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Apartheid and Segregation

In South Africa, there was a system of government called “Apartheid”. The word “Apartheid” was an Afrikaner word meaning “separate”. Black people and white people could not go to the same schools, they could not eat in the same restaurant or live in the same parts of the city. If they were ill, they had to go to separate hospitals, and they could not work together. Black people earned less money, if they could find a job. Nelson Mandela, a black African man, helped black people to protest about the situation. He joined a political party called the African National Congress with his friends and helped black Africans with their legal problems. The African National Congress asked Mandela to lead a war against the government. He tried to do this, but he was arrested and put in prison. People in other countries were very angry and refused to buy South Africa things in their shop. Pop stars, actors and sports team refused to go there. In 1990, President de Klerk ordered the prison to free Nelson Mandela after 27 years. “Apartheid” was only abolished in 1994. Mandela won the Nobel Peace Prize and he became the first black African president in South Africa.

In America, there was another injustice called “Segregation” that had the same purpose: black people didn’t have the same rights as white people and they were attacked (physically and verbally) and even murdered. This violent acts became part of their life. Also here, there was a man that worked hard for the civil rights of black people: he was Martin Luther King. He led the Montgomery Bus Boycott. This event started when Rosa Parks was arrested because she refused to give up her seat for a white passenger. This boycott was the first non violence demonstration in the US. For 382 days, black people in Montgomery didn’t use the buses. In December 1956 the Supreme Court of the United States declared segregation on busses unconstitutional. Finally, blacks and withes could sit in buses as equal, but segregation continue to exist in other parts of every day life.

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