A History of Apartheid in South Africa   

• Apartheid was a policy that shaped South Africa’s history from 1948 to the early 1990s, imposing racial segregation and discrimination against nonwhite communities. Descendants of mostly Dutch colonists made up the white minority (Afrikaners) that controlled the apartheid government. Fundamental apartheid laws included the Population Registration Act (1950), which classified people by race, and the Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act (1959), which restricted Black residents to designated “homelands.” Other laws, like the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act (1949), prohibited interracial relationships. Resistance against apartheid came from various quarters, including organizations like the African National Congress (ANC), Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), and others. International pressure also mounted against apartheid in the form of condemnation and sanctions. Though U.S. President Ronald Reagan and U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher opposed the economic sanctions and criticized Nelson Mandela and the ANC as communists and terrorists, their governments overruled them to push for measures against South Africa. After decades of domestic organizing, coupled with international support, South Africa finally saw the end of legislated apartheid and the election of Mandela as the country’s first Black president in 1994. Hannah Kim For The Junior Times