Posted on Feb 11, 2026
Nelson Mandela released from prison | February 11, 1990 | HISTORY
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Nelson Mandela, leader of the movement to end South African apartheid, is released from prison after 27 years on February 11, 1990.
In 1944, Mandela, a lawyer, joined the African National Congress (ANC), the oldest Black political organization in South Africa, where he became a leader of Johannesburg’s youth wing of the ANC. In 1952, he became deputy national president of the ANC, advocating nonviolent resistance to apartheid—South Africa’s institutionalized system of white supremacy and racial segregation. However, after the massacre of peaceful Black demonstrators at Sharpeville in 1960, Nelson helped organize a paramilitary branch of the ANC to engage in guerrilla warfare against the white minority government.
In 1944, Mandela, a lawyer, joined the African National Congress (ANC), the oldest Black political organization in South Africa, where he became a leader of Johannesburg’s youth wing of the ANC. In 1952, he became deputy national president of the ANC, advocating nonviolent resistance to apartheid—South Africa’s institutionalized system of white supremacy and racial segregation. However, after the massacre of peaceful Black demonstrators at Sharpeville in 1960, Nelson helped organize a paramilitary branch of the ANC to engage in guerrilla warfare against the white minority government.
Nelson Mandela released from prison | February 11, 1990 | HISTORY
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Freedom
World History
Republic of South Africa
Posted 1 d ago
Responses: 3
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The ANC was aligned with communism. That's my only knock against Mandela. When he became president, I was surprised by the reconciliatory tone of his administration.
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I remember when he became President. He put a Team together to study every Peace Talk ever negotiated that they could find. Including the Nuremberg Trials, the Treaty of Versailles, and our own Treaties with Great Britain and France, after our Revolution. And he decided they created to many possible revenge or future Civil War situations. So he decided to offer Clemency to the Worst of the Worst, If and only If, they Publicly and in front of the their Families and Friends apologized and recounted their atrocities. I remember seeing a video of one the guy's as he told his stories...and the looks on the faces of his Wife, children and his relatives. Shame , it seems, can do a lot.
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