Thornton Road was for many years the main thoroughfare for this suburb and a hotbed for anti-apartheid activity in 1976 and 1985.

Thornton Road is the location of the Trojan Horse Memorial in honour of those killed in 1985.

More than thirty thousand people attended the funeral of Imam Abdullah Haron in Crawford.

[citation needed] He had been arrested by the apartheid security police just after he had led the al-Jaami'a Masjid Milad al-Nabi celebrations on 12 Rabi al-Auwal 1389AH (28 May 1969); and was held under Section 6(1) of the Terrorism Act of 1967 until his death on Saturday, 27 September 1969.

He spoke to the residents of Athlone, custodians of the famous Klipfontein Road, that had survived many of the suburb's apartheid altercations.