Apartheid was a system of institutionalized racial segregation and discrimination that governed South Africa from 1948 until the early 1990s. Established by the National Party, which was composed of the country’s small but powerful ruling class of white Afrikaners, apartheid legalized racial discrimination and entrenched white supremacy through legislation that separated South Africans into racial groups: white, Black, colored (mixed race), and Indian. The government implemented a series of laws to enforce this segregation, such as the Group Areas Act and the Pass Laws, which controlled the movement and employment of Black South Africans.

Apartheid policies stripped Black South Africans of their citizenship and relegated them to “homelands,” or Bantustans, which were intended to be self-governing but were economically unsustainable and politically powerless. The regime enforced strict residential and occupational segregation, banning interracial marriage and mandating separate public facilities. Education for non-white South Africans was deliberately underfunded and designed to prepare them for a life of subservience.

Apartheid ended in the early 1990s after decades of political resistance and violent suppression. The African National Congress (ANC), which was mainly composed of Black South Africans, and other anti-apartheid movements made ending apartheid an internationally recognized issue. Key events such as the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960 and the Soweto Uprising in 1976 drew international condemnation and intensified domestic protests.