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{{Cquote|'''Apartheid is an affront to human rights and human dignity. Normal and friendly relations cannot exist between the United States and South Africa until it becomes a dead policy. Americans are of one mind and one heart on this issue.''' [[Ronald Reagan]]<ref>http://cnsnews.com/commentary/patrick-j-buchanan/reagan-was-right-south-africa</ref>}}
'''Apartheid''' (meaning ''separateness'' in [[Afrikaans language|Afrikaans]]), was a social, economic and political policy of racial [[segregation]] which was enforced by white minority governments in [[South Africa]] from 1948 until June 17 , 1991 when the final Apartheid laws were abolished in Parliament.
==Verwoerd and the Bantustans==
Laws passed in 1950 forced a separation of non-whites from whites in South African society. The first, the ''Population Registration Act'', had people register with a racial classification board to determine "officially" if they belonged to one of four racial groups: White, African, or Coloured (the later split into Coloured and Indian). The second, the Group Areas Act, was the enforced relocation of non-whites into designated urban areas; to compel these people into the new "townships", which were in essence little more than shanty towns. The government ordered the bulldozing of once-vibrant mixed-race communities; the non-white inhabitants, especially the Africans, were ordered to carry passbooks to go from place to place in white areas. <ref>[http://overcomingapartheid.msu.edu/unit.php?id=5&page=2]</ref> Likewise, whites were ordered to relocate from the areas which they settled, that historically belonged to blacks.
Dr. [[Hendrik F. Verwoerd]], Prime Minister of South Africa from 1957 until 1966, designed a system that expanded the scope and impact of apartheid. Blacks were given a limited education which guaranteed them menial job opportunities as opposed to Whites [http://www.stanford.edu/~jbaugh/saw/Chloe_Bantu_Education.html]. The ''Reservation of Separate Amenities Act'', passed in 1953, ordered the segregation of blacks at all public facilities, including post offices, public transportation, beaches, sports venues, parks, toilets, and even cemeteries.<ref>[http://overcomingapartheid.msu.edu/unit.php?id=5&page=2]</ref>
