Apartheid
Learn about apartheid — the system of institutionalized racial segregation in South Africa that lasted from 1948 to 1994 and became a global symbol of racial injustice.
Apartheid — meaning 'separateness' in Afrikaans — was the system of legalized racial segregation and discrimination that governed South Africa from 1948 to 1994. More than mere racial prejudice, apartheid was a comprehensive legal architecture designed to maintain white minority rule over a Black majority population — one of the most systematic programs of racial domination in modern history.
The system classified every South African into racial categories: White, Black, Coloured (mixed race), and Indian. These classifications determined where a person could live, work, attend school, receive medical care, and even sit on a park bench. The Group Areas Act created separate residential zones. The Bantu Education Act provided deliberately inferior education for Black students. Pass laws required Black South Africans to carry identification documents and restricted their movement. Political rights were reserved for whites.
Resistance to apartheid took many forms: the African National Congress's initial nonviolent protests, the armed struggle after the Sharpeville massacre, the Black Consciousness Movement of Steve Biko, and the sustained international campaign of boycotts and sanctions. The system's end came through negotiation, culminating in Nelson Mandela's release from prison in 1990 and South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994. Apartheid's legacy of inequality persists, but the peaceful transition remains one of history's most inspiring political achievements.