Essay About Apartheid Laws And Major Racial Groupsð

Apartheid
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Eurena Belcher
Ust 302
9:45-10:50
Apartheid
The word apartheid means “separateness”, which was the policy of legal
separation followed in South Africa. The apartheid laws classified people
according to three major racial groupsЖwhite; Bantu, or black Africans; and
Colored, or people of mixed descent. The laws determined where members of each
group could live, what jobs they could hold, and what type of education they
could receive. Laws prohibited most social contact between races, authorized
segregated public facilities, and denied any representation of nonwhites in the
national government. People who didnt agree with apartheid were considered as
communist.
Before apartheid became the official policy, South Africa had a long history of
racial segregation and white supremacy. In 1912, the African National Congress
(ANC) was founded to fight these unfair government policies. In the 1950s, after
apartheid became the official policy, the ANC declared “South Africa belongs to
all who live in it, black and white,” and worked to abolish apartheid. After
antiapartheid riots in Sharpeville in March 1960, the government banned all
black African political organizations, including the ANC.
Race laws touched
every aspect of social life, including a prohibition of marriage between
non-whites and whites, and the sanctioning of “white-only jobs. All blacks
were required to carry “pass books containing fingerprints, photo and
information on access to non-black areas.
In 1951 the Bantu authorities act established a sort of background for ethnic
reserves known as homelands. They were independent states to which each African
was assigned to by the government. These assignments were based on their record
of origin. All political