Sophiatown was located in a suburb of Johannesburg. Similar to Harlem in the 1920s, Sophiatown was once the center of black culture in the 1940s and early 1950s.

In 1955, the Apartheid government forced Sophiatown residents from their homes. About 65,000 people were moved out of Sophiatown and forced to relocate to the Meadowlands township. This was one of the new blacks-only areas created by the government.

Sophiatown was soon bull-dozed to make way for a new whites-only area called Triomf.

Copyright © ProjectExplorer.org, 2010
Text by Adam Sewall;
Image by by Meredith Claire, from the Sophiatown Restaurant in Newtown, Johannesburg.