Desmond Tutu

Bishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu was born on Oct. 7, 1931 in Klerksdop, Transvaal, a former province of South Africa. The son of a schoolteacher, his entire life was colored by education. He was educated at Johannesburg Bantu High School and trained to be a teacher at Pretoria Bantu Normal College. In 1954, Tutu graduated from the University of South Africa, and in 1955, he married Leah Nomalizo Tutu.The next chapter of his life began when he stopped teaching in protest of there being poor education of blacks in South Africa. He began to study theology and was ordained as a priest in 1960. Tutu then traveled to England, where he remained from 1962 until 1966, to further study theology. He earned a Master in Theology, and from 1967 until 1972, he taught theology in South Africa.

In 1975, he became the first black dean of St. Mary's Cathedral in Johannesburg. Appointed Bishop of Lesotho in 1976 and in 1978, Tutu became the first black General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches, a representative organization of the churches of South Africa. The council is approximately 80 percent black and has taken a firm stance firmly against apartheid, an official policy of segregation.

Since 1976 (the year the student rebellions in South Africa began), Tutu supported the boycott of his country's economy. He wrote a letter to Prime Minister Vorster in which he described the social climate as "a powder barrel that can explode at any time." Tutu has formed an objective for the nation of South Africa, "a democratic and just society without racial divisions," requiring equal civil rights for all citizens, a standard for all education, an end to forced deportation from South Africa and the repeal of South Africa's passport laws. In 1984, Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize for his peaceful effort against apartheid.

Information has been compiled from Nobelprize.org.