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April 27 is a notorious date in world history. While there were many laws leading up to and following the apartheid that took place in South Africa, April 27 leaves mark on history that should not be forgotten. It was on this day in 1950 that South Africa passed what is known as the Group Areas Act. This law assigned different areas of the land to the different races: Blacks and Whites.

Prior to this land segregation, the South African government had already prohibited mixed color marriage and even mixed color adultery. It was fine for a white person to cheat on his/her spouse with another white person, but not with a black person. A national racial registry was even put in place where everyone would have to register if they were white or not-white. The South African government even setup a convenient Race Classification Board to make the final call on who was not white.

Separation of living areas wasn’t where apartheid stopped. The years following the Group Areas Act included removing the right to vote for non-whites, displacement programs, a narrowed definition of “permanent residence” for non-whites. “Pass Laws”, requiring non-whites to have a “pass” on them at all times. Prohibition of non-white labor strikes. The most damming was the removal of South African citizenship in 1970.

To be sure, the apartheid government feigned compassion with the Bantu Investment Corporation Act (1959), which provided for business building blocks for non-white areas. They even provided non-whites with the opportunity to self-govern themselves with the Bantu Self-Government Act (1959) and the Urban Bantu Councils Act (1961).

Perhaps the most interesting of all the acts was the Terrorism Act of 1967. Indefinite detention of anyone suspected to being involved with terrorism sounds awfully familiar, but I just can’t seem to put my finger on where I might have read about that before. Of course, our USA Patriot Act only applies this indefinite detention to aliens (not the green kind). Of course, the South African government one-uped us. At least they made the non-whites “aliens” before they enacted their version of the Patriot Act.