Carnegie Commission of Investigation on the Poor White Question in South Africa

In the 1870s, for example, a colonial visitor to Grahamstown wrote that "miscellaneous herds of whites and blacks lived together in the most promiscuous manner imaginable.

[3] The commission report encompassed five volumes that dealt, in turn, with the economic, psychological, educational, health, and sociological facets of the "poor white" phenomenon.

"[3] In seeking to prevent a class-based movement that would unite the poor across racial lines the report sought to heighten race as opposed to class differences as the significant social category.

[4] The findings of the report helped bolster support for segregation and strict limits and laws for black South Africans.

The hope was that the program of segregation would help poor whites, by giving them institutional assistance, and thus prevent race-mixing and maintain racial purity and economic power.