User:Jpate2/sandbox

Family and education[ edit]
Ruth First's Jewish parents, Julius First and Matilda Levetan, emigrated to South Africa from Latvia in 1906 and became founding members of the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), the forerunner of the South African Communist Party (SACP). Ruth First was born in 1925 and brought up in Johannesburg. Like her parents, she joined the Communist Party, which was allied with the African National Congress in its struggle to overthrow the South African government.

As a teenager, First attended Jeppe High School for Girls and then became the first person in her family to attend university. She received her Bachelor's degree from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1946. While she was at university she found that "on a South African campus, the student issues that matter are national issues". She was involved in the founding of the Federation of Progressive Students, also known as the Progressive Students League, and got to know, among other fellow students, Nelson Mandela, future President of South Africa, and Eduardo Mondlane, the first leader of the Mozambique freedom movement FRELIMO.

After graduating, Ruth First worked as a research assistant for the Social Welfare Division of the Johannesburg City Council. In 1946, her position in the Communist Party was boosted significantly after a series of mine strikes during which leading members of the Party were arrested. First then became the editor-in-chief of the radical newspaper The Guardian, which was subsequently banned by the state. Through investigative journalism, Ruth exposed the racial segregation policies known as apartheid, targeting black South Africans following the rise of the National Party in 1948 . In 1949 she married Joe Slovo, a South African anti-apartheid activist and Communist, with whom she had three daughters, Shawn, Gillian and Robyn. '''Together, Slovo and First became a leading force in the 1950s protest era in which the government outlawed any movements that oppose their policies. '''

In addition to her work with The Guardian and its successors, the South African Congress of Democrats (COD), a white-only wing of the Congress Alliance, was founded in 1953 with support from Ruth. In 1955 Ruth First assumed the position of editor of a radical political journal called Fighting Talk. However, journalism was not the only outlet for her political activism against apartheid. First and her husband Slovo were also members of the African National Congress, in addition to the Communist Party. She also played an active role during the extensive riots of the 1950s.

Treason trial and detention[ edit]
Ruth First was one of the defendants in the Treason Trial of 1956-1961, alongside 156 other leading anti-apartheid activists who were key figures in the Congress Alliance. First's early work and writings were largely used as evidence to prove treason on behalf of the Congress Alliance. Following four years of harassment by the state, Ruth alongside the 155 other activists were all acquitted of their charges. After the state of emergency that followed the Sharpeville massacre in 1960 she was listed and banned. She could not attend meetings or publish, and she could not be quoted. In 1963, during another government crackdown, she was imprisoned and held in isolation without charge for 117 days under the Ninety-Day Detention Law. She was the first white woman to be detained under this law.