Bury apartheid

Apartheid Laws Timeline

  • Masters and Servants Acts

    Masters and Servants Acts
    This act makes breaching employment contracts a criminal offence, along with desertion, insolence, drunkenness, negligence, and strikes. This was specifically applied to unskilled work, which was comprised of mostly blacks.
  • Mines and Works Act No 12

    Mines and Works Act No 12
    This act allowed for the restriction of skilled mining occupations to whites and coloureds only. This limited the possible occupations for blacks to low-earning jobs.
  • Mines and Works Act No 12

    Mines and Works Act No 12
    This act limited skilled mining occupations to whites with certificates of competency. This monopoly on skilled occupations made earning higher wages even more difficult and decreased the need for education for those affected because only basic labor skills would be necessary.
  • Black Land Act No 27

    Black Land Act No 27
    This act prohibited blacks from owning land outside of designated reserves, which only constituted about 7% of land in the country. This further restricted chances for advancement because only undesirable land was given.
  • Black Land Act No 27

    Black Land Act No 27
    This act prohibited blacks from owning land outside of the designated 7% of land reserves in the country. This act further inhibits black chance for advancement as the given land was undesirable.
  • Industrial Conciliation Act No 11

    Industrial Conciliation Act No 11
    This act prohibited blacks from registering in or forming trade unions. This act makes protesting for equal labor rights illegal and allows for employers to continue to force blacks to work in unfavorable circumstances.
  • Industrial Conciliation Act No 11

    Industrial Conciliation Act No 11
    This act prohibited blacks from entering or registering in trade unions. This act criminalizes blacks for taking action and wanting better working privileges.
  • Native Urban Areas Consolidation Act

    Native Urban Areas Consolidation Act
    This act, applicable only to black males, allowed any male seen to be living a dissolute life or had once committed a certain offence to be removed form an urban area. This added to the rise in illegal townships because blacks often had criminal offences due to other acts that targeted them.
  • Native Urban Areas Consolidation Act

    Native Urban Areas Consolidation Act
    This act, applicable only to black males, deemed any male leading dissolute lives or had committed certain offences able to be removed from an urban area.
  • Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act

    Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act
    This act prohibited interracial marriages. A part of the Petty Apartheid, this act affect only about 0.23% of all marriages in the country.
  • Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act

    Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act
    This act prohibited interracial marriages between whites and blacks. This act is a good example of petty apartheid because it was only applicable to about 0.23% marriages in the country at the time.
  • Popular Registration Act

    Popular Registration Act
    This act required people to be classified and registered as part of a distinct racial group. This act solidified the culture of distinguishing races by biological factors and led to the creation of the Race Classification Board.
  • Group Areas Act

    Group Areas Act
    This act declared city centers as 'whites only', which criminalized blacks that had to work there for a living. This also allowed local governments to avoid providing public amenities for blacks under the argument that they were not supposed to be there anyway.
  • Popular Registration Act

    Popular Registration Act
    This act required people to be classified and registered as a certain race and led to the creation of the Race Classification Board. It led to a stronger culture of classifying races based on biological factors, rather than cultural ones.
  • Natives Abolition of Passes and CO-ordination of Documents Act

    Natives Abolition of Passes and CO-ordination of Documents Act
    This act required that all blacks carry extensive passes with more detailed and comprehensive documents such as tax and employment records. Regular police checks often led to imprisonment and this act also lent itself as a way for constant surveillance of Africans.
  • Reservation of Separate Amenities Act

    Reservation of Separate Amenities Act
    This act enacted the strict segregation of all public amenities and led ride to the infamous 'whites only' signs that became well-known symbols of Apartheid. Violation of this act could result in arrest and imprisonment. This act quickly became a significant point of petty Apartheid.
  • Natives Resettlement Act

    Natives Resettlement Act
    This act was meant to clear the forming 'black spots' in cities by removing blacks from townships. A well-known example of this is Sophiatown, where 65,000 blacks were forced to move.
  • Sexual Offences Act

    Sexual Offences Act
    This act criminalized any white person for having intercourse or committing any 'indecent act' with a black person. This act can be seen as one of the ways the government tried to keep the 'purity of races'.
  • Sexual Offences Act

    Sexual Offences Act
    This act prohibited intercourse or 'indecent' acts between whites and blacks. This act is one of the government's attempts at trying to maintain the 'purity of races' while also controlling the private lives of citizens and deepening the divide in social relations.
  • Group Areas Act

    Group Areas Act
    This act forced Africans outside of cities with the premise that they would break down social order. This lead to the an increase in townships on city borders, but these were also considered illegal so it fed into a vicious cycle.