John Anthony Block 8 Nelson Mandela Introduction Many people over the years had stood up to have equal rights as others, like Rosa Parks who didn’t give her seat up for a white man, and like Marten Luther King, who gave his speech that ended slavery in the United States of America. People have fought to have rights and even though slavery is behind us now, there is more things people fight for, like their rights, and that is what Nelson Mandela did. Birth and Early Education Nelson Mandela was born on July 18, 1918, where his father, Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa served as the clan …show more content…
Several years later, during the trial that would put him behind bars for nearly three decades, he described the reasoning for this radical departure from his party’s original tenets: “[I]t 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 had failed, when all channels of peaceful protest had been barred to us, that the decision was made to embark on violent forms of political …show more content…
In a stirring opening statement that sealed his iconic status around the world, Mandela admitted to some of the charges against him while defending the ANC’s actions and denouncing the injustices of apartheid. He ended with the following words: “I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to