It was in the early afternoon of March 21, 1960 that police shot into the crowd of African demonstrators that had gathered near the police station of the Sharpeville township outside Vereeniging, South Africa.

This gathering of unarmed, well-mannered, and unaggressive demonstrators had been in response to a call by the Pan Africanist Congress of South Africa for peaceful protests against the unpopular Pass Laws.

Tear gas fired from low flying military aircraft could not stop the more than ten thousand demonstrators as they marched towards the police station.

Hours went by as the crowd waited outside the police station hoping (against hope) for a positive word from the white nationalist government. The demonstrators were men and women, young and old, who had had enough of the government's racial laws.

Some of the women came carrying their babies on their backs. They were facing a large contingent of heavily armed white police that had been dispatched to the police station.

It was just after mid-day when the unexpected happened. No orders were given for the crowd to disperse, no order was given to shoot; and no warning shots were fired to frighten the crowd away.

Out of panic, apparently, the front line of police opened fire on the crowd and continued to spray with live ammunition, for about a minute, even as the protesters were fleeing. Sixtynine Africans (men, women and children) were killed, and many of them shot in the back as they fled; more than 200 were wounded.

This massacre, in Sharpeville, provoked full-scale rioting that quickly spread like wildfire throughout South Africa. From March 22, Africans observed a nationwide stay-at-home (work strike) to mourn for the Sharpeville victims.

The stay-at-home was so effective that after seven days white businesses and industries that relied on African labor ground to a near halt.

The government of the day felt so threatened that, on March 30, it declared a state of emergency and gave the police unlimited powers to act against all forms of civil disobedience.

Africans suspected of anti-government activities were rounded up and jailed without any charges being brought against them. The African people's political organizations (the African National Congress and the Pan Africanist Congress) were declared illegal and banned.

Twenty-nine years later, the African people's political organizations still remain banned; the people's authentic leaders still languish in jail; the African population still remains disenfranchised; and the white supremacist government continues to govern with its violent policy of apartheid.

For four consecutive years now, the African population has been living under a state of emergency decree.

The government has again banned all church services, planned for this week, to commemorate the 29th anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre. The press may not even report on any incidents of a political nature involving the police.

And so this white supremacy madness will continue with the world looking on with folded arms. It was so, too, during Hitler's reign of terror.

People must understand then why African-Americans cannot bear to keep quiet or sit idly when their government continues to maintain friendly relations with the white minority racist government of South Africa.