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What were the long-lasting consequences of the Reservation of Separate Amenities Act?
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The long-lasting consequences of the Reservation of Separate Amenities Act, enacted in South Africa in 1953, were the legal enforcement of racial segregation and the creation of vastly different living standards for white and non-white citizens. The Act allowed for public amenities to be segregated, often resulting in superior facilities for whites and inferior ones for non-whites. This law, which only got repealed in 1990, institutionalized apartheid, leading to decades of racial inequality and division.
The policy of apartheid, or the separation of whites and blacks, had long been in practical effect in South Africa before the Reservation of Separate Amenities Act became law on October 9, 1953, but this act legalized various aspects of egregious racial segregation that already existed. The long-term effect of this law was the legalization of mixed standards for whites and non-whites concerning the use of public amenities.
According to the Reservation of Separate Amenities Act, public facilities for whites of European descent and black Africans were to be segregated. These facilities included methods of transportation such as trains, buses, ambulances, taxis, and hearses. They also included buildings such as town halls, church halls, theaters, cinemas, schools, restaurants, and cafes. Races were also to have separate elevators, parks, and benches. An amendment to the act was later added that segregated seashores and beaches. Unlike the Jim Crow laws in the United States, the act made no provision that facilities had to be separate but equal. It was legally acceptable for white amenities to be better than black amenities, and this was in fact what overwhelmingly came to be the case.
In the long term, the Reservation of Separate Amenities Act gave the white minority in South Africa the ability to legally enforce the appropriation and use of superior facilities for themselves and to force black people to accept inferior conditions. This act remained law for several decades until it was repealed by the South African Parliament in 1990.
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