ABSTRACT
The African and multiracial struggle against the apartheid, or official racial segregation, system of South Africa represents one of the longest, bitterest, but ultimately most successful liberation movements of the post-World War II era. Utilizing guerrilla attacks, bombings, mass demonstrations, and strikes, the outlawed African National Congress (ANC) and its anti-apartheid allies in the labor and religious spheres eventually forced the ruling National Party to legalize black opposition organizations, free antiapartheid leaders such as Nelson Mandela, dismantle apartheid legislation, and permit full and universal suffrage in open and free elections. Along the way, the ANC was supported by a growing international movement of sanctions, often inspired by solidarity demonstrations among people of goodwill throughout the world.
