Born in Pretoria, Gauteng Province,South Africa.Lilian obtained her primary education in Kilnerton. She later enrolled for a nurses' training course, but she eventually took up work as a machinist in a clothing factory.She joined the Garment Workers Union (GWU) under Solly Sachs, and soon became one of its leading figures. Impressed by the spirit of the African National Congress (ANC) volunteers, she joined the ANC during the 1950 Defiance Campaign and was arrested for using facilities in a post office that were reserved for white people.Her energy and her gift as a public speaker won her rapid recognition, and within a year of joining the ANC she was elected as president of the ANC Women's League.
When the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW) was formed in 1954, she became one of its national vice-presidents, and in 1956 she was elected president. A widowed seamstress with two children and an elderly mother to support, On 9 August 1956,Lilian Ngoyi led a women's march along with Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa, Sophia Williams-De Bruyn, Motlalepula Chabaku, Bertha Gxowa and Albertina Sisulu of over 20,000 women to the Union Buildings of Pretoria,South Africa in protest against the apartheid government requiring women to carry passbooks as part of the pass laws. Holding thousands of petitions in one hand, Lilian was the one who knocked on then Prime Minister Strijdom’s door to hand over the petitions.Lilian Ngoyi was also a transnational figure who recognized the potential influence that international support could have on the struggle against apartheid and the emancipation of black women, with this in mindset she embarked on an audacious and highly illegal journey without a passport to Lausanne, Switzerland, to participate in the World Congress of Mothers held by the Women's International Democratic Federation (WIDF). Accompanied by her fellow activist Dora Tamana, and as an official delegate of FEDSAW. With Tamana, she visited England, Germany, Switzerland, Romania, China and Russia, meeting women leaders and telling them about the plight of the South African women,before arriving back in South Africa a wanted woman.In December 1956, Lilian was arrested for high treason along with 156 other leading figures, and stood trial until 1961 While the trial was still on and other accused were out on bail, Lilian was imprisoned for five months under the 1960 state of emergency. She spent much of this time in solitary confinement.In the mid-1960s, she was jailed under the 90-day detention act and spent 71 days in solitary confinement and was for a period of 11 years placed under severe bans and restrictions that often confined to her home in Orlando, Soweto.South Africa.Her banning orders lapsed in 1972, but were renewed for a new five-year period in 1975. During the time of her banning, Lilian’s great energies were totally suppressed and she struggled to earn a decent living.The Koos Beukes Clinic at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto has been renamed Lilian Ngoyi Community Clinic in her honour.On 9 August 2006, the 50th anniversary of the march on Pretoria, Strijdom Square from which the women marched was renamed Lilian Ngoyi Square. a residence hall at Rhodes University,South Africa was renamed in her honour. Van der Walt Street in Pretoria was renamed Lillian Ngoyi Street. Other roads in Cape Town, Thembisa, Berea, Durban, and Hartbeesfontein have been named in her honour.the Bree Street in Johannesburg was also renamed Lilian Ngoyi Street.
