The task of having to go through TSA or customs everytime you go through an airport can be annoying, requiring you to have an I.D. or a passport. For Black South Africans, however, the passbook system was much worse.
Pass Laws required Black South Africans to carry passbooks on them to travel into white neighborhoods. If they didn’t, they could be arrested, or deported into abandoned areas.
Nevertheless, Black South Africans could still be denied entry into white neighborhoods, and it would be documented in the passbook. The problem was that they could be denied entry even if they worked there, thus preventing them from being able to feed their families.
In the 1950s, protests engulfed the country, especially when Pass Laws became even more strict on Black women. Over 17 million people were arrested over the decades that followed because of defying these racist laws. They refused to stay silent. Ultimately, things changed.
Pass Laws were repealed in 1986, and Black people no longer needed to carry passbooks. Just like South Africa fought for freedom in their own country and fought to protect Black women, Black people around the world today must continue to do the same.