Reference code
ZA UCT BC930
Title
Amy Thornton Collection
Date(s)
- 1932 - 2013 (Creation)
Level of description
Fonds
Extent and medium
21 archive boxes
Name of creator
(1932-)
Biographical history
From citation in: List of Honourees receiving Provincial Honours in the Western Cape 2004:
Member of the Order of the Disa awarded to Amy Thornton
Amy Thornton has been motivated all her life by an absolute outrage at injustice. In 1948, then 16, she took part in her first act of defiance, putting up anti-National Party posters in Stellenbosch. Over the decades that followed Amy was active in the Communist Party, the Modern Youth Society and the Congress of Democrats, campaigning vigorously against racism, fascism and economic exploitation. In 1955, she headed for the Congress of the people but was arrested en route. She was banned in 1959, for 14 years and again banned in 1989. She was a UDF patron, actively participating in mass campaigns and did valuable work in advice offices on the Cape Flats. She has four children, the youngest of whom was detained in 1986.
Member of the Order of the Disa awarded to Amy Thornton
Amy Thornton has been motivated all her life by an absolute outrage at injustice. In 1948, then 16, she took part in her first act of defiance, putting up anti-National Party posters in Stellenbosch. Over the decades that followed Amy was active in the Communist Party, the Modern Youth Society and the Congress of Democrats, campaigning vigorously against racism, fascism and economic exploitation. In 1955, she headed for the Congress of the people but was arrested en route. She was banned in 1959, for 14 years and again banned in 1989. She was a UDF patron, actively participating in mass campaigns and did valuable work in advice offices on the Cape Flats. She has four children, the youngest of whom was detained in 1986.