In the late 1920s the ANC's leaders split over the issue of
cooperation with the Communist Party (founded in 1921), and the
ensuing victory of the conservatives left the party small and
disorganized through the 1930s. In the 1940s, however, the ANC
revived under younger leaders who pressed for a more militant
stance against segregation in South Africa. The ANC Youth
League, founded in 1944, attracted such figures as Walter
Sisulu, Oliver Tambo, and Mandela, who galvanized the movement
and challenged the moderate leadership. Under the presidency of
Albert Luthuli, the ANC after 1952 began sponsoring nonviolent
protests, strikes, boycotts, and marches against the apartheid
policies that had been introduced by the National Party
government that came to power in 1948. Party membership grew
rapidly. A campaign against the pass laws (blacks were required
to carry passes indicating their employment status) and other
government policies culminated in the Defiance Campaign of 1952.
In the process ANC leaders became a