In a book on The Firsts we research the lives of those South Africans who became the first black principals of all-white schools. It is a mix of joy and pain hearing these men and women recount their stories of coming into former white institutions.

Joy, because they were breaking down the walls of racial prejudice that had defended separate schooling for children who for more than a century were taught by white teachers and led by white principals. The new appointees carried with them a sense of history as pioneers of a new non-racial order in a democratic country...