nelson mandela visit to boston

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Black History Boston: Nelson Mandela Visits Boston

Today, we look back to the day the freedom fighter Nelson Mandela visited Boston.

To understand the significance of Nelson Mandela’s journey to Boston, we must examine the significance of his triumph. 

South Africa went through a system called Apartheid , translated to " apartness"  in Afrikaans, which was an ideology that was introduced by the government in 1948. Apartheid called for the separate development of the different racial groups that lived in South Africa. The idea was for (separate, but) equal development, but existent disparities made that impossible. It worked to stop all marriage and integration between racial groups. Despite Black people being the majority of the population, this ideology disadvantaged them and gave benefits to their white counterparts. 

To combat the system of Apartheid, anti-apartheid activist and law student Nelson Mandela worked to combat the systems in a variety of ways to fight legislation. In 1962, Nelson was arrested by police along with fellow activist, Cecil Williams. He was on trial for almost two years before being found guilty and sent to life imprisonment to Robben Island . Nelson Mandela stayed imprisoned from 1964 to 1990. From global support for Nelson and economic sanctions placed on South Africa, the government moved to release him and other anti-apartheid activists. 

Upon his release, Nelson Mandela embarked on a tour to visit various locations across the globe that showed support for the anti-apartheid effort. On June 23, 1990, Nelson Mandela arrived in Boston.

Learn More Here :

• Why Nelson Mandela Came To Boston In 1990
• Biography of Nelson Mandela
• Last updated: November 1, 2022

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Remembering Nelson Mandela’s Trip to Boston

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Associated Press

Nelson Mandela’s visit to Boston in 1990 perhaps mattered more to the city than it did to Mandela.

To be sure, the trip was important for Mandela, who passed away this Thursday at age 95 . Four months before he arrived here, the South African government had freed him after 27 years in jail. Apartheid was still the law of his land. He was four years removed from the first multiracial election that would make him president. He came to Boston, part of an eight city tour of the United States, to raise money and awareness for his cause and to thank the city, the state, and one of its major political families, the Kennedys, for being among the first and most enthusiastic supporters of divesting from South Africa to protest apartheid.

But for Mandela, it was a whirlwind during which he was ushered from event to event, forever behind schedule, before being whisked off to his next city. The preceding days at the United Nations in New York City and the upcoming days in Washington D.C. where he would meet with President George H.W. Bush and address Congress, both had higher stakes.

For Boston itself, his presence was an enormous occasion, and one that emphasized some of the paradoxes in our history. As Mandela noted during his stay, Boston was the seat of the American Revolution as well as the abolition movement. Perhaps in that tradition, Massachusetts became the first state to withdraw its pension fund investments from companies that did business with South Africa. The city of Boston soon joined them in the move.

And yet, as The Boston Globe’s Wil Haygood wrote at the time, we were also a city “where, once, in memory recent enough to touch, someone viciously jabbed a black man with an American flag at an antibusing demonstration.” The city’s populations remained essentially segregated. By the time he arrived, Roxbury had twice voted on whether to secede from Boston and rename itself “Mandela.”

Those paradoxes were on display for Mandela himself to see. For a city not known for racial harmony, there was enormous, unified support for the leader and his cause.  Over a quarter million people, black and white alike came out to see and donate to him. He spoke at the Esplanade, visited Madison Park High School in Roxbury, and attended a luncheon with the Kennedy family at the JFK Library. But, as the Christian Science Monitor noted :

[T]he attendance patterns kept to Boston traditions: while it was blacks who lined the streets to cheer the motorcade and went to the school function, the crowd of an estimated 221,000 that sat all day on the Esplanade was primarily white. Many were youths who wore African clothing and raised a clenched fist during the singing of the African national anthem.

A WGBH report captured the intensity of feeling for Mandela in the black community. When he got to the school where people waited hours in an overheated auditorium to see him, he warned them about the dropout rate. “We are deeply concerned both in our country and here of the very large number of dropouts by schoolchildren,” he said to cheers.

Meanwhile, an L.A. Times story painted the scene at the Esplanade:

A crowd police estimated at 260,000 turned out on a mild, overcast day in the narrow park for an afternoon with Mandela and an array of music, performed by Jackson Browne, Bobby McFerrin, Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder and dozens of others. Mandela admirers arrived on foot and by car, bus, train, bike, boat and even inner tube. Families spread out blankets and set up lawn chairs on the grass for picnics, while giant screens brought the speech closer. Hawkers sold T-shirts bearing such slogans as “Boston Welcomes Mandela” and “Sanctions Until Democracy.”

Mandela will be remembered in the next weeks largely for the impact he had on his own nation, but also for the impact he had on ours. Barack Obama notes often that he was among those inspired by Mandela. The anti-apartheid movement was his first political cause as a young college student. Mandela’s passing is a reminder that hundreds of thousands of Boston residents, like Obama, took inspiration from Mandela, and that even as Boston helped South Africa on its journey to integration, there was work to be done here, too.

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25 Years Ago Today, Nelson Mandela Delivered An Electrifying Speech In Boston To Thousands

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• Delores Handy

On this day, 25 years ago, Nelson Mandela, newly released from prison in South Africa, visited Boston. Boston was part of a six-week, 13-nation tour for the man who, years later, would become his nation's first black president.

On the day Mandela spoke in Boston — June 23, 1990 — the athletic building at Madison Park High School was filled to standing room only. Parents brought their children for the historic event. They wanted to see the man who had spent 27 years behind bars as a political prisoner and had been released just four months earlier. Thousands arrived early and waited for hours in the sweltering heat. Risers were filled with people and so was the floor in the brick and concrete gym.

City Councilor Charles Yancey was there. He said people did not seem to mind the heat or crowds.

"The place literally exploded once he arrived," he said.

Yancey had sponsored Boston's legislation to use economic sanctions to pressure the white-ruled government in South Africa to end apartheid. Yancy was with Mandela at every stop on his Boston tour.

"There was such love and affection for and what he stood for and great sense of hope and even aspirations for great things within our own nation," he said. "Let's remember that South Africa elected a black president long before we did in the United States of America."

Yancey and others say the reaction to Mandela was electrifying, that it felt as though the building shook as Mandela took to the podium.

Many in the audience were in tears as Mandela waved to the crowd, thanking them. It took several minutes for the applause to die down.

"When one day our history is rewritten, the pioneering and leading role of Massachusetts will stand out like a shining diamond. It was you who supported us when very few knew of our existence, our trials and tribulations," Mandela said.

Then, speaking directly to students, he said: "If there is any appeal I could make it is that to the young people of Boston, and indeed to the young people of the United States, must take it upon themselves to ensure that they receive the highest education possible."

Education, Mandela said, is a powerful tool in the fight against oppression.

Students at two high schools now use that gym: Madison Park and John D. O'Bryant. On Tuesday, the building is officially being re-named "The Nelson Mandela Physical Education Complex."

That renaming of is part of a broader plan. State Rep. Byron Rushing and state Sen. Jason Lewis recently filed legislation aimed at more fully commemorating Mandela's visit and his legacy. Lewis is the son of white South Africans. His family moved to Boston when he was 12.

"That spirit of reconciliation and forgiveness inspired and moved people all over the world — not just South Africa," Lewis said. "It helped to rebuild the country."

And he says it carried Mandela's legacy far beyond South Africa.

This segment aired on June 23, 2015.

• Remembering Mandela&rsquo;s 1990 Visit To Boston
• Nelson Mandela, Inspiration To World, Dies At 95

Delores Handy Reporter Delores Handy was formerly a host and reporter at WBUR.

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Watch CBS News

Remembering Nelson Mandela's Visit To Boston

December 5, 2013 / 11:28 PM EST / CBS Boston

BOSTON (CBS) - Nelson Mandela's visit to Boston in June of 1990 was a whirlwind that attracted thousands at every stop. When he took to the stage at Madison Park High School in Roxbury the crowd was eager for his words of wisdom.

"The youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow," he told them. Celestino DePina was a 16-year-old sophomore in the gymnasium that day and took it to heart. Mandela's speech was a turning point in his life, and now he is a history teacher at Brighton High School. "At the time a chord struck in my head. To this day I try to instill the same concepts in my students," he said. "He paved the way for others and the cycle can continue if you want to have a better world."

Longtime Boston activist and former State Representative Mel King introduced Mandela at the Esplanade before a crowd of about 300,000. "Looking out, the spirit, the collective high, it was all there," said King.

RELATED: Mass. Officials Mourn Mandela's Death

Mandela was freed from 27 years in prison just a few months before his Boston visit. At the time it was a city not known for racial harmony. But King says Mandela's message drew everyone together. King says, "It was a way of getting folks to understand that in struggle there's a way to win."

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Nelson Mandela visited Boston's Roxbury neighborhood in 1990

• Published: Dec. 05, 2013, 10:05 p.m.

• Garrett Quinn

BOSTON — The late South Africa leader Nelson Mandela visited Roxbury's Madison Park High School in 1990 as part of a trip to the United States.

He was well received, even though he was late and spoke briefly. He received a five-minute standing ovation from the crowd.

Mandela addressed not only issues in Africa but issues in Boston, commenting on the soaring school dropout rates that were prevalent in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Mandela died on Thursday night. He was 95.

Here's a video of the event from WGBH:

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The Mandela Visit; Education Is Mighty Force, Boston Teen-Agers Are Told

By John Kifner, Special To the New York Times

• June 24, 1990

Nelson Mandela paused for a moment today in his single-minded concentration on ending South African apartheid to offer some advice to black teen-agers.

''Try as much as possible to remain in school, because education is the most powerful weapon we will need,'' he told an almost worshipful crowd of about 2,000 people packed into the stuffy gymnasium at Madison Park High School in Roxbury, a predominantly black section of Boston.

This city, with its support of divestment from businesses in South Africa and its large South African exile community, was a natural for Nelson and Winnie Mandela's eight-city tour.

In addition, Senator Edward M. Kennedy has been a driving force in anti-apartheid legislation, and his brother, President John F. Kennedy, began this country's first sanctions against South Africa. And there are personal reasons for the visit here: two of Mr. Mandela's daughters live in Boston.

Addressing American Concerns

Black Americans have responded emotionally to Mr. Mandela, the living symbol of the anti-apartheid struggle and deputy president of the African National Congress, hailing him as a hero and a leader reminiscent of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. But this was the first time Mr. Mandela, who had concentrated his remarks on the South African issue, has addressed concerns of black Americans. At Boys and Girls High School in Brooklyn the other day, for example, he launched almost immediately into a fund-raising appeal.

After a triumphant three-day reception in New York that included a ticker-tape parade, a speech to the United Nations, jubilant receptions on the streets of Bedford-Stuyvesant and Harlem and the donning of a New York Yankee jacket and cap, Mr. Mandela arrived here this morning about two hours late, as has become normal.

He will travel Sunday to Washington, where he will meet President Bush in the White House on Monday and speak to Congress on Tuesday. Then he is on to Atlanta, Miami, Detroit, Los Angeles and Oakland. There are nearly identical schedules along the way, featuring motorcades, welcoming ceremonies with politicians crowding close for the cameras and fund raising at receptions, concerts and rallies.

Lunch With Kennedy

In addition to his brief speech in Roxbury, Mr. Mandela had a private lunch with Senator Kennedy and other members of the Kennedy family at the Kennedy Library on the University of Massachusetts campus in the Dorchester neighborhood. He also mingled at a $5,000-a-couple formal dinner for 1,000 people and spoke during a six-hour-long concert.

The concert at the Esplanade on the banks of the Charles River included Paul Simon, whose ''Graceland'' album featured South African singers. At the concert, Mr. Mandela personally thanked Senators Kennedy and John Kerry and Mayor Raymond Flynn for support of divestment.

Sponsors of the events hope to raise $1 million for the Fund for a Free Africa, said Jean M. Mahoney, director of the Reebok Foundation, a principal fund-raiser.

The excitement Mr. Mandela is generating was evident in posters and banners all over the city. Bells pealed this morning from the city's churches in welcome. The police department canceled all days off and put officers on motorcycles, horses, bicycles, boats and in scuba-diving gear.

Outside Madison Park High, T-shirt hawkers displayed their wares with pictures of Mr. Mandela and of Malcolm X, who was once a street hustler in the neighborhood.

Prisoners Disciplined

The Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts criticized state prison officials for isolating eight inmates on the eve of Mr. Mandela's visit for wearing leather medallions cut in the shape of Africa and stamped with black, green and yellow, the colors of the African National Congress.

Katherine Robertson, a spokeswoman for the Department of Correction, said, ''That kind of thing cannot be tolerated, for obvious reasons.'' She said other prisoners had been disciplined for wearing shamrocks.

While the Boston area includes a large liberal and academic community that gave considerable support to the anti-apartheid movement, the city was the scene of racial tension in the mid-1970's, when a Federal Court ordered busing for school desegregation.

But the other day, Mayor Flynn, who grew up playing basketball on the all-white playgrounds of his Irish-American South Boston neighborhood, presided over a ceremony in which the flag of the African National Congress was raised at City Hall.

Mr. Mandela was received with chants of ''Free South Africa'' that shook the bleachers in the gym and responded with a clenched fist salute and a cry of ''Amandla,'' Zulu for ''power,'' which was shouted back by the crowd.

Thanking them for their support which, he said, had helped force the white South African Government to remove the ban on the A.N.C. and to release political prisoners, including himself, Mr. Mandela concluded by telling the crowd, ''we respect you, we admire you, and, above all, we love you.''

''We love you, too,'' the cry came back.

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Mandela Praised as ‘the Statesman of Our Time’ : Tour: He visits Boston, where the Old North Church tolls a welcome. He lunches with the Kennedys and is cheered at a mass rally.

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The Old North Church bell tolled a welcome for Nelson Mandela in the birthplace of the American revolution Saturday as more than a quarter of a million whites and blacks turned out to cheer the black liberation leader whom Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) hailed as “the statesman of our time.”

Mandela’s limousine, in a thick sandwich of security, sped through racially troubled Boston--from a high school rally to a lunch with Sen. Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and 400 guests and, finally, to a mass rally on the tree-lined Esplanade on the banks of the Charles River.

Mandela praised the Kennedy family for their commitment over the years to the anti-apartheid cause, saying that their long support for Mandela and the African National Congress “was not just words but . . . was backed up through action.”

The riverside rally in the posh Back Bay neighborhood, the highlight of Mandela’s 2-day stop in Boston, drew a predominantly white crowd, creating a mood of racial harmony rarely associated with this city and suggesting that support for the 71-year-old leader in the United States transcends racial lines.

“There’s a pulse beat of unity here today,” said Betty Saef, a 50-year-old suburban white housewife who brought her daughter to the rally. “I really feel good. This will be beneficial to society.”

Others, though, were not so sure.

“Many of these white people will go home and feel good but they’ll forget about it in a week or so,” said Annette Walker, 32, a black nursing home worker who came to the rally with her husband and 3-year-old son.

A crowd police estimated at 260,000 turned out on a mild, overcast day in the narrow park for an afternoon with Mandela and an array of music, performed by Jackson Browne, Bobby McFerrin, Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder and dozens of others.

Mandela admirers arrived on foot and by car, bus, train, bike, boat and even inner tube. Families spread out blankets and set up lawn chairs on the grass for picnics, while giant screens brought the speech closer. Hawkers sold T-shirts bearing such slogans as “Boston Welcomes Mandela” and “Sanctions Until Democracy.”

Chuck Digate and three friends were sitting on the deck behind their 19th-Century brownstone overlooking the Esplanade, sipping cocktails, munching chips and dip and watching a color TV perched on the ledge.

“It’s a lot of fun but also it’s extremely important,” Digate said.

Louise Richardson, an assistant professor at Harvard University, brought her 1-year-old daughter, Ciara.

“I wanted this to be the first political meeting my daughter attended,” the white 33-year-old said.

Standing within a few miles of the sites of the first skirmishes of the Revolutionary War, Mandela recalled Boston’s role in the American independence movement and praised Crispus Attucks, a black man who was the first person killed in that war.

Mandela also praised Massachusetts for being the first state to institute sanctions, in 1977, against South Africa, calling it “the conscience of American society.”

“Together, we have turned the wheel of history in favor of . . . liberty,” Mandela said, beads of perspiration appearing on his face at the end of the long day. “When one day our history is rewritten, the pioneering role of Massachusetts will stand out like a shining diamond.”

But the most emotional moments Saturday came at the John F. Kennedy Library, where the Kennedy family had invited a glittering list of anti-apartheid figures, including singers Simon and Wonder.

The Kennedys presented the Mandelas with a bust of President Kennedy and the original draft of a speech Sen. Robert F. Kennedy gave in South Africa 24 years ago. Mandela, flanked by Sen. Kennedy and Onassis, smiled broadly as Wonder performed a ballad he wrote for Mandela on the day of his release from prison. Wonder said he would donate proceeds from the song, “Keep Our Love Alive.”

The Kennedy family’s association with South African causes goes back at least to 1963, when President Kennedy implemented the first U.S. sanctions against Pretoria, prohibiting arms sales.

In 1966, Robert Kennedy was one of the first Westerners to denounce apartheid from South African soil. Edward Kennedy has been a leader in passing anti-apartheid legislation, and several years ago visited Winnie Mandela in the rural Orange Free State town to which the government had banished her.

Mandela spoke of those days in his speech, recalling “the sense of tragic loss that all of us in prison felt the day he (President Kennedy) was assassinated.”

“The Kennedys are well-known in our country, and my family feels a close affinity with them,” he said.

Edward Kennedy vowed to continue his support for Mandela’s African National Congress, saying “your fight against apartheid is our fight.” And he said the luncheon was “the greatest gathering of civil rights leaders since Nelson Mandela ate alone.”

Thanking Kennedy for his accolades, Mandela said: “I consider myself an honorary Irishman from Soweto.”

Mandela had flown to Boston in a chartered Boeing 727 from the Trump Shuttle fleet. He was scheduled to meet with two of his daughters and, at the airport, he met three grandchildren for the first time.

Mandela’s 12-day, 8-city itinerary takes him to Washington today, where he is scheduled to meet President Bush and congressional leaders on Monday and Tuesday. He is due in Los Angeles on Friday.

Controversy surrounded a stop Mandela has planned for Thursday in Miami, where his support for Cuban President Fidel Castro has angered city fathers.

The Miami City Commission is considering withdrawing a proclamation honoring Mandela when he arrives. Such a move would strain already tense relations between Latinos and blacks in Miami.

“In view of the statements made . . . it would be difficult to give him any kind of recognition or key to the city,” Mayor Xavier Suarez said. “There are a lot of people who are in total consternation.”

Winnie Mandela, in brief remarks at the Boston rally, apologized for missing a church gathering in her honor. She said it was canceled because of a bomb threat from the “lunatic fringe.” Police would say only that Mandela’s security team had searched the church and found nothing.

Mandela’s first stop in Boston was in the neighborhood of Roxbury, a mostly black area, where more than 1,500 exuberant students waited nearly five hours for him. He urged the students to remain in school “because education is the most powerful weapon . . . to prepare our youth for their role as leaders of tomorrow.”

Roxbury is a center of black activism in Boston. The community has held two referendums in the last four years on the issue of seceding from Boston and renaming the community “Mandela” but neither has succeeded.

Outside the school, Mandela briefly addressed another gathering of residents. Above that crowd was a sign that read: “God Answers Prayers.”

Staff writer Tracy Wilkinson in Boston contributed to this story.

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Scott Kraft is editor at large for enterprise journalism and special projects at the Los Angeles Times, where he oversees the Investigations department, standards and practices, polling and survey research projects, and newsroom-wide reporting initiatives. He works closely with departments across the newsroom to elevate series and is leading an initiative to actively develop books that are an outgrowth of Times’ expertise and original reporting, in partnership with commercial book publishers. During nearly four decades at The Times, Kraft has been managing editor, deputy managing editor/news and national editor, as well as a foreign and national correspondent. As an editor, he has directed work that won nine Pulitzer Prizes. As a reporter, he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in feature writing while a New York-based national correspondent for the Associated Press before joining The Times in its Chicago bureau. He spent a decade abroad as The Times’ bureau chief in Nairobi, Johannesburg and Paris. He covered the release of Nelson Mandela and the end of apartheid as well as the ill-fated U.S. military mission in Somalia, among other major stories. His story for the Los Angeles Times magazine on the AIDS epidemic in Africa won the SPJ Distinguished Service Award for Foreign Correspondence. He has served as both a juror and chair of the Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting. He also was a Pulitzer Prize juror in international reporting in 2014 and subsequently chaired five Pulitzer juries – Public Service in 2015, International Reporting in 2020, Explanatory Reporting in 2021, Illustrated Reporting and Commentary in 2022 and Editorial Writing in 2023. He is currently president of the Overseas Press Club of America. Kraft was born in Kansas City, Mo., and has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Kansas State University.

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Nelson Mandela’s 1990 visit left lasting impression

For days before Nelson Mandela arrived in Boston on his 1990 US tour, Madison Park High School in Roxbury crackled with anticipation. When the day of Mandela’s visit finally arrived, students lucky enough to be in the audience packed into a stifling gym hours ahead of time to stake out their spot.

Celestino DePina was there in the roaring crowd, a 16-year-old who had come to Boston two years earlier from his native Cape Verde and who looked to the South African leader as a hero. Seeing Mandela, free from prison after 27 years, was an indelible, inspiring experience, he said.

“It really was a stunning moment,” he said Friday. “I remember it to this day. People were lined up outside the auditorium, just to get a glimpse.”

The day after Mandela’s death, those who met the South African leader on his famous Boston visit looked back with affection, saying his speeches left a lasting impression.

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More than two decades later, DePina now teaches history at Brighton High School, a career he traces to Mandela’s speech that June day in Roxbury.

In his address, Mandela stressed the importance of education, saying he was “deeply concerned” so many students were dropping out of school.

“This is a very disturbing situation, because the youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow,” he told the students. He urged students to “try as much as possible to remain in school.”

“Because education is the most powerful weapon which we can use,” he said to cheers.

For DePina, that message stuck. He studied hard in high school and at Boston College, then decided to go into teaching.

“He inspired me to do something where I could help other people,” he said. “I thought teaching was a way to empower our youth, and once I started, I fell in love with it.”

DePina said Mandela’s death has reminded him of that visit, and how Mandela’s opposition to the apartheid regime in South Africa changed the world. On Friday, DePina took time to talk about Mandela to his students, many of whom knew little about him.

“I told them he fought for freedom,” he said.

At Madison Park High School, a moment of silence was held in Mandela’s memory Friday. Joao Gomes, a guidance counselor at the school, said some students sought him out during the day to learn more about Mandela. “To them it’s ancient history,” he said.

Gomes was a student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1990 when he heard that Mandela was coming to Madison Park, where Gomes had gone to high school. He was not about to miss a chance to see him in person.

“Finally, apartheid was coming down,” he said. “It was an exciting moment.”

Like DePina, Gomes recalled the electricity in the crowd and how thrilling it was to see Mandela in person.

“It was just an amazing day,” he said. “It was one of those days that stay with you.”

Gomes became an educator, too, believing there “was no better place to make change.” He returned to his old high school and often thinks of Mandela’s famous quotation: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

For Ilyas Bhatti, commissioner of the Metropolitan District Commission in 1990, Mandela’s visit followed weeks of intense planning. The agency was in charge of security for Mandela’s speech at the Hatch Shell on Boston’s Esplanade, which drew a crowd of some 250,000.

“I’ve never been so nervous as on that day,” Bhatti recalled. “But it turned out to be a magnificent event. I often say the highlight of my career at the MDC was the day Nelson Mandela came to Boston.”

It was a joyous crowd, Bhatti recalled, and no arrests were made, remarkable for a crowd that size.

Bhatti, now a professor at Wentworth Institute of Technology, met Mandela as he arrived at the rally. He remembers it vividly.

“He looked right into my eyes and said, ‘Very pleased to meet you,’” he recalled. “The sincerity and genuineness of the words are still in my mind.”

Peter Schworm can be reached at [email protected] .

Walking Trail Floated To Highlight Mandela’s 1990 Boston Visit

The commission created in 2016 to look into ways to commemorate Nelson Mandela's 1990 visit to Boston has filed its interim report, indicating that it favors an approach similar to the popular Freedom Trail that would connect three locations Mandela visited in the city.

When Mandela, who had been released from prison in South Africa just months earlier, visited Boston on June 23, 1990, he made three primary stops: a speech at Madison Park High School in Roxbury, a luncheon at the John F. Kennedy Library in Columbia Point, and a public event and concert on the Esplanade.

The Mandela Memorial Commission wrote in a report placed on file with the House clerk's office Monday that it likes the idea of a walking trail connecting the three locations but wants to create a design subcommittee that can administer a design contest, select a memorial site or sites, and raise money to fund the eventual proposal.

"After much discussion the Commission favored a Mandela 'walk' approach which would include all three locations and would be based on the present 'Freedom Trail' walk provided to visitors to the City," co-chairs Jackie Jenkins-Scott and Mary Tiseo wrote. "However, the Commission also questions whether this concept might have its limitations and that, therefore, the decision should be delayed at this time by the Commission since the Design Competition may well include all three (or perhaps two) sites (Madison Park High School and the Esplanade) and that the results of that competition should establish whether there would be just one or multiple sites."

The commission said the federal involvement at the JFK Museum could make placing a memorial there more complicated. The group said the museum is willing to discuss adding a small Mandela display to reference the Kennedy family's "involvement in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa."

The challenges at the Esplanade include the lack of "a firmly identified site that is situated close to the Hatch Shell (where Mandela spoke)" and the fact that the Department of Conservation and Recreation "is disinclined to support the installation of statues of any kind on the Esplanade," the commission wrote and suggested that the Esplanade remains in consideration. At Madison Park High School, the commission said it could envision "an active and attractive tree covered plaza" in front of the school.

The commission was created by a 2016 resolve after South Africa Partners, a local nonprofit, joined with the Madison Park High School Committee and a group of South Africans to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Mandela's visit to Boston.

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From the Collections: Mandela visits the Monitor

March 2, 2020

Nelson Mandela addresses a group of reporters and staff from The Christian Science Monitor , 24 June 1990. Peter Main. © The Christian Science Monitor . Church Archives, Box 49371.

Bowers ran to alert her Monitor colleagues, and editor Richard Cattani hurried to meet him. 5 He joined the future South African president on a tour of The Mother Church; it was early, before the Sunday morning service was to begin. He also gave Mandela a copy of Mary Baker Eddy’s book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.

Nelson Mandela walking alongside the reflecting pool on the Christian Science Plaza in Boston, 24 June 1990. Peter Main. © The Christian Science Monitor . Church Archives, Box 543656 Folder 521097.

Mandela spoke to Monitor staffers, shook their hands, and thanked them for their work. “That was a very special moment,” Cattani later reflected. “We had a sense of sharing a mission and purpose.” 6 .

That day Monitor photographer Peter Main captured dozens of pictures, both in color and black and white. These reside in The Mary Baker Eddy Library’s archives.

Mandela was a prominent figure in the anti-apartheid struggle for equal racial rights in South Africa. Thirty years earlier, in March 1960, white South African police had fired on thousands of black protesters in the township of Sharpeville, leaving 69 dead and over 200 injured. 7 Many protests followed the Sharpeville massacre. The white South African government banned black South African groups, including the African National Congress (ANC), and harassed or imprisoned their leaders. 8 According to Monitor contributor Robert E. White, “Sharpeville convinced the ANC leaders that armed struggle must accompany and reinforce peaceful protest. The ANC’s military arm, Spear of the Nation, began to carry out punishing attacks against targets such as police stations and power lines.” 9

Mandela’s involvement in the ANC and Spear of the Nation led to his arrest in 1962. 10 He was imprisoned for the next 27 years.

Nelson Mandela and Richard Cattani (Editor of The Christian Science Monitor ), 24 June 1990. Peter Main. © The Christian Science Monitor . Church Archives, Box 543656 Folder 521097.

What prompted Mandela to make his unplanned visit? According to a Monitor newsletter, he said this: “I had to see the interior of the Church that has had such an impact on the people of black Africa.” During his conversation with the staff, he reportedly described the paper as “one of the more important voices covering events in South Africa” and “revealed that it was one of the publications he was able to read in prison.” He also “expressed gratitude for the fairness and honesty of the paper” and “said, in substance, that the Monitor gives the kind of coverage that uplifts the spirit, that provides people a view of the world that gives them reason for hope.” 11 “ The Christian Science Monitor was well known to me during my 27 years in prison,” he told them. “It continues to give me hope and confidence for the world’s future.” 12

Following Mandela’s death in 2013, Bowers remembered his visit: “What a wonderful man—courageous, gracious, humble, who stood for his beliefs and made such a difference in the world. I am grateful to have gotten a close glimpse of him, grateful he came to Boston.” 13 These photographs of his visit, along with the accounts of Monitor staff, provide an interesting window on a pivotal figure in twentieth-century history.

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• “Monitor writers celebrate ‘unique’ moments,” The Christian Science Monitor, 26 March 2009, https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/2009/0326/monitor-writers-celebrate-unique-moments .
• John Battersby, “Mandela Release: Watershed for South Africa,” The Christian Science Monitor, 12 February 1990, 1.
• John Kifner, “The Mandela Visit; Education Is Mighty Force, Boston Teen-Agers Are Told,” The New York Times, 24 June 1990, 21; Catherine Foster, “A Rousing Party for African Hero,” The Christian Science Monitor, 25 June 1990, 18.
• “Monitor writers celebrate ‘unique’ moments.”
• “Nelson Mandela Visits Home of the Monitor,” Monitor Month, July 1990, 1.
• Nancy L. Clark and William H. Worger, South Africa The rise and fall of apartheid, 3rd ed, (New York: Routledge, 2016), 65.
• A. Levine and J.J. Stremalud, International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, “Apartheid,” (Amsterdam; New York: Elsevier, 2001), 577.
• Robert E. White, “South Africa: adding bite to US bark,” T he Christian Science Monitor, 30 December 1985, 12.
• “Nelson Mandela: CIA tip-off led to 1962 Durban arrest,” BBC Africa. 15 May 2016. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-36296551
• John Yemma, “Nelson Mandela at the Monitor: A memorable visitor on a quiet Sunday,” The Christian Science Monitor, 6 December 2013.
• Alia Malek, “If you were there, you remember Mandela’s 1990 tour of the US,” Aljazeera America. 12 December 2013.

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Photos: nelson mandela's visit to boston.

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Boston Mayor Ray Flynn (R) and Gov. Michael Dukakis (L) greet Nelson Mandela on his arrival in Boston, June 23, 1990.

PHOTO: Associated Press

Nelson Mandela, left center, shakes hands with Sen. Edward Kennedy after Mandela's arrival at Logan International Airport,June 23, 1990. Boston Mayor Ray Flynn looks in between the two men. At far left in Mandela's wife Winnie with Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis in background.

PHOTO: AP Photo/David Longstreath

Nelson Mandela, deputy president of the African National Congress, wipes his brow in the hot, humid gymnasium of the Madison Park High School in the Roxbury section of Boston, June 23, 1990. An exuberant crowd packed the gymnasium for Mandela's appearance.

PHOTO: AP Photo/Jim Gerberich

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis escorts Nelson Mandela during Mandela's visit to the John F. Kennedy Library on June 23, 1990 in Boston.

PHOTO: (AP Photo/Peter Southwick)

Nelson Mandela receives a bust of the late president John F. Kennedy from the president's brother Sen. Edward Kennedy, left, during a ceremony at the John F. Kennedy library, June 23, 1990. At far right is Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Eunice Shriver, in red dress, sister of Sen. Kennedy looks on behind Mandela. At right is Joe Kennedy II, son of Robert Kennedy.

PHOTO: AP Photo/Charles Krupa

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis casts a smiling glance at Nelson Mandela, deputy president of the African National Congress, during Mandela's visit to the John F. Kennedy Library on June 23, 1990 in Boston. The Kennedy family has been a longtime opponent of South Africa's policy of apartheid.

PHOTO: AP Photo/Peter Southwick

Nelson Mandela, center, dances to African folk music during the rally and concert at the Hatch Shell on Boston’s Esplanade, June 23, 1990. Mandela was joined by U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy, left, and Boston Mayor Ray Flynn.

African National Congress deputy president Nelson Mandela gives a raised fist salute to the crowd at the Esplanade in Boston, June 23, 1990, where over 200,000 people gathered to see Mandela.

PHOTO: AP Photo/David Longstreth

Nelson Mandela, deputy President of the Africa National Congress, moves to the music as Sen. Edward Kennedy applauds at a rally in Mandela's honor at the Esplanade in Boston, June 23, 1990, before a crowd of more than 200,000 people.

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