1994 — Mandela Claims Victory

On May 2, 1994, Nelson Mandela stood before the press at Johannesburg's Carlton Hotel and claimed victory for the ANC in South Africa's first free elections. For the first time, every adult South African, Black and white, had been able to vote, and the count now told its story to the world.

The ANC took nearly 63 percent of the vote, ending 342 years of white minority rule. Mandela's message that day was not triumph over an enemy but reconciliation, summed up in his words: free at last. A country long divided by law had chosen, together, to begin again.