Standing On Street Corners.natal Midlands And Black Sash. Mary Kleinenberg And Christopher Merrett.

The Natal Society Foundation. First edition, 2015.Hardcover with dust jacket, thread-sewn. 300 pages, illustrated with photographs.18 cm wide × 24.5 cm deep × 2 cm. New Book.Nelson Mandela called the Black Sash, founded in May 1955 to contest legislationthat removed coloured South Africans from the common voters roll in the Cape, the conscience of white South Africa. Adopting aradical critique of the national condition, Sash maintained high-profile protest against iniquitous apartheid legislation through thedarkest hours of recent South African history. It also ran advice offices that assisted those disempowered by racist legislation andused the information gathered to support its political campaigns. This book chronicles the history of the Natal Midlands branch basedin Pietermaritzburg.  What was the relevance and legacy of the Black Sash, the womens antiapartheid organisation, and what didthis mean to its members? This book looks specifically at the Natal Midlands (Pietermaritzburg) region and the distinctiveness of itscontribution.Like other regions it supported the liberation struggle through public protest and educational campaigns aimed at exposing iniquitousapartheid legislation. In a police state this required considerable determination and courage. During the darkest hours NatalMidlands Sash kept alive hope for universal civil rights in a democratic South Africa. The Pietermaritzburg Advice Office becameone of the countrys busiest, specialising in old age pension and disability grant issues. Knowledge painstakingly gathered about lifefor black South Africans was fed back into Sashs political and information campaigns while Natal Midlands produced severalsignificant publications. One of the smaller branches, it punched above its weight. Whe