Influential Figures During Apartheid Nelson Mandela: Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born on July 19, 1918, near Umtata, Transkei. To pursue a political career, he renounced his right to succeed his father as chief of the Tembu tribe. He studied law by correspondence. In 1944, he joined the African National Congress (ANC) and helped found its influential Youth League. His first jail sentence, which was suspended, was for the ANC's 1952 Defiance Against Unjust Laws Campaign. Mandela became a fugitive …showed first 75 words of 249 total…

…showed last 75 words of 249 total…apartheid when he was freed from his life sentence in prison. He shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with South Africa's president, F.W. de Klerk, for their peaceful struggle to bring a nonracial democracy to South Africa. Along with millions of other black South Africans, Mandela voted for the first time in the election that brought him to power in April 1994. During his presidency, the economy and the quality of life for blacks gradually improved.