that any of the accused had planned to use violence, but the trial dragged
on, preoccupying the leadership, until March 1961, when the last thirty
were found not guilty.
Though the ANC and its allies in the Congress movement were all male-
dominated organizations, Lilian Ngoyi and other women had formed the
Federation of South African Women, which organized protests against the
decision of the government to extend the pass laws to African women. The
demonstrations
culminated on August 9, 1956, when
20,000
African
women assembled outside the Union Buildings-the
national admin-
istrative headquarters in Pretoria-delivered
a petition to the empty prime
minister's office,and stood in silence for thirty minutes. Two years later the
police arrested two thousand African women for refusing to accept passes.
Nevertheless, the government stood by its decision and from 1961 African
women were obliged by law to carry passes. Other protests were reactions
against specific local events. African men and women in' the townships
around Johannesburg and Pretoria, for example, boycotted the bus com-
pany for raising the fares and walked up to twenty miles a day to and from
their work between January and April 1957. 57
Failure to modify government policy caused frustration and divisions of
opinion