Apartheid

Black Land Act No 27

Jun 19, 1913

Prohibited blacks from owning or renting land outside designated reserves (approximately 7 percent of land in the country). Significant because this is the start of segregation. It gave blacks much less land than was fair, and it was land that no white person wanted.

Immorality Act No 5

Sep 30, 1927

Extra-marital intercourse between whites and blacks prohibited. This is significant because it is the first law to interfere with the private lives of blacks and whites and began to seperate them.

Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act

1949

This prohibited marriages between a white person and a colored person. This was seen as petty because there were already very few interracial marriages. This went a step further than the previous act. This showed that racist whites did not want any other white people being tolerant and making a family with Africans.

Population Registration Act

1950

This classified what white people and colored people were. If the person looked white and had white ancestors, then they were white. If they looked colored or had any colored ancestors, then they were colored. This is significant because it shows that the whites did not care about looks, they thought that white looking people were still worse if they had a small amount of colored blood in them.

Group Areas Act

1950

Proclaimed that the centers of the cities were for only Whites. Blacks still worked in the city but did not have any amenities because the law said they were not supposed to be there. This is the first time that they were not allowed to be in a city. This starts the ride toward forcing colored people into their own areas.

Bantu Authorities Act

1951

This provided the establishment of tribal leaders in the reserves. It also disbanded the Natives Representative Council. This was the small part of parliament that was reserved to represent people of Color in South Africa. This was a major step in removing all black influence in the South African vote which gives them no representation.

Reservation of Separate Amenities Act

1953

All Public amenities were segregated by race. There was supposed to be an equal amount of black and white amenities, but this was not the case. Hotels and other businesses were told to refuse colored. White only signs became commonplace based on the idea that blacks might use white only amenities because they were the only ones avaibable. Colored could be arrested if they disobeyed.

Natives Resettlement Act

1954

The goal of this was to move Africans out of Urban areas. Armed police moved 65,000 people out of their homes. This was significant because it destroyed the livelihood for thousands of families who were already oppressed under the current system.

Group Areas Development Act

1955

The Township of Soweto's populations rapidly increased to 2 million people. This act went hand in hand with the Natives Resettlement Act of 1954 to remove Africans from "black spots" and develop areas for colored people.

Bantu Self-Governing Act

1959

This divided Africans into 8 groups (later 10). The members of the groups were assigned a white commissioner general who's goal was to transition the blacks to self-government so that they were no longer the responsibility of white people (he still had power). However, the economy of the groups was bad, so they were still dependant on the economy of the white people.

Rivonia Trial

1963