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Black Land Act No 27
This prohibited blacks from owning or renting land outside of designated reserves. As a direct result, Africans couldn’t set out on their own to try to consolidate their own power. Because Africans were always on white-owned land, whites had complete control over the Africans. -
Native (Black) Urban Areas Act No 21
At this point, blacks weren’t allowed in cities without a permit. As a result, there were no public facilities for Africans, while the whites had some extremely nice facilities that, ironically, were cleaned by Africans. -
Immorality Act No 5
Intercourse between whites and blacks in now prohibited, but it was never an issue anyway, accounting for just 0.23% of marriages. Therefore, this could be interpreted as the South African government flexing its proverbial muscles. -
Representation of Blacks Act No 12
Black voters lost the right to vote in general elections. Instead, they were placed in a separate poll where they elected 4 white senators to represent them. This took away true black representation in the government. -
Population Registration Act No 30
Every baby born had to be classified into a group based on race from birth. This had two distinct results. First, it isolated each race completely. Each person was legally bound to a race, and couldn’t even attempt to pass as something different. Additionally, it meant that colored people had no chance to escape their fate. -
Group Areas Act No 41
People were given designated areas of land based on their classification. This generally meant that Africans had the worst land while whites had the best. It also meant that blacks generally had much farther to travel to work. -
Black (Native) laws Amendment Act No 54
Any black person older than sixteen had to carry all personal information ranging from birth information to tax records. Additionally, to be allowed in cities, blacks had to have passes issued by white people. In addition, the government could easily remove blacks from their homes without appeal. -
Criminal Law Amendment Act No 8
Any civil disobedience was punishable by a three-year jail sentence. While this is a valid punishment under fair governments, white policemen could claim that blacks were disobedient and the Africans couldn’t appeal. Additionally, this left a lot of room for gray areas, such as the true meaning of the term "civil disobedience." -
Blacks Resettlement Act No 19
This legally permitted to forcibly remove Africans from their homes, send them to reserves, and demolish the homes. A notable example of this is Sophiatown, a black suburb near Johannesburg that was bulldozed, rebuilt, and renamed Triomf until 2006. -
Black Labor Act No 67
This was essentially a consolidation of the rules for black laborers. It made working conditions even worse for Africans, as there was basically a country-wide code for abusing the workers.
