Anti-apartheid activist, Norman Levy is born

Norman Levy and his twin brother, Leon Levy were born in Johannesburg to Mary and Mark Levy, immigrants from Lithuania. Levy attended the Yeoville Boys’ primary school and Athlone High School in Johannesburg and matriculated in 1946. He was introduced to politics in his early teens, when he joined and participated in the Young Communist League (YCL) and, by 1946, in the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA).   After the passing of the Suppression of Communism Act and the dissolution of the CPSA, Levy continued to participate in African National Congress (ANC) campaigns against the unjust laws that led to the Defiance Campaign in 1952/3 and against the introduction of Bantu Education. He was also involved in the initial meetings that led to the formation of the South African Congress of Democrats (COD) in 1954. By the time COD was formally launched, Levy had also been recruited into the newly revived South African Communist Party (SACP). He was part of an underground unit that included Rusty Bernstein, Ruth First, Cecil Williams and Rica Hodgson.