Nelson Mandela was born July 18, 1918 into a royal family of the Xhosa-speaking Thembu tribe in the South African village of Mvezo. His father, Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa was the chief of the tribe. Nosekeni Fanny was his mother. She was the third of Mphakanyiswa’s four wives, who all together gave him 9 daughters and 4 sons. At the age of 9, Mandela, then known by his birth name, Rolihlahla was adopted by Jongintaba Dalindyebo, a high ranking Thembu regent who began grooming his young ward for a role within tribal leadership.
Mandela was the first in his family to receive a formal education. He finished his primary studies at a local missionary school. There, a teacher gave him the English name Nelson. The teacher had a common practice of giving African Students English names. He went on to attend the Clarkebury Boarding Institute and Healdtown, a Methodist secondary school. Thee, he excelled in boxing and track as well as academics. Mandela entered the University of Fort Hare in 1939. Fort Hare was the only western- style higher learning institute for South African blacks at the time. Mandela and several of his friends were sent home for boycotting school policies the next year.
When Mandela found out that his guardian had arranged a marriage for him, he fled to Johannesburg. There, he worked as a night watchman and law clerk while he worked to complete his bachelor's degree. At the University of Witwatersrand, he studied law and became involved in the movement against racial discrimination. He also forged key relationships with black and white activists. Mandela joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1944. He worked with members of the ANC including Oliver Tambo to establish a youth league the ANCYL. He met and married his wife, Evelyn Ntoko Mase that same year. Before their divorce in 1957, they had four children together.
Nelson Mandela’s commitment to politics and ANC grew stronger after the 1948 election victory of the Afrikaner-dominated National Party, which introduced a formal system of racial classification and segregation that restricted nonwhites basic rights and barred them from government while maintaining white minority rule. The following year, the ANC adopted the ANCYLs plans to achieve full citizenship for all South Africans through boycotts, strikes, civil disobedience, and other nonviolent methods. Mandela helped lead the ANC’s 1952 campaign for the defiances of Unjust laws, traveling across the country to organize protests against discriminatory policies and promoted the manifesto known as the freedom charter, ratified by the Congress of the people in 1955. Also in 1952, Mandela and Tambo opened South Africa’s first black law firm, which offered free or low-cost legal counsel to those affected by apartheid legislation.
Mandela and 155 activists were arrested on December 5, 1956 and tried for treason. They were all acquitted in 1961. In the meantime, tensions in the ANC escalated, with a militant faction splitting off in 1959 to form the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC). Police opened fire on peaceful protesters in Sharpeville in 1960. The act killed 69 people. The country reacted with panic, anger and riots. The government banned the ANC and PAC. Mandela was forced to go underground and wear disguises. He decided that it was time for a more radical approach than passive resistance.
Mandela co-founded and became the first leader of Spear of the Nation in 1961. Spear of the Nation (MK) was a new armed addition to the ANC. “Several years later, during the trial that would put him behind bars for nearly 3 decades, he described the reasoning for this radical departure from his party’s original tenes: “It would be wrong and unrealistic for African leaders to continue preaching peace and nonviolence at a time when the government met our peaceful demands with force. It was only when all else failed, when all channels of peaceful protest had been barred to us, that the decision was made to embark on violent forms of political struggle.”
MK launched a sabotage campaign against the government under the leadership of Nelson Mandela. The government had recently declared South Africa a republic and had withdrawn from the British Commonwealth. Mandela traveled illegally to attend a conference of African Nationalist leaders in Ethiopia in 1962. He also visited Oliver Tambo, who was exiled, and underwent guerilla training in Algeria. On his return, Mandela was arrested on August 5. He was sentenced to 5 years in prison for leaving the country and encouraging a workers strike in 1961. “The following July, police raided an ANC hideout in Rivonia, a suburb on the outside of Johannesburg, and arrested a racially diverse group of MK leaders who had gathered to debate the merits of a guerrilla insurgency. Evidence was found implicating Mandela and other activists, who were brought to stand trial for sabotage, treason, and violent conspiracy alongside their associates.”
Mandela spent 18 of 27 years in jail at the Brutal Robben Island Prison off the coast of Cape Town. He was stuck in a small cll with no bed or plumbing. He was forced to do hard labor in a lime quarry. He received limited rations and fewer privileges than other prisoners because he was a black political prisoner. He was only allowed to see his wife once every six months. Mandela and other prisoners routinely received inhumane punishments. There were reports of guards burying the inmates to their necks and urinating on them. While in prison, Mandela received a bachelor of law degree from the University of London. He mentored the other prisoners and encouraged them to demand better treatment through nonviolent resistance. He smuggled out political statements and a draft of his autobiography “Long Walk to Freedom” which was published five years after he was released from prison. Mandela was moved to Pollsmoor Prison on the Mainland in 1982. He was placed under house arrest on a minimum security correctional facility in 1988. In 1989, the newly elected president lifted the ban on the ANC. He also wanted a non racist South Africa. He demanded that Mandela be released on February 11, 1990.
After he gained his freedom, Mandela led the ANC in its negotiations with the governing National Party for an end to apartheid and the establishment of a multiracial government. Though fraught with tension and conducted against a backdrop of political instability, the talks earned Mandela and de Klerk the Nobel Peace Prize in December 1993. On April 22, 1994 over 22 million South Africans voted in the country’s first multiracial parliamentary elections in history. A vast majority chose the ANC. May 10, Mandela was sworn into presidency. He was the first black president. De Klerk served as his first deputy.
Mandela established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate human rights and political violations committed by both supporters and opponents of apartheid between 1960 and 1994. He introduced numerous programs to help improve the living standards of the country's population. “In 1996 Mandela presided over the enactment of a new South African constitution, which established a strong central government based on majority rule and prohibited discrimination against minorities, including whites. Improving race religions, discouraging blacks from retaliating against the white minority and building a new international image of a united South Africa were central to President Mandela’s agenda. He formed a multiracial “Government of National Unity” and proclaimed the country a “rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world.””
In 1998, Mandela married Graca Machel who was a politician and humanitarian on his 80th birthday. He3 retired from politics at the end of his first term as president in 1999. After he retired, he remained devoted to peace and social justice around the world. He established numerous organizations including the Nelson Mand
ela Foundation and The Elders, which is an independent group of public figures committed to addressing global problems and easing human suffering. In 2002, Mandela became a vocal advocate of AIDS awareness.
Mandela was treated for prostate cancer in 2001. He was also weakened by other health issues. The United Nations declared July 18 Nelson Mandela International Day. Nelson Mandela died on December 5, 2013 from a recurring lung infection.
Malcolm X was born on May 25, 1925 in Omaha Nebraska. He is the son of Louise Norton Little and Earl Little. Earl was a committed supporter of Marcus Garvey, who was a black Nationalist leader, and a Baptist minister. The family moved twice before Malcolm reached the age of 4, due to his father's civil rights activism. His activism prompted death threats from the white supremacist organization, Black Legion. In 1929, the Littles home in Lansing, Michigan was burned down, regardless of the family's efforts to escape the Black Legion. In 1931, Earl's body was found on the town's train tracks. Both incidents were ruled accidents by the police, but the Littles believe both incidents to be of the Black Legions handy work. Several years after her husband's death, Louise Little went through a mental breakdown and was admitted to a mental health institution. During that time, her children were split up and sent to numerous foster homes.
Malcolm and his friend moved to Boston long after childhood. They were arrested in 1941 and convicted on charges of burglary. Malcolm was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He received parole after serving 7 of the 10 years. He used his time in prison to further his education. During this period of time, Malcolm’s brother, Reginald came to visit. They discussed his conversion to the Muslim religion. Reginald was a member of the Nation of Islam (NOI)
Malcolm wanted to learn more about the NOI, so he studied the teachings of their leader, Elijah Muhammed. The NOI was taught that white society actively worked to keep African-Americans from empowering themselves and achieving political, economic and social success. Malcolm was a devoted follower by 1952. He changed his last name to “X” because he considered “Little” to be a slave name. He chose the “X” to signify his lost tribal name.
Malcolm was chosen as a minister and a national spokesman for the Nation of Islam. He was also chosen to initiate new mosques in cities such as Detroit, Michigan and Harlem. He used newspaper columns as well as radio and TV to spread the word. Malcolm was credited for bringing thousands of new members into the NOI from 500 in 1952 to 30,000 in 1963.
“The crowds and controversy surrounding Malcolm made him a media magnet. He was featured in a week long television special with Mike Wallace in 1959, called The Hate That Hate Produced. The program explored the fundamentals of the NOI, and tracked Malcolm's emergence as one of its most important leaders. After the special, Malcolm was faced with the uncomfortable reality that his fame had eclipsed that of his mentor Elijah Muhammad.In addition to the media, Malcolm’s vivid personality had captured the government’s attention. As membership in the NOI continued to grow, FBI agents infiltrated the organization (one even acted as Malcolm’s bodyguard) and secretly placed bugs, wiretaps, cameras, and other surveillance equipment to monitor the group’s activities.
Malcolm’s faith was dealt a crushing blow at the height of the civil rights movement in 1963. He learned that his mentor and leader, Elijah Muhammad, was secretly having relations with as many as six women within the Nation of Islam organization. As if that were not enough, Malcolm found out that some of these relationships had resulted in children.”