Today in History: (2.11) Nelson Mandela released from prison

On 11 February 1990, Nelson Mandela, the leader of the campaign to end apartheid in South Africa, was released from prison.

In 1944, as a lawyer, Mandela joined the African National Congress (ANC), South Africa's oldest black political organization. There he became leader of the ANC Johannesburg Youth League. In 1952, he became Vice-President of the ANC, advocating nonviolent resistance to apartheid—the institutionalized white supremacy and apartheid system in South Africa. However, after the massacre of peaceful black demonstrators in Sharpeville in 1960, Nelson helped organize a paramilitary branch of the ANC and participated in guerrilla warfare against the white minority government

He was arrested in 1961 for treason but was later acquitted. He was re-arrested in 1962 for illegal exit, found guilty, and served five years in Robben Island prison. In 1964, he was tried again for sabotage. In June 1964, he and several other ANC leaders were convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

Mandela spent 27 years in prison, the first 18 years in the brutal Robben Island prison. He was held in a small cell without beds and pipes and forced to do hard labor in the quarry. He can write and receive a letter every six months and meets with a visitor for 30 minutes a year. Mandela's resolve, however, did not waver, and while he remained the symbolic leader of the anti-apartheid movement, he led a nonviolent resistance campaign in prison, forcing South African officials to drastically improve conditions on Robben Island. He was later transferred to another place, where he was placed under house arrest.

In 1989, Frederick William De Klerk became President of South Africa and set out to abolish apartheid. De Klerk lifted the anNU ban, suspended executions, and ordered the release of Nelson Mandela in February 1990.

Mandela then led the ANC in negotiations with the government to end apartheid and establish a multi-ethnic government. In 1993, Mandela and De Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. A year later, the ANC won an electoral majority in the country's first free elections, and Mandela was elected president of South Africa.

Mandela retired from politics in 1999, but until his death in December 2013, he was an advocate for global peace and social justice.