193826 January 1938 · Elizabeth Street, Sydney

Aboriginal Day of Mourning

The ornate facade of Australian Hall on Elizabeth Street, Sydney, where the 1938 Day of Mourning met — Photo: Collywolly. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

On 26 January 1938, while Sydney celebrated 150 years since the First Fleet, about a hundred Aboriginal people met in the Australian Hall on Elizabeth Street for a Day of Mourning and Protest. Organised by Jack Patten and William Ferguson of the Aborigines Progressive Association, with William Cooper's support, it demanded full citizenship, equal rights and an end to the Protection Board.