On February 11, 1990, Nelson Mandela walked free after spending 27 long years behind bars, imprisoned for his unwavering fight against South Africa’s racist apartheid system.
Mandela had been imprisoned in Cape Town, South Africa’s Victor Verster Prison. Millions of people from across the globe tuned in to see the infamous institution’s doors swing open and 71-year-old Mandela take his first steps toward freedom— his right hand firmly clutching the hand of his devoted wife, Winnie Mandela. His left? Raised in a fist—the emblem of defiance against a government that worked overtime to paint him as nothing more than an aimless thug and a criminal.
In 1944, he joined the African National Congress (ANC) to fight against the oppression of white rule. By 1948, the National Party, intoxicated off power and fearing a Black awakening, inscribed apartheid into law— But Mandela was never one to cower and continued to fight valiantly for his people.
Mandela had been a political prisoner, sentenced for daring to challenge the inhumane apartheid regime that had systematically oppressed Black South Africans for generations. There were numerous attempts to silence Mandela and his allies, and after failing to convict him of treason in 1961, the government successfully arrested him the following year for illegally leaving the country and he was convicted of inciting a strike of African workers and sentenced to three years in prison. The following year, Mandela was also convicted of leaving South Africa without a passport and sentenced to two years in prison and in 1964, he was convicted of sabotage and sentenced to life in prison.
“As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison,” he would later say about the historic day.
From the balcony of Cape Town’s City Hall, Mandela addressed a crowd of 50,000 and millions watching worldwide, promising his loyal supporters that the fight wasn’t over.
“Our march to freedom is irreversible,” he declared, promising South Africa would become a country for all its people, irrespective of race.
Four years later, Mandela would become South Africa’s first Black president.
“It always seems impossible until it’s done,” he once said—a powerful message and one that African Americans should hold on to throughout this pandemonious presidency.
The fight is far from over.
