Mandela, a global icon who transformed from anti-apartheid activist to master of unity and reconciliation, was imprisoned in 1963 for fighting segregation in South Africa.

After serving 27 years in jail, he was elected South Africa’s first black president in 1994.

Outrage over the brutality of segregation in South Africa hit critical mass in 1984 with intensive television coverage of rebellions in the black townships, focusing on the violent crackdowns by thousands of police and military — much in the way television captured images of dogs and fire hoses used by Bull Connor against protesters in Birmingham, Ala., during the U.S. civil rights movement.

Soon, protesters on campuses across the country — including CU and Auraria — were being arrested for occupying shantytowns they had built from cardboard and plywood to symbolize the living conditions of South African blacks.

In 1986, Congress passed the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, which demanded the end of apartheid and banned all new U.S. trade and investment in South Africa.

It also demanded the release of Mandela.

But in 1988, Mandela was still in prison and had contracted tuberculosis.

Serving a life sentence for sabotage and conspiracy to overthrow the South African government, Mandela in 1985 had rejected his own conditional release from prison if he renounced violent protest, saying in a letter read by his daughter that the African National Congress had only resorted to violence as a means of protest “when other forms of protest were no longer available to us.”

AFRICAN AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS

The African-American Civil Rights Movement encompasses social movements in the United States whose goal was to end racial segregation and discrimination against black Americans and enforce constitutional voting rights to them.

The movement was characterized by major campaigns of civil resistance. Between 1955 and 1968, acts of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience produced crisis situations between activists and government authorities. Federal, state, and local governments, businesses, and communities often had to respond immediately to these situations that highlighted the inequities faced by African Americans.

Forms of protest and/or civil disobedience included boycotts such as the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955–56) in Alabama; “sit-ins” such as the influential Greensboro sit-ins (1960) in North Carolina; marches, such as the Selma to Montgomery marches (1965) in Alabama; and a wide range of other nonviolent activities.

Noted legislative achievements during this phase of the Civil Rights Movement were passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, that banned discrimination based on “race, color, religion, or national origin” in employment practices and public accommodations; the Voting Rights Act of 1965, that restored and protected voting rights; the Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965, that dramatically opened entry to the U.S. to immigrants other than traditional European groups; and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, that banned discrimination in the sale or rental of housing. African Americans re-entered politics in the South, and across the country young people were inspired to take action.

A wave of inner city riots in black communities from 1964 through 1970 undercut support from the white community. The emergence of the Black Power Movement, which lasted from about 1966 to 1975, challenged the established black leadership for its cooperative attitude and its nonviolence, and instead demanded political and economic self-sufficiency.

American civil rights movement, mass protest movement against racial segregation and discrimination in the southern United States that came to national prominence during the mid-1950s. This movement had its roots in the centuries-long efforts of African slaves and their descendants to resist racial oppression and abolish the institution of slavery.

Although American slaves were emancipated as a result of the Civil War and were then granted basic civil rights through the passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the U.S. Constitution, struggles to secure federal protection of these rights continued during the next century.

Through nonviolent protest, the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s broke the pattern of public facilities’ being segregated by “race” in the South and achieved the most important breakthrough in equal-rights legislation for African Americans since the Reconstruction period (1865–77).

Although the passage in 1964 and 1965 of major civil rights legislation was victorious for the movement, by then militant black activists had begun to see their struggle as a freedom or liberation movement not just seeking civil rights reforms but instead confronting the enduring economic, political, and cultural consequences of past racial oppression.

For full article: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/119368/American-civil-rights-movement

~~Mandela inspired generations of civil rights backers from a jail cell~~

~~Nelson Mandela inspired great music around the world~~

Mandela still was languishing in a Cape Town jail cell. But the passions he excited and the hopes that he raised had been reverberating across popular music for years, and would continue after he finally walked out of prison a free man in February 1990.

Some of those musical tributes were literal and unequivocal, expressed in a slew of powerful protest songs and homages by artists ranging from Johnny Clegg and Savuka (“Asimbonanga”) and Youssou N’Dour (“Mandela”) to Peter Gabriel (“Biko”) and Stevie Wonder (“It’s Wrong”). Others, like “Graceland,” were more implicit and metaphorical, expressed more through stylistic mergings than through fiery political messages.

The global musical reaction to Mandela’s cause, in fact, helped build bridges across cultural divides that endure today. One of the best-known songs, Artists United Against Apartheid’s “I Ain’t Gonna Play Sun City,” for the first time brought together on record superstars of rock and R&B with the kings of a rising young genre called hip-hop.

1. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-nelson-mandela-inspired-great-music-20131205,0,7403767.story#ixzz2mpHwWfZC

2, http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-nelson-mandela-inspired-great-music-20131205,0,7403767.story#ixzz2mpHi8N9W

~~SEVERAL SONGS FOLLOW~~

The Freedom Singers Perform at the White House

Uploaded on Feb 11, 2010

The Freedom Singers perform “(Ain’t Gonna let Nobody) Turn me Around” at the White House Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement.

Bruce Springsteen – Eyes On The Prize – (Live Milwaukee 2006)

Simon and Garfunkel – He Was My Brother

Vocal Essence with Sweet Honey In The Rock – Ella’s Song

Uploaded on Mar 18, 2010

Grammy nominated a cappella vocal ensemble Sweet Honey In The Rock joined the VocalEssence Chorus in a performance of “Ella’s Song”–part of the sold out VocalEssence 20th Anniversary WITNESS concert on February 14, 2010 at The Ordway in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

~~IT ALL COMES FULL CIRCLE~~

The South African activist and former president Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) helped bring an end to apartheid and has been a global advocate for human rights. A member of the African National Congress party beginning in the 1940s, he was a leader of both peaceful protests and armed resistance against the white minority’s oppressive regime in a racially divided South Africa.

His actions landed him in prison for nearly three decades and made him the face of the antiapartheid movement both within his country and internationally. Released in 1990, he participated in the eradication of apartheid and in 1994 became the first black president of South Africa, forming a multi-ethnic government to oversee the country’s transition. after retiring from politics in 1999, he remained a devoted champion for peace and social justice in his own nation and around the world until his death in 2013 at the age of 95.

Source: http://www.history.com/topics/nelson-mandela

We ALL are ONE!!

We ALL fight the fight!!