Nelson Mandela, South Africa?s first Black president and an enduring icon of the struggle against racial oppression, died Thursday December 5, 2013 at the age of 95.

Mandela spent 27 years in prison after being convicted of treason by South Africa’s white minority government, only to forge a peaceful end to White rule by negotiating with his captors after his release in 1990.

He led the African National Congress, long a banned liberation movement, to a resounding electoral victory in 1994, the first fully democratic election in the country?s history.

Mr. Mandela served just one term as South Africa?s president and had not been seen in public since 2010, when the nation hosted the soccer World Cup. Continue Reading…