On February 11, 1990, Nelson Mandela, leader of the movement to end South African apartheid, was released from a South African prison after 27 years of incarceration. The Mount Zion Baptist Church in Seattle held a celebration of his release that afternoon, and Mayor Norm Rice named the day Nelson Mandela Day in Seattle.

In this image Rev. Dr. Samuel Berry McKinney (1926-2018) stands at the podium of Mount Zion Baptist church with Maryamu Eltayeb (later Maryamu Eltayeb Givens), a teacher at First Place School in Seattle, and the co-chair of the Seattle Coalition Against Apartheid. They hold hands and lead a moment of prayer during the celebration of Mandela's release.

Caption information sources: Seattle Times, February 11, 1990, p. A6.; "Stop South African Imports, No Uranium Thru the Port of Seattle" at African Activists Archive, www.http://africanactivist.msu.edu
Caption information also derived from captions written by Post-Intelligencer staff and attached to the back of the photograph.