismith High School and went on to study at Stellenbosch University as well as the Gemeentelijke Universiteit van Amsterdam. He acquired doctorate degrees from both of the universities.

The shards of South Africa’s fragmented history share a common thread throughout; at the core is a struggle for equality and visibility. Over the course of the country’s fight for democracy, there have been countless women who’s incredible strength and bravery has shaped South Africa as we know it today.

Arndt, the youngest son of Reverend Johannes Arndt and Luise Pauline Grutzner was born in Bloemfontein on 27 May 1899. He started his education at the Infants’ School and the Normal Practising School in Bloemfontein, progressing to Grey College, where he matriculated. 

S. J. J. Lesolang was born and educated in the Transvaal, he taught at Kilnerton during the 1940s and was president of the Transvaal African Teachers' Association during the wartime protests over teachers' salaries. He was a founding member of the African Democratic Party and a member of the South African Institute of Race Relations. Later he became a Johannesburg businessman and was active in the African Chamber of Commerce and in the politics of Bophuthatswana, the Tswana "homeland."

Manasseh Tebatso Moerane was born in 1913 to an educated Sotho parents in the Transkei, he attended Adams College and obtained bachelor's degrees from Fort Hare and the University of Natal and a B.Com. degree from the University of South Africa. On graduation from Fort Hare, he took up teaching in Natal in 1935 and the same year joined the African National Congress (ANC), of which his father had also been a member.

Ray E. Phillips was born in 1889 and active in South Africa for four decades following World War I. He participated in the Joint Council movement and was a founder of the South African Institute of Race Relations. Long associated with the programs of the Bantu Men's Social Centre in Johannesburg, he was also the principal of the J. H. Hofmeyr School of Social Work for Africans.