A dignified, yet defiant Nelson Mandela walked out of Victor Verster prison in Cape Town South Africa, a free man for the first time in 27 years. The leader of the African National Congress (ANC), Mandela greeted a crowd of 2,000 supporters who helped champion his release from prison and was greeted by a crowd of over 50,000 when he arrived at the City Hall in Cape Town where he spoke his first words in public for over a quarter century.