Born Charlotte Mannya, she toured internationally with an African choir as a young woman, performing for Queen Victoria before the group was stranded in Cleveland, Ohio. There, with help from the African Methodist Episcopal Church, she enrolled at Wilberforce University, graduating with a B.Sc. in 1901 — the first Black South African woman to earn a university degree, taught in part by W. E. B. Du Bois.
Returning home, Maxeke became South Africa's first Black social worker and probation officer, founded the Bantu Women's League in 1918, and in 1913 led 700 women in a march to burn their passes in Bloemfontein — one of the earliest organised protests against the pass laws that would later underpin apartheid.
She spent her life building schools, churches and welfare programmes for Black South Africans, and is remembered as the "Mother of Black Freedom in South Africa."
- First Black South African woman to earn a university degree, 1901
- First Black South African social worker and probation officer
- Founder of the Bantu Women's League, 1918
- Led the 1913 anti-pass law march in Bloemfontein
- A degree earned far from home is still owed back to your people.. She returned to South Africa to build institutions rather than remain in the U.S.
- Organised, collective protest can move an unjust law before it hardens further.. Her 1913 march anticipated apartheid-era pass laws by decades.
- Serve alongside your community, not above it.. Her Bantu Women's League address urged leaders to live with, not over, those they served.