At 8am on June 16 1976 Tsietsi Mashinini interrupted the school assembly to lead the first group of students out of the gates and on the march that started the Soweto uprising. They were protesting the use of Afrikaans in schools. A reward was posted for his capture and one afternoon security police checked every student leaving the grounds. Mashinini, who was a prefect at Morris Isaacson, escaped detection by dressing up as a girl. After the march he never slept at home again and fled the country two months later.