By the end of the nineteenth century the whole of black South Africa had become effectively subjugated. No square metre in the country was under black rule and throughout the length and breadth of the country blacks were a conquered people living a subjugated life at the political whim and will of whites.

During the first decade of the 20th century, blacks witnessed the formation of the Union of South Africa. Black experience had taught them that the prospects of an armed revolution to overthrow the new white government were so meagre that the armed struggle against white oppression would have to be abandoned. As a direct result of the whites of the country banding together in an Act of Union the founding fathers of the African National Congress came together to establish a black political front which would meet the demands of the new circumstances.

Black South Africa's leaders at the turn of the century abandoned hope of reclaiming their land by force of arms. They were witness to the transformation of South Africa into a single political whole. They entered the scene of 20th century black politics accepting the reality of the new State. They set about striving for the inclusion of blacks in the new State rather than to attempt to reverse the political realities with which they were confronted. The founding fathers of the African National Congress accepted the Westminster type government which had been created by the Act of Union. They accepted the fact that politics would henceforth be dictated by democratic ideals within which government policy could be changed by the electorate. For many decades the prime concern of the ANC was therefore to gain entry into a new parliamentary system and to work for a multiracial democratic society.