Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe (1924-1978), who helped found and led the Pan-African Congress, was a militant opponent of white supremacy in South Africa.

Robert Sobukwe was born in the South African town of Graaff-Reinet on December 5, 1924. His mother was a South African of Xhosa background; his father was from Lesotho and had been both a worker in the Graaff-Reinet water system and a woodcutter. Like most Black families in South Africa, Sobukwe's was poor. With financial help from the local Methodist mission, Sobukwe went to Healdtown, a Methodist boarding school, and was an outstanding student.

In the late 1940s he went on to Fort Hare University College, the only such institution open to Blacks, and was elected president of the Students' Representative Council. At Fort Hare he also joined the African National Congress (ANC), the principal organ of Black resistance to race discrimination, and became associated with its Youth...