The world is mourning the death of a legendary statesman and hero of the struggle for human rights.

Nelson Mandela died in his Johannesburg home on Thursday. He was 95 years old.

Mandela was greatly admired across the globe for his role in the collapse of the Apartheid regime in South Africa, where racial segregation and political and economic repression of blacks was enforced by law for decades.

After Mandela became a leader of first peaceful and then militant resistance to the government with the African National Congress, he was sentenced to life in prison and spent the next twenty-seven years locked away, doing hard labor and sleeping in a six-foot-wide cell.

With mounting international and internal pressure, Mandela was released in 1990. He then led negotiations with the government that ended Apartheid policies and scheduled the first free elections.

In 1994, Mandela was elected president of South Africa. During his one term of office, he oversaw the reconciliation of a deeply divided nation and sought to eradicate economic inequalities that persist in South Africa today.

After retiring, Mandela began his own foundation and worked for many years to combat the spread of HIV and to alleviate poverty in South Africa. Illness struck him in the final months of his life, which he spent in peace with his family.

Check out the reactions of President Obama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

In his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, Mandela had inspiring words to say about human nature that we at USDemocrazy would like to share with you:

No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.

He will be truly missed.