People Who Changed the World

People Who Changed the World
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela was one of the greatest social and political peacemakers that ever lived. His accomplishments were world changing. Mandela was not always able to pursue his democratic dreams nonviolently but that was his desire. Unfortunately, the South African Government felt it necessary to punish nonviolent protestors to discourage their cause. As a leader in the African National Congress, (ANC), Mandela had to stay strong to be a contender in the fight for democratic freedom.
Nelson Mandela was born July 18, 1918 in Umtata, Transkei, South Africa to the chief of Mvezo, and after his father’s…show more content…
Mandela was elected first Black President in South Africa, he served from 1994 to 1999.
Mandela and the government of national unity developed a program that satisfied blacks and attracted investments from abroad. In 1996 Mandela signed a new South African Constitution into law. The document made the government stronger, guaranteed expressions of freedom and minority rights. The lifelong dream of President Mandela was realized (Book, 2009). Mandela continued to serve South Africa after he was no longer president (Book, 2009). He died in his home in Johannesburg December 5, 2013.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
On January 15, 1929, Martin Luther King, Jr. is born in Atlanta, Georgia, the son of a Baptist minister. King received a doctorate degree in theology and in 1955 helped organize the first major protest of the African-American civil rights movement: the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott. Influenced by Mohandas Gandhi, he advocated civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance to segregation in the South. The peaceful protests he led throughout the American South were often met with violence, but King and his followers persisted, and the movement gained momentum.
A powerful orator, King appealed to Christian and American ideals and won growing support from the federal government and Northern whites. In 1963, Bayard Rustin and A. Philip Randolph led the massive March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom; the event’s grand finale was King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Two hundred and fifty thousand people gathered outside the Lincoln Memorial to hear the stirring speech.
In 1964, the civil rights movement achieved two of its greatest successes: the ratification of the 24th Amendment, which abolished the poll tax, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited racial discrimination in employment and education and outlawed racial segregation in public facilities. Later that year, King became the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize (in 2014 Malala Yousafzai became the youngest to receive the prize at age 17). In the late 1960s, King openly criticized U.S. involvement in Vietnam and turned his efforts to winning economic rights for poor Americans. He was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968.