2nd Edition
Freedom in Our Lifetime: South Africa's Struggle explores the dilemma faced by black South Africans in the early 1960s of how best to battle the racial discrimination imposed by the apartheid system.

In 1998, the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its initial report on the human rights violations and amnesty hearings which had taken place over the course of three years in towns and cities all across the nation. Both apartheid supporters and apartheid opponents appeared before the Commission to explain how they or their family members were victimized, or how they used violent means to support their cause. The TRC gained world-wide attention for several reasons, one of which was its attempts to hear all sides of the story, and to acknowledge that all sides had engaged in violence.

Freedom in Our Lifetime: South Africa's Struggle addresses the development of apartheid, the responses to it, andthe decision by some members of the anti-apartheid community to use violence in protest to the government's policies. This question - whether the use ofviolence against an oppressive regime is justified - has been discussed at length in recent years, often without a clear answer. This unit will introduce students to one instance in which violence was used, and will allow them to consider that question in the South African case.