Frances Baard's father was Herman Maswabi from Ramotswa in Botswana, who had gone to Kimberley to work on the mines, while her mother, Sarah Voss, was a Tswana person from Kimberley.
13 Facts About Frances Baard
1.
2.
Frances Baard married Lucas Baard in Port Elizabeth in 1942, having known him from school days in Kimberley.
3.
Frances Baard attended the Racecourse Primary School and the Lyndhurst Road School in Malay Camp, Kimberley, before enrolling for a short time at Kimberley's famous Perseverance School.
4.
Frances Baard worked briefly as a teacher and then, moving to Port Elizabeth, as a domestic servant and a factory worker.
5.
Frances Baard was influenced by Raymond Mhlaba and Ray Alexander.
6.
Frances Baard was an organiser in the African National Congress Women's League in 1952 at the time of the Defiance Campaign, serving later in various posts including Secretary and Treasurer of the League's Port Elizabeth branch.
7.
Frances Baard was actively involved in 1955 in the drafting of the Freedom Charter and was one of the leaders of the Women's march to the Union Buildings in Pretoria on 9 August 1956 in protest against the pass laws.
8.
In 1959, Frances Baard assisted with the potato boycott to protest the treatment of workers in Bethal, Transvaal.
9.
Frances Baard was arrested in 1960 and then again in 1963 when she was kept in solitary confinement for 12 months.
10.
Frances Baard's children were taken care of by relatives in Port Elizabeth and Kimberley.
11.
Frances Baard was a member of the Methodist Church and of its Women's Guild.
12.
The suggestion to recognise Frances Baard arose originally from a staff-member at Kimberley's McGregor Museum.
13.
Frances Baard is remembered in the renaming of Schoeman Street in Pretoria, where however the spelling in street signs and on maps is given as "Francis Frances Baard".