AMHERST, Mass., April 29 (AScribe Newswire) -- Amherst College will present an extraordinary doctoral degree honoris causa to Nelson Mandela, the long-imprisoned South African black nationalist and statesman who rose to his nation's presidency, at 11 a.m. on Thursday, May 12, at St. Bartholomew's Church (Park Avenue between 50th and 51st St.) in New York City. Mandela, the symbol for a generation of political courage and social transformation, will give a substantive address on the difficult issues of equity in American education. Amherst College President Anthony W. Marx, an internationally recognized scholar of nationalism and South Africa, will introduce Mandela and present him with his degree.

Born to a South African chief in 1918, Mandela renounced his birthright to attend college and study law at the University of Witwatersrand. In 1944 he joined the African National Congress (ANC), a black-liberation group, and in 1949 became one of its leaders, helping to revitalize the organization and engaging in increasingly militant resistance to the apartheid policies of the South African government. After a massacre of unarmed Africans and the banning of the ANC, Mandela abandoned nonviolence and began advocating acts of sabotage against the South African regime. In 1962 he was jailed and sentenced to five years in prison. Tried in 1963 for sabotage, treason and violent conspiracy, Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment on June 12, 1964.

Mandela retained wide support among South Africa's black population, and his imprisonment became a cause celèbre among the international community that condemned apartheid. Released from prison on Feb.11, 1990, Mandela was chosen deputy president of the ANC on March 2 and became its president in July 1991. In 1993 Mandela was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace for his efforts to end apartheid and bring about a peaceful transition to nonracial democracy in South Africa.

In April 1994 Mandela was elected president in South Africa's first all-race elections, and established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which investigated human rights violations under apartheid. He did not seek a second term and retired from active politics in 1999.

Mandela's writings and speeches were collected in "No Easy Walk to Freedom" (1965) and "I Am Prepared to Die" (1979). His autobiography, "Long Walk to Freedom," was published in 1994.

Marx, who has written several books on nation building, particularly in South Africa, also has established and managed programs designed to strengthen secondary school education in the U.S. and abroad. Before becoming Amherst's 18th president in 2003, Marx spent 13 years on the political science faculty at Columbia University, where he founded the Columbia Urban Educators Program, a public school teacher recruitment and training partnership. He also directed the Early College/High School Initiative at the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, which establishes model public high schools as partnerships between school systems and universities. In 1986, Marx helped found Khanya College, a South African school that helped prepare more than 1,000 black students for university. Marx is the author of a dozen substantive articles and three books,"Lessons of Struggle: South African Internal Opposition, 1960-1990" (1992), "Making Race and Nation: A Comparison of the United States, South Africa and Brazil" (1998) and "Faith in Nation: Exclusionary Origins of Nationalism" (2003).

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Contact: Paul Statt, Amherst College Media Relations, 413/542-8417

Note to editors: Media tickets are required. Please contact Paul Statt at 413/542-8417. No flash photography will be permitted.

About Amherst: Founded in 1821 for "the education of indigent young men of piety and talents," Amherst College is now widely regarded as the premier liberal arts college in the nation, enrolling a diverse group of approximately 1,600 young men and women. Well known for its academic excellence, Amherst is also consistently ranked among the very best schools in the country in terms of accessibility: The college's financial aid packages are consistently the most generous in the U.S., and among its peer universities and colleges Amherst has the greatest economic diversity. Diversity, in its broadest sense, is fundamental to Amherst's mission. The college enrolls students from every state and more than 40 countries, and for the past several years more than 35 percent of Amherst's students have been students of color. Amherst offers the B.A. degree in 33 fields of study.