Immorality Act
series of legislation in South Africa
Immorality Act was the title of two acts of the Parliament of South Africa which prohibited, amongst other things, sexual relations between white people and people of other races. The first Immorality Act, of 1927, prohibited sex outside of marriage between whites and blacks, until amended in 1950 to prohibit sex between whites and all non-whites. The second Immorality Act, of 1957, continued this prohibition and also dealt with many other sex offences. The ban on interracial sex was lifted in 1985, but certain sections of the 1957 act dealing with prostitution remain in force as the "Sexual Offences Act, 1957".
Between 1950 and the repeal of the law in 1985, at least 19,000 people were fully prosecuted for violating the law, whereas thousands more were arrested without a trial.
The 1927 act
The Immorality Act, 1927 (Act No. 5 of 1927) prohibited sexual intercourse outside of marriage between "Europeans" (white people) and "natives" (black people). The penalty was up to five years' imprisonment for the man and four years' imprisonment for the woman. A person's colour during trial was dictated by their 'race', a term which described a person's appearance, mannerisms, and assumed descent/ethnicity (similar to later 'colour classifications' recognised during the Apartheid era of South African history, where races were decided upon by government officials, not pre-determined by the true ethnicity of the accused). The act also prohibited "procuring" women for interracial intercourse, and contained a proposal that described a punishment of up to six years of imprisonment specifically for coloured women who were thought to be provoking white males to have intercourse with them.
The public source identifies “Immorality Act” as series of legislation in South Africa. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Immorality, series and legislation.
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This entry incorporates text from “Immorality Act” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.