The year was 1961. Nelson Mandela was already a wanted man.

In 1962, Nelson Mandela was arrested on allegations of sabotage and other charges and sentenced to life in prison, where he spent 27 years before becoming South Africa’s first president elected in a fully democratic election. His story, among modern history’s most profoundly inspirational, is beautifully and poetically captured in Clint Eastwood’s 2009 gem, Invictus. But what Eastwood’s account leaves out are the events that preceded and led to Mandela’s arrest.

Apartheid would not end for 33 years. Mandela would not be removed from the U.S. terrorist watch list for 47 years. And Mandela would live 52 more years, becoming the head of his nation, and one of the most respected leaders in the world.

But in May 1961, Mandela was only an increasingly powerful opposition leader hiding from the government in the aftermath of a peaceful campaign for non-cooperation with the government, which South African authorities responded to by arresting 10,000 people and mobilizing the military.

A reporter with the British television network ITN, Brian Widlake, arranged to meet with Mandela. It was Mandela's first TV interview, and he took the opportunity to declare that methods beyond non-violence and non-cooperation would be considered by the ANC.

But first, Mandela laid out his group's simple demand. "The Africans require the franchise on the basis of one man, one vote. They want political independence," he told Widlake, who responds with a question about whether Mandela wants to boot the Europeans out of South Africa. "We have made it very clear in our policy that South Africa is a country of many races," Mandela responds. "There is room for all the various races in this country."

Then the reporter asks, "Are there many educated Africans in South Africa?" Which was a way of questioning whether Africans could truly "want" political independence without schooling, as Mandela recognizes in his answer (throughout the interview, the reporter asks coded questions and Mandela gives decoded answers).

"We have a large number of Africans who are educated and are taking part in the political struggle of the African people. The question of education has nothing to do with the question of the vote. On numerous occasions, it has been proven in history that people can enjoy the vote even if they have no education or quality of education. And I think it is a good thing," Mandela said. "You don't have to have education to want certain fundamental rights. You have got aspirations, you have got claims. It has nothing to do with education."

Finally, Widlake asks about the "possibility of violence," by which he meant African-on-European violence, as European-on-African violence was a constant repressive force.

Mandela gave the following considered response.