Ruth First
Ruth First (1925-1982) was a white South African anti-apartheid activist and scholar born in Johannesburg, South Africa. Her parents, Julius and Matilda First, were first generation immigrants, coming to South Africa from Latvia in 1906.
Ruth First was a member of the South African Communist Party (CPSA), of which her parents were founder members, and which was allied with the African National Congress in the struggle to overthrow the racist government of her country, which treated black and mixed-race people as second-class citizens.
She was involved in the founding of the Federation of Progressive Students while at the University of the Witwatersrand where she studied for her Bachelor's degree in Social studies. Nelson Mandela, future President of South Africa and Eduardo Mondlane the first leader of the Mozambique freedom movement FRELIMO were among her fellow students. She married Joe Slovo, another prominent anti-apartheid activist.
In 1963 during the government's crackdown she was interned for 117 days, and upon being freed she and her husband went into exile in London. She returned to Southern Africa in 1977 where she continued to work for the downfall of the racist regime. She was assassinated by the South African Bureau Of State Security (BOSS), when she opened a parcel bomb on August 17, 1982 in Maputo, Mozambique.