Lawrence Nkosi was born in 1910. He was a factory worker and active trade unionist by the 1950s.
In 1955 the Congress of the People and the drawing up of the Freedom Charter took place. In 1956, 156 Congress leaders were arrested and put on trial for high treason. The accused faced charges which claimed that they had participated actively in the campaign to draw up the Freedom Charter. Nkosi was one of the accussed in the infamous Treason Trial of 1956, but he was hospitalised with tuberculosis for the greater part of the trial.
References
• Information from an exhibition on the Treason Trial put together by Museum Africa in Johannesburg.
• Nkosi\'s name is on the \'Justice files\' list of Treason Trailists.