Section ATwo significant social and political changes that occurred as a result of Nelson Mandela's actions are the abandonment of peaceful protest in favor of violence and the end of apartheid (classification and race-based segregation). Mandela was born in 1918, he began his life as part of a tribal clan, the Thembu people. Mandela's father was a respected advisor to the Thembu royal family. Mandela's father died in 1927 when Mandela was just nine years old and he was raised by the Thembu chief while attending local boarding schools. Mandela joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1943 at the age of 25 and began his long journey to end white rule and make South Africa a democratic state with equal rights for both white and black South Africans (“Frontline: Mandela,” n.d.). ).In 1944 Mandela and his associates formed the ANC Youth League to organize mass support for the ANC. New apartheid policies were implemented by the National Party in 1948 and the following year the “ANC Youth League drew up a program of action calling for mass strikes, boycotts, protests and passive resistance” against apartheid policies (“First line: Mandela”, nd). ). Mandela became president of the ANC Youth League in 1951, and the following year more than 8,500 people took part in mass non-violent resistance. After his arrest in the same year (1952), his sentence was suspended, he was banished and ordered to resign from the ANC. In 1956 Mandela and 150 others were tried for high treason. In 1960 anti-apartheid protesters gathered to challenge segregation laws and after police opened fire on the crowd, 69 people were killed, most with gunshot wounds to the back. Mandela fled South Africa and traveled around Africa and Europe......middle of paper......Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968 but his legacy lives on with legislation passed in 1964 and 1965 due to his organized, nonviolent resistance to racial segregation in the United States and ultimately led to the birth of the first African American president who began the his first term in 2009 ("King", 2012). References About Dr. King. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.thekingcenter.org/about-dr-kingNelson Mandela. (2009). In the biography reference bank (). Retrieved from http://ehis.ebscohost.com.wguproxy.egloballibrary.com/ehost/detail?sid=0cf67e60-243b-476d-9ff4-765026 4d1504%40sessionmgr12&vid=1&hid=4&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1 zaXRl#db=brb&AN=203044194Nelson Mandela. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.history.com/topics/nelson-mandela Nelson Mandela's Long Walk. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/mandela/