Tree Shaker: The Story of Nelson Mandela Book

The defendants had little hope of winning the case.... On the first day of the trial, Mandela startled the courtroom by arriving in the traditional leopard-skin cloak of Xhosa royalty to dramatize the fact that he was an African entering a white man's court.... "I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination," he told the court. "I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and see realized. But if it need be, my lord, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." They were found guilty, as they knew they would be.... Mandela was forty-four years old when he entered prison. He would be seventy-one when he was released.