Gandhiji's son Manilal can be considered to have graduated at Phoenix when he boldly joined his father at age 17 in the Satyagraha struggle in 1910. It was from Phoenix that the final phase of the struggle was begun in 1913 when Kasturba led a group of 16 Phoenix settlers to cross the borders into the Transvaal. Among this group were four women and four youths younger than eighteen years of age. Throughout Phoenix's subsequent history, it represented a symbol of resistance against injustice. Manilal went to jail ten times in his life and in the 1950s underwent several fasts (some for as long as 21 days) against apartheid. Sushila fasted for four days after the killings at Sharpeville in 1960.

In 1962, after the discontinuation of the Indian Opinion or Opinion as it was known then, the old Press building was converted into a day clinic, which rapidly expanded and by 1970, a new building to house a fully fledged clinic was constructed.

The clinic was run jointly by the Phoenix Settlement Trust and the University Of Natal's (now UKZN) Medical School-Now known as the Nelson Mandela School of medicine's Community Health Department.

An effort was made to develop this clinic into a prototype Primary Health Care Centre. At the same time a museum and library were also built housing hundreds of memorabilia collected by the Gandhi family and Mr S.S.Singh a historian and a member of the Phoenix Working Committee.

The Government of India also assisted with the provision of photographs, collections of coins, stamps models of buildings and dairies created in memory of Gandhiji during the centenary year 1969.

Hundreds of children and others visited the museum and were inspired by its message of resistance, nonviolence, dignity, liberation and truth.

Later in its history, the Committee for Clemency for Political Prisoners (precursor to the Release Mandela Committee) was formed at Phoenix Settlement in the early 1970's.

Natal Indian Congress was revived at Phoenix in the mid seventies and the first executive meeting of the UDF was held at Phoenix in 1983.