Nelson Mandela was released after serving 27 years in prison, charged with attempting to overthrow the South African government.

In 1944 he was one of the founders of the ANC Youth League, a group that went on to aggressively organize action against apartheid. In 1994 Mandela was elected President of South Africa in the first election that all races were allowed to vote. Throughout his lifetime Mandela has been a pinnacle of democracy and was duly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 (jointly with Frederik Willem de Klerk) “for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa”.

I swear to the Lord I still can’t see why Democracy means everybody but me. ~ Langston Hughes

February is Black History Month of course, and here’s a list of a few noteworthy links to share:

- A calendar (PDF) to reference other historical dates in Feb.

- Education First’s Black History Hotlist

- The Underground Railroad: at National Underground Railroad Freedom Center; PBS; wikipedia; Black Historical Museum; Giles R. Wright, myth-buster

- The Quilts of Gees Bend

- Small Towns, Black Lives

- Black History Month Resources at Thomson Gale

- Black History Pages

- The African American Mosaic at Library of Congress

- We Shall Overcome: Historic Places of the Civil Rights Movement

- The Faces of Science: African Americans in the Sciences

- Black History Month Events at The History Center in Ithaca

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