Section ATwo significant social and political changes that occurred as a result of Nelson Mandela's actions were the shift away from peaceful protests to violence and the end of apartheid (classification and segregation based on race). Mandela was born in 1918 and began his life among 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 was subsequently raised by Chief Thembu 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 the South -White and black Africans ("Frontline: Mandela", nd). In 1944, Mandela and his associates founded 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 drafted a program of action calling for mass strikes, boycotts, demonstrations and passive resistance” against apartheid policies (“Frontline: Mandela”, nd). Mandela became president of the ANC Youth League in 1951 and the following year more than 8,500 people took part in nonviolent mass resistance. After his arrest later that year (1952), his sentence was suspended, he was banished and ordered to resign from the ANC. In 1956, Mandela and more than 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 of them shot in the back. Mandela fled South Africa and traveled across Africa and Europe...... middle of paper ......Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in 1968, but his legacy lives on through laws passed in 1964 and 1965 due to his organized nonviolent resistance to racial segregation in the United States and ultimately leading to the first African president. -American beginning in his first term in 2009 ("King", 2012).ReferencesAbout Dr. King. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.thekingcenter.org/about-dr-kingNelson Mandela. (2009). In Biographical Reference Bank (). Retrieved from http://ehis.ebscohost.com.wguproxy.egloballibrary.com/ehost/detail?sid=0cf67e60-243b-476d-9ff4-7650264d1504%40sessionmgr12&vid=1&hid=4&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT 1zaX Rl#db=brb&AN=203044194Nelson Mandela. (nd). Retrieved from http://www.history.com/topics/nelson-mandelaThe Long March of Nelson Mandela. (nd). Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/mandela/