Nelson Mandela School Of Public Policy And Urban Affairs

Jet, May 29, 2000

Former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela recently was honored during a naming ceremony for the Nelson Mandela School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs on the campus of Southern University in Baton Rouge, LA. The 81-year-old leader issued a message for peace between different races. After he was released from a South African prison in 1990, he first didn't want to deal with White politicians who had kept him behind bars.

"But our brains told us that if we didn't talk to those people, our country would go up in flames," Mandela told about 1,300 people at the ceremony. "The most difficult task is not to change the people around you, but to change yourself." Mandela also received honorary doctorates in an unusual double-university ceremony from Southern and Louisiana State, both Baton Rouge colleges.