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ABC News
ABC News
National

From a massacre in apartheid South Africa to 'feel good' multiculturalism: The dark history of Harmony Day

On March 21, thousands of unarmed protesters gathered outside a police station in South Africa to call for an end to apartheid laws that meant Black people couldn't travel freely. It ended in a massacre.  (ABC archives)

It was the early hours of the morning, on March 21, 1960, when a crowd began to coalesce outside a police station in the South African township of Sharpeville.

The peaceful protesters were calling for the removal of the so-called "pass laws", an apartheid system that forced Black South Africans to carry an internal passport which meant they could not travel freely through the country. 

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