In 1948, the Parliament of South Africa passed a series of laws designed to systematically strip the nation's black majority of all political, economic, and human rights. The result was apartheid, a legislative program that made the South African government one of the most oppressive of the 20th century. The End of Apartheid in South Africa describes the impact apartheid had on South African society and the emergence of the powerful protest movement that sought to combat it. Anti-apartheid leaders such as Stephen Biko and Nelson Mandela inspired a worldwide campaign against the South African government. This internal and external struggle brought a peaceful end to apartheid in 1994, and in the process, transformed South Africa from an international pariah into a modern democracy.