Helen Joseph

Helen Beatrice May Fennell was born in England in 1905. She graduated from the University of London in 1927, and taught for three years overseas before coming to South Africa in 1931, where she married Billie Joseph.

After the war she took a job with the Garment Workers Union (GWU) and came under the influence of Solly Sachs. Helen was a founder member of the ANC's white ally, the Congress of Democrats (COD), and national secretary of FSAW in the 1950s. In 1955 she was one of the leaders who read out the clauses of the Freedom Charter at the Congress of the People. The Women's March on 9 August 1956 was one of the most memorable moments of her illustrious political career; she was one of the main organisers of the protest.

She was arrested on a charge of high treason in December 1956 and banned for the first time in 1957. Thereafter her life became a long saga of police persecution. She was the first person to be placed under house arrest. Her last banning order was only lifted when she was in her 80th year. She died in 1992.

Helen Joseph ©

SAHO biography