1994 — Mandela Elected South Africa's First Black President

On May 9, 1994, South Africa's first democratic parliament chose Nelson Mandela as the country's president, the first Black person to hold the office. The vote came seven days after millions had voted in the country's first free election, and it turned that public choice into a formal handover of power.

Albertina Sisulu nominated him, no other name was put forward, and even F. W. de Klerk applauded from the gallery. The scene held the whole transition in miniature: former opponents in one chamber, honoring one result. The prisoner of Robben Island was about to lead a free nation, by consent rather than by force.