1994 — Mandela Inaugurated

On May 10, 1994, Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as South Africa's first Black president at the Union Buildings in Pretoria. Dignitaries from more than 140 countries stood before him, while a billion television viewers watched around the world as he took the oath and formed a government of national unity.

The ceremony came two weeks after 22 million South Africans voted in the country's first all-race elections. Mandela vowed that the oppression of one by another would never again darken the land. Twenty-seven years in prison had ended in one morning of freedom, and the man who had waited longest now carried the widest hope.