Anglican priest Desmond Mpilo Tutu became the first black General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches in 1978. He called for equal rights for all South Africans and a system of common education.
Tutu encouraged nonviolent resistance to the apartheid regime, and advocated an economic boycott of the country. A month after winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, Tutu was elected the first black Anglican bishop of Johannesburg.
In 1986 he was elected Archbishop of Cape Town, the highest position in the Anglican Church in South Africa. In 1989 he led a march to a whites-only beach, where he and supporters were chased off with whips. In 1995 he was appointed as Chairman of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission by then President Nelson Mandela, to investigate apartheid-era crimes.
Today Archbishop Tutu is regarded as an elder world statesman with a major role to play in reconciliation and as a leading moral voice. He has become an icon of hope far beyond the Church and Southern Africa. Throughout his life, he has been known preeminently as a spiritual leader caring deeply about the needs of people around the world, teaching love and compassion to all.
