Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary who spent 27 years in prison before becoming the country's first Black president, leading South Africa's transition from apartheid to democracy.
Mandela became involved in the African National Congress in the 1940s, initially advocating nonviolent resistance to apartheid before co-founding an armed wing of the organization after the government's escalating violence against protesters.
He was arrested in 1962 and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964, spending 27 years in prison, much of it on Robben Island, becoming an international symbol of resistance to apartheid.
Released in 1990 amid growing international pressure and domestic unrest, Mandela negotiated the end of apartheid and was elected South Africa's first Black president in 1994. He shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 and remained a global icon of reconciliation and forgiveness until his death in 2013.