How Did Apartheid End?

         Apartheid was a brutal, horrible period of time in South Africa, lasting from 1948 to the 90s, and leaving behind much pain and sorrow. Under Apartheid, racial discrimination against black people was not only commonplace, it was legally practiced. This begs the question -- how did it end?

        In 1948, the minority of whites had control of the South African government and introduced a law segregating people based on race. Black citizens could not vote, enter areas designated "whites only", marry people of other races, have freedom of the press, or do much else. This led to backlash from the very start. The African National Congress, made up of a number of black South Africans, protested by entering white-only areas, using white-only bathrooms, and by not carrying with them their passports - something they were required to do at all times by law. In 1960, they were banned, and their leaders, including Nelson Mandela, were arrested. This did not stop protests, however. Slowly but surely, people outside South Africa grew more and more aware of the horrors of Apartheid, as more and more news came spread about the police killing hundreds of protesters and injuring thousands.

        There were attempts to keep things as they were. When the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986 was brought to U.S. President Ronald Reagan, and sanctions on South Africa were suggested to U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, both vetoed the decisions, in the name of anti-communism. In the end, though, the Congress overrode Reagan and Thatcher was ignored, as sanctions on South Africa were placed by both countries. It's speculated that the Berlin Wall's fall in 1989 also helped take credibility away from Apartheid, as it was no longer needed to help fight the ANC, which some still thought to be "puppets of the Reds". After the new Prime Minister F.W. de Klerk came into power, he lifted the ban on the ANC, allowed freedoms such as freedom of the press, and released the protesters taken prisoner. Among them, Nelson Mandela. As negotiations to end Apartheid went on, more and more of it was chipped away, until Mandela, a black man who had been in prison for 27 for his protests, became president.

        Even after all the pain and suffering they went through, even in the most dire of circumstances, black South Africans never gave up their protests, and in the end, their fighting led to the end of the incredibly cruel chapter of their history known as Apartheid.