ABSTRACT
The criminal convictions of the African men tell us not only that Africans contrived to avoid New Brighton but also that two other consistent obstacles to segregation continued to exist. Perhaps the most significant change in the 1923 Act, at least from the standpoint of the African middle class and some white liberals was the decision by the national government to eliminate the freehold option in the segregated settlements. The protests generating first from the municipal settlements for Africans in the 1880s, then from the townships, including New Brighton and from Korsten, represented the birth of a tradition of resistance to segregation. The highly politicized working class and middle class at Port Elizabeth doubtless owed something to the earlier generations who had fought against racial exploitation and residential segregation. The government repeatedly attempted to develop a "native" policy of residential segregation while creating mechanisms to co-opt the emergent black middle class.
