II.

Founding of the ANC

The ANC was founded in 1912 as a nonviolent civil rights organization that worked to promote the interests of black Africans. With a mostly middle-class constituency, the ANC stressed constitutional means of change through the use of delegations, petitions, and peaceful protest. In 1940 Alfred B. Xuma became ANC president and began recruiting younger, more outspoken members. Among the new recruits were Mandela, Oliver Tambo, and Walter Sisulu, who helped found the ANC Youth League in 1944 and soon became the organization’s leading members.