Lenord

From 1948 to 1994 apartheid was enforced in South Africa. Apartheid was "an official policy of racial segregation formerly practiced in the Republic of South Africa, involving political, legal, and economic discrimination against nonwhites."(Dictionary) In 1948 when the apartheid was enforced for the first time the government split the country's population into four groups. These four groups consisted of 13 percent of the population was whites, 77 percent of the population was the African natives, and two percent of the population were the Asians. Many people and organizations tried to end the apartheid, but Nelson Mandela had the biggest effect on the apartheid through his participation in the African National Congress (ANC), the protest he joined and set up, and his time in jail.

Mandela had multiple positions in the African National Congress (ANC). Starting off as a secretary in the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) in 1948 then became the president in 1950. Later, he was elected for Transvaal President of the ANC in 1952. Shortly after he was released from prison, in 1991 he was elected President of the ANC.

Brought on by the Youth League in 1949, the Programme of Action advocated the use of boycott, strike, civil disobedience and non co-operation was accepted as official ANC policy. (www.anc.org) In 1952, the ANC started its "campaign for the Defiance of Unjust Laws and Mandela was elected National Volunteer-in-Chief."(www.anc.org) The Defiance Campaign was looked at as a mass civil disobedience campaign that gained the support of many ordinary people out of the ANC over time evolving into a mass defiance. As a result of Mandela's success, he began traveling and organizing resistance to discriminatory legislation. Mandela was given a suspended prison sentence for breaking the Suppression of Communism Act, which in simple terms they did not believe in the equality of races. Mandela opened a practice in Johannesburg with his partner Oliver Tambo, but they were forced to move there practice to an outskirt of the city where none of their clients would be able to reach them during working hours. Mandela described there location as "miles away from where clients could reach us during working hours. This was tantamount to asking us to abandon our legal practice, to give up the legal service of our people... No attorney worth his salt would easily agree to do that."(Nelson 67)

The ANC decided it was time to take a more affirmative action and formed the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) which supports direct action against the apartheid regime and a military wing called the Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation). After the police arrested the leaders of the PAC, Mandela and others from the ANC, the ANC went underground and Mandela was now the leader. He held campaigns concerning the "forthcoming inauguration of the Republic with a mass general strike," (www.anc.org) but not as many people responded as Mandela hoped, yet it still attracted a considerable amount throughout the county. The government got wind of these meetings and "responded with the largest military mobilization since the war, and the Republic was born in an atmosphere of fear and apprehension." (www.pbs.org)

The ANC and the PAC were strong users of boycotts, strikes, and civil disobedience to try and get their points across. For instance, the PAC began a national campaign against the Pass Laws. The Pass Laws basically meant that all non-white South Africans needed a passport to travel out of there home town, which in most cases were ghettos. The PAC asked other African people to stand outside of police stations without their passports and challenged the police to arrest them. Mandela and