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Nelson Mandela entered the University of Fort Hare, the only center of higher education for Black people in the country, at that time
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Nelson Mandela led the Defiance Campaign, exhorting Black people to violate the laws of racial segregation. He is found guilty under the law against Communism, and he is banned from attending meetings or leaving the Johannesburg area. -
In 1952, the government enacted an even more rigid law that required all African males over the age of 16 to carry a “reference book” containing personal information and employment history. -
From 1960 to 1983, the apartheid government forcibly moved 3.5 million black South Africans in one of the largest mass removals of people in modern history. There were several political and economic reasons for these removals.
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Mandela and the rest of the defendants are acquitted of the high treason charge. He goes underground and creates “The Spear of the Nation” (Umkhonto we Sizwe), an armed wing of the ANC, from which he becomes commander and chief. -
Judge Quartus de Wet found Mandela and other activists guilty and sentenced them to life imprisonment, they were sent to Robben Island, where they remained for 18 years. Mandela was confined in a damp cell, and with a palm mat to sleep. -
Black prisoners were allowed to wear long pants, authorized recreational activities, and improve food quality.
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All Africans were citizens of “homelands,” rather than of South Africa itself—a step toward the government’s ultimate goal of having no African citizens of South Africa. -
He began to write his autobiography which he secretly sent to London and although it remained for several years without being published, the authorities of the prison found several written pages of his book and took away his privilege to study for four years. -
The journalist Percy Qoboza launched the slogan “Free Mandela” which prompted an international campaign led by the United Nations Security Council, for his release.