NELSON MANDELA

“Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.”

Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) was a South African black nationalist who spent 27 years in prison

for fighting against the country’s discriminatory apartheid system of racial segregation.

His negotiations in the early 1990s with South African Pres. F.W. de Klerk helped bring

an end to apartheid and ushered in a peaceful transition to majority rule.

Mandela served as president (1994–99) of the country’s first multiethnic government.