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Biography. NelsonMandela.org, www.nelsonmandela.org/content/page/biography.

Sahoboss. “A history of Apartheid in South Africa.” South African History Online, 10 Aug. 2017, www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-apartheid-south-africa https://www.biography.com/people/nelson-mandela-9397017. Accessed 26 Sept. 2017.

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Rolihlahla Mandela was born into the Madiba clan in the village of Mvezo  , Transkei, on 18 July 1918. He attended primary school in Qunu  where his teacher, Miss Mdingane, gave him the name Nelson, in accordance with the custom of giving all schoolchildren “Christian” names.

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Mandela began his studies for a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University College of Fort Hare but did not complete the degree there as he was expelled for joining in a student protest. On his return to the Great Place at Mqhekezweni the King was furious and said if he didn’t return to Fort Hare he would arrange wives for him and his cousin Justice. They ran away to Johannesburg instead, arriving there in 1941.

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He completed his BA through the University of South Africa and went back to Fort Hare for his graduation in 1943.Mandela, while increasingly politically involved from 1942, only joined the African National Congress in 1944 when he helped to form the ANC Youth League (ANCYL). Mandela rose through the ranks of the ANCYL and through its efforts, the ANC adopted a more radical mass-based policy, the Programme of Action, in 1949.

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From a young age Mandela has been appointed by his peers to leadership positions. Starting when he enrolled in college at Fort Hare, the most esteemed black college in all of Africa. His peers elected him to represent them in the Student Council at the college, and when Mandela resigned to join his mates in a boycott against the mistreatment of the students and an unequal allocation of powers, he was expelled by the schools for insubordination. Mandela refused to come back under the condition he would have to re-enroll in the Student Council.

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After years of imprisonment, Mandela was released from prison and continued his outspoken support for the equality of blacks in South Africa. Mandela was elected the president of the African National Congress in 1991, just one year after his release. While president, he negotiated with the president of the South Africa, F.W. de Klerk

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Over the years resistance to apartheid took many shapes and forms, from civil demonstrations to then political stunts and armed resistance. Nelson Mandela, the leader of the Umkhonto we Sizwe, aka the "Spear of the Nation, the military wing of the ANC, was incarcerated from 1963 to 1990.

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As apartheid become more and more widely accepted, moreover as is became law, more and more acts were taken by the government. In the mid 50's, almost 80% of South African land was only for the white minorities to also prevent mixing or socialization of races, the government created different facilities for each race, much like American racism and social laws. Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd, who became prime minister in 1958, referred to apartheid as "separate development", he created new additions to apartheid, 10 Bantu homelands known as Bantustans. Also, during his reign as a prime minister, almost 3.5 million of the black South Africans were forcibly removed from their "rural" land and it was sold for cheap to white farmers. Most of the black South African people soon sank into poverty.

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After he negotiated the rights for millions of black Africans, Nelson Mandela was elected into the office of president of all of South Africa, becoming the first black president in South Africa. As president, he worked to further promote and protect basic civil rights, of all people, and helped combat the South African economic depression of the mid 1990s. As president Mandela showed the world that the racism and discrimination in South Africa was over, and that the two once enemies would be able to come together and live in peace and harmony.

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Contradictory to common knowledge, racial segregation began happening before apartheid even became law in South Africa. To begin, Apartheid was a system of racial segregation in Africa between 1948-1991. With The Great Depression as well as World War II, it brought upon economic troubles to South Africa which then by 1948, convinced the government to accept the new "apartheid" with its literally meaning as "separateness". By 1950 the South African government had banned marriages between whites and members of other races as well as any sexual relation with members of another race with a white South African.