Apartheid, which means "apartness" or "separateness" in Afrikaans, was a system of racial segregation that operated in South Africa from 1948 to the early 1990s. Under apartheid, the races, classified by law into White, Black, Indian, and Coloured groups, were separated, each with their own homelands and institutions. This sign, from 1989, is an example of petty apartheid, which was usually held to mean those measures short of directly affecting employment, residence or voting rights. Photo credit: John Mullen |