It was 44 years ago today—on Aug. 12, 1964—that South Africa was banned from the Olympics.

The reason? Apartheid. Racist laws that discriminated against the black majority population of the country, forcing them to live in segregated ghettoes and “homelands,” denying their participation in government and limiting their access to economic opportunity.

The International Olympic Committee didn’t lift the ban until 1991, after the South African government had taken steps that led to the eventual end of apartheid.

In 1964 the games were held in Tokyo. This year t...

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