who played a vital role in the abolition of apartheid?
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Answer:
Apartheid, the Afrikaans name given by the white-ruled South Africa's Nationalist Party in 1948 to the country's harsh, institutionalized system of racial segregation, came to an end in the early 1990s in a series of steps that led to the formation of a democratic government in 1994.
Influenced to an extent by the growing U.S. civil rights movement and the social equality laws enacted as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” platform, U.S. government leaders began to warm up to and ultimately support the anti-apartheid cause.
Finally, in 1986, the U.S. Congress, overriding President Ronald Reagan’s veto, enacted the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act imposing the first substantial economic sanctions to be levied against South Africa for its practice of racial apartheid.
Among other provisions, the Anti-Apartheid Act:
Outlawed the importation of many South African products such as steel, iron, uranium, coal, textiles, and agricultural commodities into the United States;
prohibited the South African government from holding U.S. bank accounts;
banned South African Airways from landing at U.S. airports;
blocked any form of U.S. foreign aid or assistance to the then pro-apartheid South African government; and
banned all new U.S. investments and loans in South Africa.
The act also established conditions of cooperation under which the sanctions would be lifted.
President Reagan vetoed the bill, calling it “economic warfare” and arguing that the sanctions would only lead to more civil strife in South Africa and mainly hurt the already impoverished Black majority. Reagan offered to impose similar sanctions through more flexible executive orders. Feeling Reagan’s proposed sanctions were too weak, the House of Representatives, including 81 Republicans, voted to override the veto. Several days later, on October 2, 1986, the Senate joined the House in overriding the veto and the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act was enacted into law.