Nelson Mandela

Award won Role or nomination

1. 1918 age 0

   Born

2. 1992 age 74

   CreditMalcolm X

3. 2013 age 95

   Died

• WFWilliam Fichtner1 title
• GEGiancarlo Esposito1 title
• FFFrances Foster1 title
• ABAngela Bassett1 title
• PBPeter Boyle1 title
• CPChristopher Plummer1 title
• AHAlbert Hall1 title
• KAKaren Allen1 title
• RCRuth E. Carter1 title
• LRLaTanya Richardson1 title

• There are thousands of people who feel that it is useless and futile for us to continue talking peace and non-violence — against a government whose only reply is savage attacks on an unarmed and defenceless people. And I think the time has come for us to consider, in the light of our experiences at this day at home, whether the methods which we have applied so far are adequate.

  Nelson Mandela, CC BY-SA 4.0

• Ethiopia has always held a special place in my own imagination and the prospect of visiting attracted me more strongly than a trip to France, England and America combined. I felt I would be visiting my own genesis, unearthing the roots of what made me an African. Meeting the emperor himself would be like shaking hands with history.

  Nelson Mandela, CC BY-SA 4.0

• In its proper meaning equality before the law means the right to participate in the making of the laws by which one is governed, a constitution which guarantees democratic rights to all sections of the population, the right to approach the court for protection or relief in the case of the violation of rights guaranteed in the constitution, and the right to take part in the administration of justice as judges, magistrates, attorneys-general, law advisers and similar positions.<br> In the absence of these safeguards the phrase 'equality before the law', in so far as it is intended to apply to us, is meaningless and misleading. All the rights and privileges to which I have referred are monopolized by whites, and we enjoy none of them. The white man makes all the laws, he drags us before his courts and accuses us, and he sits in judgement over us.

  Nelson Mandela, CC BY-SA 4.0

• It is fit and proper to raise the question sharply, what is this rigid color-bar in the administration of justice? Why is it that in this courtroom I face a white magistrate, am confronted by a white prosecutor, and escorted into the dock by a white orderly? Can anyone honestly and seriously suggest that in this type of atmosphere the scales of justice are evenly balanced?<br> Why is it that no African in the history of this country has ever had the honor of being tried by his own kith and kin, by his own flesh and blood?<br> I will tell Your Worship why: the real purpose of this rigid color-bar is to ensure that the justice dispensed by the courts should conform to the policy of the country, however much that policy might be in conflict with the norms of justice accepted in judiciaries throughout the civilised world.

  Nelson Mandela, CC BY-SA 4.0

• For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

  Nelson Mandela, CC BY-SA 4.0

• I hate race discrimination most intensely and in all its manifestations. I have fought it all during my life; I fight it now, and will do so until the end of my days. Even although I now happen to be tried by one whose opinion I hold in high esteem, I detest most violently the set-up that surrounds me here. It makes me feel that I am a black man in a white man's court. This should not be.

  Nelson Mandela, CC BY-SA 4.0