Nelson Mandela, anti-apartheid icon, is dead at 95

UPDATED 12/5/13 at 8:25 P.M.: South African anti-apartheid hero and former President Nelson Mandela died at 95 at his Johannesburg home Thursday after a prolonged lung infection, plunging his nation and the world into mourning for a man hailed by global leaders as a moral giant.

Although Mandela had been frail and ailing for nearly a year, President Jacob Zuma’s announcement late Thursday of the death of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate shook South Africa.

Tributes began flooding in almost immediately for a man who was an iconic global symbol of struggle against injustice and of racial reconciliation.

President Barack Obama said the world had lost “one of the most influential, courageous and profoundly good human beings that any of us will share time with on this earth.”

New Yorkers praised the life of the civil rights legend who visited Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant, who told the city during a Yankee Stadium event that the people “never abandoned us” in fighting South African apartheid, and came to Ground Zero after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“The tickertape parade Mayor [David] Dinkins organized for him in 1990 was a great moment for our city, and his visit here in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 helped give our city strength and hope — for which we will be forever grateful,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement.

Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio, who worked in the Dinkins administration, said “we came to believe in his fight for justice and democracy as if it were our own.”
“For so many of us, the fight for a free South Africa became the rallying cry of our generation,” de Blasio said in his statement.

Sarassie Little, a lifelong Harlem resident, paid her respects to Mandela after seeing a tribute to him on the Apollo Theater’s marquee.

“He was a great man, a great leader. He fought against apartheid,” Little said. “He’ll be surely missed.”

Rep. Charles Rangel of Harlem called Mandela his personal hero.

“I hope we can take this period of mourning to reflect on the powerful lessons Nelson Mandela has taught us,” Rangel said in a statement.

Mandela was among the first to advocate armed resistance to apartheid in 1960, but was quick to preach reconciliation and forgiveness when the country’s white minority began easing its grip on power 30 years later.

Mandela was elected president in landmark all-race elections in 1994 and retired in 1999. (With Andrei Berman)

Nelson Mandela made a handful of trips to New York after his release from a South African prison in 1990. Here are some of his more notable visits:

June 1990: After his release from prison, in his first trip to the U.S., Mandela visited New York and met with then-Mayor David Dinkins and other city politicians. His 11-day tour ended with an event at Yankee Stadium.

December 1991: Addressing the UN General Assembly, Mandela pressed for quicker changes in South Africa regarding apartheid and other issues, and praised Dinkins for visiting the country.

July 1993: On a two-week visit to the U.S., Mandela campaigned across the country to raise money for South Africa, even appearing at a rally at the Concord Baptist Church of Christ in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

Oct. 1994: In Mandela’s first trip to the U.S. after being elected president of South Africa, he stopped in Harlem for a church service, met with then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani and made appearances with then-Gov. Mario Cuomo.

Sept. 1998: In his final visit to New York and the U.S. as South African president, Mandela and his wife visited Harlem and addressed the UN General Assembly.

Nov. 2001: Mandela visited Ground Zero with then-Mayor Giuliani two months after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Mayor Bloomberg said in a statement that the visit “helped give our city strength and hope, for which we will be forever grateful.”

May 2005: Mayor Bloomberg gave Mandela a key to the city.