Nelson Mandela was a social rights activist and politician who became South Africa’s

first Black president. He was born on July 18, 1918, in a tiny village in South Africa. 

When Nelson Mandela was 12 years old, his father died. Following this success, he was
adopted by regent of the Thembu people. Mandela received the same status and
responsibilities as the regent's two other children. While he was there, he took classes,
studying English, Xhosa, history and geography. It was during this period that Mandela
developed an interest in African history and he learned how the African people had
lived in relative peace until the coming of the white people. 

In 1939, Mandela enrolled at the University of Fort Hare, the only residential center of
higher learning for Black people in South Africa at the time. In his first year at the
university, he focused on Roman-Dutch law to prepare for a career in civil service. In
his second year at Fort Hare, Mandela was elected to the Student Representative
Council, but after to be expelled for insubordination, he enrolled at the University of
the Witwatersrandin Johannesburg. He was determined to study law.

Mandela soon became actively involved in the anti-apartheid movement, joining

the African National Congress in 1942. The group had policy goals of full citizenship,
redistribution of land, trade union rights, and free education for all children. For 20
years, Mandela directed peaceful, nonviolent acts of defiance against the South
African government and its racist policies, like the Defiance Campaign in 1952 or the
Congress of the People in 1955. He also founded the law firm Mandela and Tambo
which provided free legal counsel to unrepresented Black people.

In 1961, Mandela was arrested and he and 10 other African National Congress leaders
were sentenced to life imprisonment for political offenses. Mandela spent 27 years in
prison, from November 1962 until February 1990. But, even being in prison, he
continued to be such an important symbol of Black resistance so a coordinated
international campaign for his release was started, and this international support
showed the respect that Mandela had earned in the global political community.

In 1993, Mandela won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in South Africa and on May
1994, he became the first Black president of South Africa.