over the next few days, we re going to hear a lot of people talking. it was the heroism of people like harry bellefonte and ron dellums and barbara lee. and then you hear that when it was not only popular, but you were suspect to fight on behalf of the anc, because they were considered terrorists. how did that turn around, danny? how did that public opinion move? i think change happens from the bottom up, as reverend al knows. it happens when people get involved in legitimate struggle for democratic change. it s not dictated to from above. i think president mandela would be, and i still call him president mandela, would be very uncomfortable with all those people who see him as a savior, who are trying to make him the lone star hero of the day, when, in fact, the people in south africa struggled and sacrificed for years, died, and were tortured millions of people whose names we don t know. who will not be on television.
against apartheid. i saw will smith in one of those pictures and harry bellefonte. there were enough of us and the people that were activists to give our country a good name in that country. we were lucky to make the change in the 80s. thanks again to the late bill grey. they took the lead. no doubt about it. ron delums, randall robinson. but i think people don t understand there were elements in this country that actually as late as the mid-80s was still calling nelson mandela and the anc terrorists. i know. yet he came out with a very forgiving spirit and rose above all of that. i think there s a lot of great leaders in south africa. we ve lost some of them, of course. there s a lot of people down there that i d love to see get back into government and really develop a really strong democratic tradition there. but you re right. there were people that, you know, pat buchanan and other
with on this earth. he no longer belongs to us. he belongs to the ages. for now let us pause and give thanks for the fact that nelson mandela lived. a man who took history in his hands and bent the arc of the moral universe towards justice. may god bless his memory and keep him in peace. mandela spent nearly a third of his life as a prisoner of apartheid, but he never stopped believing in freedom for himself and his country. outside his home just moments ago, the people of south africa were singing. we ll be going live to south africa in just a moment, but first i want to bring in nbc news contributor charlene hunter galt. she spent years covering both nelson mandela and the anti-apartheid movement in south africa. thank you for being on tonight. thank you very having me on, reverend al. you know, i know from being a teenager in new york and the civil rights struggle going forward you were one of the first writers at new york times that really wrote about this mov
get in the sanctuary at one time. you didn t have megachurches. you had radio. and radio was a part of every black person s life. so when dr. king or reverend abernathy or joseph lowery or any of the civil rights workers would come by the radio station, we stopped playing the temptations and james. we would hand the microphones to the civil rights workers maybe sometimes drop it out the window and they would tell us when and where we were going to march. you ll be hosting tomorrow and we ll take it to the 21st century. thank you both for joining us this evening. thank you for helping us bring tens of thousands here. still ahead, they came by train, by bus, even by foot across hundreds of miles. coming up, i ll talk to two women whose lives were forever changed by that day. and as we go to break, here s legendary singer and civil rights activist harry bellefonte