In South Africa, from the 1940s until the 1990s, a system called apartheid kept white and black South Africans separate. Racial segregation has happened in many other countries, throughout history.
Definition
Segregation is not as simple as having "separate but equal" places for people of different races. Segregation happens when a country or a society views one race as better than another. The goal of segregation is to keep the "inferior" race away from the "better" race. Because one race is seen as "inferior," people of that race are not treated well. They go through discrimination. Often they are not given basic rights, like the right to vote. As a United States Supreme Court judge said in a case about segregation in schools: "separate facilities are [always] unequal."[1] Things did stop segregation, like Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks. They helped a lot by speaking up for their side. Although they knew that they would get in trouble. Rosa Parks made every black person stop using the buses until the bus company ran out of money (most of their money came from black people). This worked and the black people were allowed to use the buses without separation.
From the early 1800s to the late 1980s, when Australia was still a British colony, the government took many Aboriginal children away from their families.[4][5] Their families had not agreed to let their children go.[5] However, the government had decided to force Aboriginal children to "assimilate" into British society.[5] The children where placed in British homes or on missions.[5] There, they were forced to learn Christianity, leave behind their Aboriginal culture, become a part of British society, and marry British or Irish people.[6] The goal of this program was to "breed out" Aboriginal traits so that they no longer existed in Australia.[6] Later, in 1951, the United Nations would define this type of program as genocide.[a][7]
From about 1900 to the 1970s, Australia followed what became known as the "White Australia Policy." This policy kept non-white people from immigrating to Australia by making immigration tests too hard to pass.[6]
In the early- to mid-twentieth century, many Aborigines were forced to live on missions. The goal of this policy was to get the Aborigines off their lands, because British settlers wanted to use them.[6]
In the 1960s, Australia changed its official policy to "integration." This meant that the Aborigines had to be able to live in British society or on missions.[6] However, many Aborigines refused to follow these orders and kept living far away from cities. In these areas, they were segregated from the rest of British society, and were also poorer.[6] At the time, some people called the situation "apartheid," and even suggested that the Australian government's policies inspired the apartheid program in South Africa.[8][9][10]
English settlers in Ireland
In 1366, the King of England passed thirty-five laws called the Statutes of Kilkenny. Their goal was to prevent English settlers in Ireland from mixing with the Irish people or becoming too much like the Irish. The laws made it illegal for the English to marry native Irish people, have Irish children, adopt Irish children, use Irish names or clothes, or speak anything but English.[11]
French Algeria
In 1830, France took control of Algeria from the Ottoman Empire. For over a hundred years, Algeria was a French colony. The French rulers kept an apartheid-like system in Algeria.[12] For example, Arab and Berber Algerians were allowed to apply for French citizenship (which would give them the right to vote and other rights) only if they abandoned their Muslimreligion and culture.[13]
Algerian Muslims were not willing to go along with this "system of apartheid," and this system was one of the main causes of the Algerian War in 1954.[14]
In 1935, after the Nazi Party had taken control of the German government, they passed the Nuremberg Laws. The Nazis, led by Adolf Hitler, believed that the "Aryan" race was better than any other races.[17] The Nuremberg Laws made it illegal for "Aryan" and "non-Aryan" people to marry or have sex.[18] At first, the laws were mostly meant to keep "Aryans" from mixing with Jewish people (who the Nazis viewed as an inferior race[17]). However, the Nazis later added "Gypsies, Negroes and their bastard [children]" to the Laws.[19][20] Aryans who broke these laws could be sent to concentration camps; non-Aryans could be executed.[21] To keep German blood "pure," after World War II began, the Nazis made it illegal for any non-German to marry or have sex with a German person.[22]
In 1939, the Nazis invaded Poland and took it over. They divided the Polish people into different ethnic groups. Based on how "Germanic" they were, each group had different rights. For example, the different groups were allowed different amounts of food; and were only allowed to live in certain places and use certain public transportation.[23]
During the 1930s and 1940s, the Nazis made Jews wear yellow ribbons or stars of David with the word "Jude" ("Jew") on them.[24] Racial laws discriminated against Jews and Roma people (Gypsies). For example, Jewish doctors were not allowed to treat Aryan patients; Jewish professors were not allowed to teach Aryan students.[25] Jews were not allowed to use any public transportation, besides the ferry; ride bicycles; or ride in cars.[24] They were allowed to shop only from 3:00pm to 5:00pm, and only in stores owned by Jews.[24] They could not go to theaters, swimming pools, or any other places for entertainment.[24]
During the Holocaust, the Nazis tried to kill all of the Jews and Roma in Europe.[26] They also killed millions of Slavic people (including Ukrainian, Russian, and Polish people), because they saw Slavs as an inferior race.[17][26] First the Nazis forced Jews and Roma to live in ghettoes, apart from everyone else.[27] Then they sent millions of Jews, Roma, and Slavs to concentration camps and death camps.[b][26]
Also, between 1939 and 1945, at least 1.5 million Polish people were deported to Nazi Germany for forced labour.[28][29] Nazi Germany also used forced laborers from Western Europe. However, Polish people and other Eastern Europeans who the Nazis viewed as racially inferior[30] were treated much worse. They were forced to wear a cloth tag on their clothing with the letter "P" on it, which showed that they were Polish. They had to follow a curfew and could not use public transportation. Usually, they had to work longer hours, for lower pay, than Western Europeans. In many cities, they had to live in segregated barracks, behind barbed wire. They were not allowed to talk to Germans outside of work. If they had sexual relations with Germans, they would be executed.[23]
Imperial China
Tang dynasty
During the Tang Dynasty, the Han Chinese passed several laws that segregated non-Chinese people from Chinese people. In 779, the Tang Dynasty made a rule which forced Uighurs to wear their traditional ethnic clothing, not Han Chinese clothing. It also banned them from 'pretending' to be Han Chinese, and from marrying Han Chinese women. The Han Chinese disliked the Uighurs because they loaned money for interest.[31]
In 836, when Lu Chun was appointed governor of Canton, he was disgusted to find Chinese living with foreigners and marrying them. Lu made segregation the law. He made it illegal for non-Chinese people to marry Chinese people or to own property.[31] The law specifically banned Chinese from forming relationships with "Dark peoples" or "People of color." This meant foreigners like "Iranians, Sogdians, Arabs, Indians, Malays, Sumatrans", and others.[32][33]
Italy
In 1938, Italy was ruled by a fascistregime led by Benito Mussolini. The regime was allied with Nazi Germany. Under pressure from the Nazis, the regime passed several laws that said the Italian Empire would now practice segregation. They called these laws the 'provvedimenti per la difesa della razza' (norms for the defence of the race).[34]
The laws especially targeted Jews. For example, Jews could not:[34]
Albert Einsteinresigned from his honorary membership at the Accademia dei Lincei, an Italian science academy, to protest the race laws.[37]
After 1943, when Northern Italy was occupied by the Nazis, Italian Jews were taken to Nazi concentration camps and death camps.[38]
Jewish segregation
For centuries, Jews in Europe were often forced to live in segregated ghettos and shtetls (small towns where mostly Jews lived).[39] In 1204, the Pope ordered Jews to segregate themselves from Christians and to wear clothing that marked them as Jews.[40] Forced segregation of Jews spread throughout Europe during the 14th and 15th centuries.[41]
In the Russian Empire, starting in the 1790s, Jews were only allowed to live in the Pale of Settlement. This was the Western frontier of the Russian Empire, about where Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine are today.[42] By the early 20th century, most European Jews lived in the Pale of Settlement.
In Morocco, beginning in the 15th century, Jewish people were segregated in mellahs. In cities, a mellah was a separate area for Jews, surrounded by a wall with a fortified gateway. Ruralmellahs were separate villages where only Jews lived.[43]
…they [have] to live in a separate part of town…; for they are considered as unclean creatures… [So] they are treated with the greatest severity and should they enter a street, inhabited by Mussulmans [Muslims], they are [hit] by the boys and mobs with stones and dirt…
For the same reason, they are [not allowed] to go out when it rains; for it is said the rain would wash dirt off them, which would [dirty] the feet of the Mussulmans…
If a Jew is recognized as such in the streets, he [suffers] the greatest insults. The passers-by spit in his face, and sometimes beat him… unmercifully…
If a Jew enters a shop for anything, he is forbidden to inspect the goods… Should his hand incautiously touch the goods, he must take them at any price the seller chooses to ask for them... Sometimes the Persians intrude into the [homes] of the Jews and take possession of whatever please them. Should the owner make the least opposition in defense of his property, he [risks paying] for it with his life...
If... a Jew shows himself in the street during the three days of the Katel (Muharram)…, he is sure to be murdered.[44]
Usually, when they won their independence from Spain, most Latin American countries made laws against caste systems. However, prejudice based on race remains.[46][49]
Racial segregation in South Africa began when the country was a Dutchcolony.[50] The Dutch landed at Cape Town in 1652 and gradually took over more and more of the country. Segregation continued when the British Empire took over the Cape of Good Hope in 1795.[50]
Slavery existed in South Africa until 1833. However, two years later, the government passed a law that changed slaves into indentured servants. This system was not very different from slavery. Throughout the rest of the 1800s, the South African colonies passed laws that limited these worker's rights and freedoms.
In 1894 and 1905, the government passed laws saying that "Indians"[51] and 'blacks"[52] had no right to vote. Other laws discriminated against non-whites, but were not as bad as the apartheid laws that would come within the next 50 years.
The National Party passed apartheid laws to make racial segregation the law in South Africa. Some of the most important laws included:[55]
The Population Registration Act (1950), which put South Africans into four racial categories: "black," "white," "Coloured" (mixed-race), and "Indian" (South Asians from the former British India).
People had to register with the government and get identification cards that said what racial group they were in.
The Group Areas Act (1950), which assigned a part of South Africa for each racial group to live in. People were forced to live in their assigned part of the country.
Going into another part of the country was illegal without a permit. Black people could not enter cities unless they had permission from a white employer.
The Reservation of Separate Amenities Act (1953), which created separate public places, like hospitals, universities, and parks, for the different races
The Bantu Education Act (1953), which segregated education
Under these apartheid laws, between 1960 and 1983, 3.5 million non-white South Africans were forced to leave their homes and move into segregated neighborhoods. This is one of the largest mass removals in modern history.[56]
Other laws made it illegal for a person to marry or have sex with a person of a different race.[55] Then, in 1969, the government took away "Coloured" people's right to vote. Since "Indians" and "blacks" had not been allowed to vote for decades, this meant that whites were the only people in South Africa who were allowed to vote.[55]
In 1970, non-whites were banned from having representatives in the government.[55] That same year, black people's South African citizenship was taken away.[55]
Protests
Protests against apartheid started right after apartheid did. As early as 1949, the youth wing of the African National Congress (ANC) suggested fighting against racial segregation using many different strategies.[57] Over the next 45 years, hundreds of anti-apartheid actions occurred.[57] They included protests by the Black Consciousness Movement; student protests; labor strikes; and church group activism.[57] In 1991, the Abolition of Racially Based Land Measures Act was passed, reversing laws about racial segregation, including the Group Areas Act.[58] In 1990, President Frederik Willem de Klerk started trying to end apartheid.[59] Nonwhites were given the right to vote in 1993. South Africa had its first multiracial elections (where non-whites were allowed to be candidates in 1994. Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress won.[60] Mandela and de Klerk were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 for working together to end apartheid.[61]
People of all races have fought against segregation and discrimination in the United States. Thanks to movements like the Civil Rights Movement, segregation is now against the law in the United States. However, prejudice against minority groups still exists. This has led to new types of segregation caused by people's prejudices and behavior.[64]
Israel
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↑In the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the definition of "genocide" includes "forcible transfer of children." The Convention went into effect in January 1951.[7]
↑During the Holocaust, the Nazis also murdered many other people for reasons like political beliefs, religion, disability, and homosexuality. However, these groups are not discussed in this article, since this article is about segregation based on race. See the page Holocaust victims for more information.
↑A caste system is a system of dividing people into groups. One group is viewed as the best, and has the most rights, freedoms, and privileges. Another group is viewed as the worst, most inferior group. This group often has very few rights, freedoms, or privileges, and is often very poor. Every other group is ranked somewhere in between. Every group has different rights and privileges.[45] For an example, see the page on the caste system in India, where people in the lowest caste are called "Untouchables".
↑Haebich, Anna; Delroy, Ann (1999). The Stolen Generations: Separation of Aboriginal Children from Their Families in Western Australia. Western Australia Museum. ISBN978-0730744542.
↑ 5.05.15.25.3Tatz, Colin (2014). "Australia's Aboriginal Children: Stolen or Saved?". In Samuel Totten (ed.). Plight and Fate of Children During and Following Genocide. Genocide: A Critical Bibliographic Review, Volume 10. Transaction Publishers. ISBN978-1412853552.
↑Price, Kaye (2015). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education: An Introduction for the Teaching Profession. Cambridge University Press. p. 70. ISBN978-1107463844.
↑Bell, David Scott (2000). Presidential Power in Fifth Republic France. Berg Publishers. p. 36. ISBN978-1859733769.
↑Kelly, Debra (2005). Autobiography and Independence: Selfhood and Creativity in North African Postcolonial Writing in French. Liverpool University Press. p. 43. ISBN978-0853236597.
↑Wall, Irwin M. (June 18, 2001). France, the United States, and the Algerian War. University of California Press. p. 262. ISBN978-0520225343.
↑Milton, S.H. (2001). ""Gypsies" as Social Outsiders in Nazi Germany". In Robert Gellately; Nathan Stoltzfus (eds.). Social Outsiders in Nazi Germany. Princeton University Press. pp. 216, 231. ISBN9780691086842.
↑Rupp, Leila J. (June 21, 1978). Mobilizing Women for War, 1939-1945. Princeton University Press. p. 125. ISBN0-691-04649-2
↑Majer, Diemut (2003). "Non-Germans" Under the Third Reich: The Nazi Judicial and Administrative System in Germany and Occupied Eastern Europe with Special Regard to Occupied Poland, 1939–1945. JHU Press. p. 180. ISBN978-0-8018-6493-3.
↑"Holocaust Timeline: The Ghettos". A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust. University of Education, University of South Florida. 2005. Retrieved March 21, 2016.
↑Ioanid, Radu (2010). "Occupied and Satellite States". In Peter Hayes; John K. Roth (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Holocaust Studies. Oxford University Press. pp. 326–339. ISBN978-0199211869.
↑Wirth, Louis (1997). The Ghetto. Transaction Publishers. pp. 29–40. ISBN1-56000-983-7.
↑Konop, Linda; Muller, Gretchen; Risley, Emma. "Jews". Marginality and Community in Medieval Europe. Kenyon College. Retrieved 2022-03-26.
↑Ghetto: Segregated Area (October 22, 2015). Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. Accessed March 21, 2016.
↑Berenbaum, Michael (August 12, 2014). "Anti-Semitism in Modern Europe". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. Retrieved March 21, 2016.
↑Bennett, Ralph G. (1997). "The Jews of Morocco". I.S.E. – Institut Sepharade Europeen. Archived from the original on March 21, 2016. Retrieved March 21, 2016.
↑Lewis, Bernard (April 24, 2014). The Jews of Islam. Princeton University Press. pp. 181–183. ISBN978-1400820290.
↑Hoiberg, Dale; Ramchandani, Indu (2000). Students' Britannica – India, Volumes 1–5. Popular Prakashan. p. 142. ISBN978-0852297605.
↑Allen, John (2005). Apartheid South Africa: An Insider's Overview of the Origin And Effects of Separate Development. iUniverse. p. xi. ISBN978-0595355518.
↑"Removals". South Africa: Overcoming Apartheid, Building Democracy. African Studies Center of Michigan State University. Archived from the original on December 14, 2013. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
↑ 57.057.157.2Lengfeld, Carolynne; Pienaar, Sara, eds. (2006). "Resistance to Apartheid". Understanding Apartheid: Teacher's Book. Cape Town: Oxford University Press. pp. 55–74. ISBN0-19-576616-4.
↑Reinhard Zimmermann (1996). "Southern Cross: Civil Law and Common Law in South Africa". Clarendon Press. p. 90. ISBN978-0198260875.
↑ 62.062.1"Civil Rights Chronology". The Leadership Conference. The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights / The Leadership Conference Education Fund. Archived from the original on March 19, 2016. Retrieved March 21, 2016.