Walter Max Ulyate Sisulu (born 1912) was one of the most important leaders of the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa. In the 1940s he was a founder of the Congress Youth League, which led the ANC into militant resistance to apartheid. He became general secretary of the ANC and a chief strategist and organizer of the Defiance Campaign in the 1950s. Although a political prisoner for many years, he remained influential and instrumental in the ultimate end to apartheid.

Walter Sisulu was born in 1912 in the South African "native reserve" territory of the Transkei (granted independence in 1976, but reincorporated into the Republic of South Africa in 1994), among the Xhosa-speaking section of the Southern Nguni people. His family were African peasants and members of the Anglican Church. He himself was of racially mixed ancestry. He attended school up to standard IV (the equivalent of American grade 5 or 6), but...