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Immorality Act
This act forbade sexual relations between Europeans (whites) and natives (blacks); males found guilty were sentenced to 5 years and females found guilty were sentenced to 4 years. During a trial for those found guilty of the crime, the race of the parties involved was determined by physical appearance by officials, not by the actual ethnic origin of the accused. This was one of the many attempts to keep the white race "pure". -
Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act
This act prohibited interracial marriages in an attempt to keep the white race "pure". Under this act, married couples were required to legally register under one of the four official racial groups and anything outside of that was deemed illegal and was prohibited. -
Group Areas Act
This law separated racial groups into different living and working areas; the reasoning behind this was to attempt to eliminate blacks from white-only areas, which were more developed and thrived more; this law gave officials the right to legally remove non-whites from areas labeled for whites only -
Population Registration Act
This law required that each South African were to register by his/her racial/physical features into one of the four racial groups - white, Bantu, colored, or other; a person could be characterized based on skin color, linguistics, the pencil test, and many more petty things. Due to the absurd tests, many lost their rights because of the label of Bantu, colored, etc. -
Bantu Building Workers Act
Blacks were given the proper training to perform skilled work and were given the right to work, but were limited in where they could work, which were only in non-white labeled areas. They were taught how to complete certain tasks, but were not given the materials to do those tasks. -
Separate Representation of Voters Act
This act removed the rights of colored people from voting at normal polls; this act also established literacy and property qualifications for the colored persons. This was another attempt to keep the white race "pure" and to ensure that the influence in the government was primarily white. -
Prevention of Illegal Squatting Act
Under this act, the Minister of Native Affairs had the right to remove illegal squatters from privately owned land and also had the right to establish resettlement camps on this land. Because of this, many non-whites were subjected to forced removal. -
Natives Act (Pass Laws Act)
This law required that all black South Africans carried a pass book that allowed them to travel outside of their homelands for reasons such as work; this law limited not only blacks, but also non-whites in general. If you were found in a white area without a pass book, you were arrested immediately. Because of this, it was easier to keep track of people of different races, primarily non-whites. -
Bantu Education Act
Under this act, racial segregation was enforced in educational facilities; this act aimed to lead blacks and other non-whites to limited education and to a life of unskilled labor. The role of segregated education was a big part during the Apartheid and it attempted to direct many to a life of failure. -
Bantu Self-Government Act
Parts of South Africa were broken down into 8 "homelands", each representing a different ethnic group and each having the right to self-government ; because of this law, blacks were stripped of their South African citizenship and it was implied and assumed that those blacks would only be able to practice their rights in their homeland, not in all of South Africa. It was also an attempt to create differences between ethnic groups, such as language.
