black spot, noun phrase

Forms:
Often with initial capitals.
Origin:
EnglishShow more black + English spot area, place.
historical
A freehold area occupied by Black people but surrounded by land designated for White occupation, and thus destined for expropriation and re-zoning in terms of Group Areas legislation; land in designated ‘White’ areas which was occupied by Black people. Also attributive. Cf. white spot (see white adjective sense 1 d). See also resettlement.
[1941 E.H. Brookes in Bantu World 25 Jan. 4There are still a good many Native-owned farms and settlements..entirely surrounded by a European area, and..sometimes referred to as ‘black islands’.]
1951 Natal Mercury 13 Apr. 11[The Mayor] will ask the Minister if Durban is to receive any of the money the Minister recently announced would be set aside for the elimination of ‘black spots.’
1956 A. Sampson Drum 229Johannesburg spread out like an avalanche, surrounding Sophiatown with European townships. Europeans resented the ‘black spots’ in their midst.
1960 A.J. Luthuli in H. Spottiswoode S. Afr.: Rd Ahead 116In rural areas African freehold lands that are surrounded by white farms are by law ‘Black Spots’, which must be vacated by Africans when so ordered by the Government.
1965 E. Mphahlele Down Second Ave 176Like Sophiatown, the township must move because it is a ‘black spot’ — too near whites.
1968 Cole & Flaherty House of Bondage 52In South Africa today a ‘black spot’ is an African township marked for obliteration because it occupies an area into which whites wish to expand. The township may have been in existence for fifty years and have a settled population of twenty-five or fifty or seventy-five thousand people.
1969 Survey of Race Rel. (S.A.I.R.R.) 119Farms acquired by Africans prior to 1936 are considered to be part of the scheduled areas if they adjoin existing Reserves; but if they are surrounded by white-owned land they are officially regarded as black spots.
1977 Daily Dispatch 17 Nov. 4The National Party’s parliamentary candidate..has pledged to speed up the removal of ‘black spots’ in the white corridor of land between the Ciskei and Transkei.
1985 Platzky & Walker Surplus People 15‘Black spot’ and ‘squatter’ are two particularly loosely applied and confusing terms. For some officials any area to be removed is labelled as ‘black spot’..regardless of the actual legal standing of either place or person.
1985 Platzky & Walker Surplus People 44‘Black spot’ is used to describe African freehold land and land owned by Church or mission stations leased to individual Africans; in both cases land falling within what the government has defined as the white area.
1986 P. Maylam Hist. of Afr. People 174Although long since outlawed, ‘black spots’ have only been eliminated on a large scale since about 1960.
1988 E. Prov. Herald 10 Feb. 2More than 3,5 million people had been uprooted from ‘black spots.’
1990 New African 11 June 4‘Black spots’ — black freehold land that was acquired before the 1913 Land Act and which fell within areas designated as white.
A freehold area occupied by Black people but surrounded by land designated for White occupation, and thus destined for expropriation and re-zoning in terms of Group Areas legislation; land in designated ‘White’ areas which was occupied by Black people. Also attributive.
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