South Africa before 1948

Segregation did not begin in 1948 - but 1948 made it far more organised and total.

Long before 1948, laws already separated South Africans by race and controlled where black people could live, work and move. Pass laws forced black men to carry documents, and the 1913 Natives Land Act reserved most farmland for white owners.

• Wealth and land were held mostly by the white minority.
• Black, Coloured and Indian people had few or no voting rights.
• Segregation was common but not yet a single, complete system.

The 1948 election

On 26 May 1948 the National Party won power on a promise of apartheid.

The National Party (NP), led by D.F. Malan, campaigned on the slogan of apartheid - keeping racial groups completely separate. In alliance with the Afrikaner Party it defeated Jan Smuts's United Party.

• Only white voters could take part in the election.
• The NP won a majority of seats even though it won fewer total votes than the United Party.
• D.F. Malan became Prime Minister and began turning apartheid into law.

Turning apartheid into law

Between 1950 and 1953 the government passed a chain of laws to control every part of life.

Population Registration Act, 1950

Every South African was placed into a racial group, recorded by the state.

This law required people to be classified by race - as White, Coloured or Native (black African). Indian/Asian people were later added as a separate group. A person's classification decided where they could live, work, go to school and whom they could marry.

• Officials used appearance, descent and social acceptance to classify people.
• Families could be split when members were classified differently.
• This Act became the foundation the other apartheid laws were built on.

Group Areas Act, 1950

The law divided towns and cities into racial zones.

The Group Areas Act let the government reserve any urban area for a single racial group. People living in the 'wrong' area could be forcibly removed from their homes and moved to areas far from city centres and jobs.

• Whole communities were uprooted and their homes demolished.
• The best-located land was almost always reserved for white residents.
• Well-known removals included District Six in Cape Town and Sophiatown in Johannesburg.

Suppression of Communism Act, 1950

A law written so broadly it could silence almost any opponent of apartheid.

This Act banned the Communist Party, but it defined 'communism' so widely that it could be used against anyone who opposed government policy. The Minister could 'ban' people - restricting their movement, silencing them and barring them from meetings - without a trial.

• Activists could be 'listed', banned or banished from their homes.
• Banning made it a crime for many leaders to speak in public or be quoted.
• The state used this law throughout the 1950s to weaken resistance.

Bantu Education Act, 1953

A deliberately inferior education designed to keep black children in low-paid work.

The government took control of black schooling from the churches and missions that had run many schools. Hendrik Verwoerd, the Minister in charge, made clear the aim: to train black children only for a life of labour and servitude, not equal opportunity.

• Black schools were given far less money than white schools.
• The curriculum limited what black learners were taught.
• Anger at Bantu Education fed resistance for decades, up to 1976.

Apartheid takes shape, 1948-1956

1. 1948 National Party wins the election
2. 1950 Population Registration, Group Areas and Suppression of Communism Acts
3. 1952 Defiance Campaign
4. 1953 Bantu Education Act
5. 1955 Freedom Charter adopted; Sophiatown removals begin
6. 1956 Women's March; Treason Trial arrests

The Defiance Campaign, 1952

Thousands deliberately broke apartheid laws to fill the jails and show their rejection of the system.

Launched on 26 June 1952 by the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Indian Congress, volunteers broke unjust laws on purpose - using 'whites-only' facilities and defying curfews - and accepted arrest without violence.

• It was the first large-scale, multi-racial campaign of non-violent defiance.
• Leaders included Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and James Moroka.
• ANC membership grew sharply as the campaign spread across the country.

The removal of Sophiatown

A lively, mixed Johannesburg suburb destroyed to enforce the Group Areas Act.

Sophiatown was one of the few places where black South Africans could own land, and it was famous for its music and community life. From 9 February 1955 the government began forcibly removing residents to Meadowlands in Soweto and demolishing their homes.

• Residents protested with the slogan 'Ons dak nie, ons phola hier' (we are not moving).
• The area was rebuilt for white residents and renamed 'Triomf' (triumph).
• Sophiatown became a symbol of what forced removals destroyed.

The Congress of the People and the Freedom Charter

On 26 June 1955 about 3,000 delegates gathered at Kliptown to say what kind of country they wanted.

The People Shall Govern! South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white. The Freedom Charter, Kliptown, 26 June 1955

The Congress of the People was organised by the Congress Alliance. Delegates gathered demands from across the country into the Freedom Charter, a statement of the rights and freedoms people wanted for a democratic South Africa.

• It demanded equal rights, land, work and education for all.
• It later shaped the values in South Africa's democratic Constitution.
• Police broke up the second day of the gathering and recorded those present.

The Women's March, 1956

About 20,000 women marched on the Union Buildings against pass laws for women.

Organised through the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW), women of all races marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to protest plans to extend the hated pass laws to black women. They left thousands of signed petitions at Prime Minister Strijdom's office.

• Leaders included Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa and Sophia Williams-De Bruyn.
• The marchers sang 'Wathint' abafazi, wathint' imbokodo' (you strike a woman, you strike a rock).
• 9 August is now celebrated every year as National Women's Day.

The Treason Trial and what we learned

In December 1956 the government arrested 156 leaders and charged them with high treason.

The government accused 156 activists of high treason, claiming the Freedom Charter proved a violent plot to overthrow the state. The trial dragged on for years; in the end all the accused were found not guilty. It showed both the state's determination to crush resistance and the movement's resilience.