The policy of apartheid was implemented in 1948 in South Africa by the National Party, legally enforcing racial segregation and establishing minority rule by whites. It stripped non-white South Africans of their rights and forced millions of black people into designated homelands. Opposition to apartheid grew in the following decades through student protests and the rise of activists like Steve Biko, who died in police custody in 1977. International pressure also mounted, and apartheid was officially dismantled in 1994 when South Africa achieved independence and became a democratic country.