Courtesy of Wikipedia
Ruth First (May 4, 1925 – August 17, 1982) was a South African anti-apartheid activist and scholar. She was assassinated in Mozambique, where she was working in exile, by a parcel bomb built by South African police.
Ruth First was born 4 May 1925 in Johannesburg to her Jewish parents, Julius First and Matilda Leveta. Julius emigrated to South Africa from Latvia when he was 10 years old, and Matilda emigrated from Lithuania when she was four years old. They were both anti-apartheid activists and became founding members of the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), the forerunner of the South African Communist Party (SACP). Ruth First was brought up in Kensington, where she and her brother, Ronald First, were raised in a highly political household. At age 14, Ruth was a member of the Young Left Wing Book Club. Like her parents, she joined the Communist Party, which was allied with the African National Congress in its struggle to overthrow the apartheid government of South Africa.
Click here to read more of the Wikipedia article.
Tomorrow, May 5: Jean-Francois Cope