Enacted in South Africa in 1948, apartheid was a system of institutionalized racial segregation that functioned with the goal of upholding white supremacy. Non-white South Africans were forcibly displaced from their homes and relocated to townships and ghettos, causing socioeconomic disparity that still afflicts the country today. In 1986, the United States passed the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, which imposed economic sanctions banning new US trade and investment in South Africa and eliminated many direct flights to US airports. Japan and a handful of European countries soon followed suit and passed similar legislation of their own, ultimately contributing to the end of apartheid in 1994.
