Charlotte Maxeke (1874 – 1939) has been honoured as the mother of Black Freedom in South Africa. By 1901 she became the first African women from South Africa to receive a Bachelor’s Degree, graduating with a B.SC. from the Wilberforce University in Ohio, USA. She became the leading woman member of the South African native Congress (later called African National Congress). She also founded the Bantu Women’s League, which fought against the extension of pass laws to women. Charlotte Maxeke lived in this house towards the end of her life, and was buried at Nancefield Cemetery, Soweto.