Steve Biko's legacy lives on through the struggle he helped to ignite and through the freedoms that South Africans now possess.

While in Medical School, Biko became involved in NUSAS (National Union Of South African Students), a non-racial students' union

In 1968, Steve Biko became the cofounder and first president of the all-Black South African Students' Organization (SASO) The primary aim of the organization was to raise black consciousness in South Africa through lectures and community activities. Biko concluded that the apartheid system had a psychological effect on the Black population, which had caused Blacks to internalize and believe Whites' racist stereotypes. According to Biko, Blacks had been convinced that they were inferior to Whites, which resulted in the hopelessness that was prevalent in the Black community. Biko preached Black solidarity to "break the chains of oppression".
In the final years of apartheid, the national students' unions remerged.