following the massacre of 69 black demonstrators in
Sharpeville in 1960, the ANC was banned.
The choice of Luthuli meant that the Nobel Committee had
placed respect for human rights on the agenda, and that it
had joined the international movement against apartheid.
This was taken a step further in 1984, when Luthuli's
countryman Bishop Desmond Tutu won the Nobel Prize for
Peace.
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