#6: Nelson Mandela (July 18, 1918 – December 5, 2013)
Nelson Mandela spent decades opposing South Africa’s apartheid system, which enforced racial segregation through law. The government labeled him a terrorist after his involvement with the African National Congress’s armed resistance, and he remained in prison for 27 years, much of that time on Robben Island. When Mandela was released in 1990, he encouraged negotiation instead of revenge. Four years later, South Africans elected him as the nation’s first Black president in the country’s first fully democratic election.
