Nelson Mandela: a Transformative Figure with Flaws and a Past who Nevertheless Transformed Himself and a Nation
NY Times image While a commander in the African National Congress , committed to the violent overthrow of the South African regime and its apartheid system, Mandela was captured and imprisoned for 27 years. Rumor has it that his 1962 arrest was aided by the CIA. Since the United States considered the ANC a terrorist organization, it may in fact have been the truth but perhaps we will never know. In 1964 he was sentenced to life for violence against the regime. One source claimed that if Mandela promised to foreswear any further violence, he could go free; an offer that was, reportedly, given to him numerous times. Mandela the lawyer for blacks who could be charged for "walking through the wrong door, riding the wrong bus, sipping from the wrong fountain or evicted from lands given to whites" Cal Thomas remembers an interview that John Lofton of The Washington Times and he were granted in August of 1985. Held inside the Pollsmoor Prison near Capetown, So...