Steven Biko was born in 1946. He was the most influential anti-apartheid leader of the 1970s and fought for the rights of blacks throughout South Africa.
In 1972, he was banned from politics by the white South African regime. As a "banned person," he was forbidden from speaking in public or being quoted but he continued to oppose apartheid and was arrested four times during the next few years and held without trial for months at a time.
On August 18, 1977, he was arrested and was taken to a prison where he was stripped naked, manacled to a grate, and forced to lie on a filthy blanket for 18days.
On September 6, he was brought by 5 police officers to room 619 for interrogation. When he emerged, he was a battered pulp of a man, having suffered severe head trauma that left him with multiple brain lesions. He was chained to a window grill and left standing up for the next 24 hours.
On September 7, two government doctors finally came to have a look at him and found him unable to speak or stand. In spite of this, they pronounced him fit to travel.
On September 11, Biko, who was now in a naked and in acoma, was thrown into the back of a police truck, driven 10 hours to another prison, and was left in yet another fithy prison cell to die unattended
He died on September 12 at the age of 30.
South African authorities attempted to cover-up the circumstances of Biko's death, saying he starved himself on a hunger strike, died of kidney failure and that he "hurt his head when he fell out of bed." No date, no one has been held accountable for his death.
Biko's death became an international rallying point against South Africa's repressive government.
Apartheid was finally abolished in South Africa in 1991.
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