He was elected national president of the ANCYL

One of the most interesting facts about Nelson Mandela is that he was elected national president of the ANCYL. Mandela replaced Xuma on the ANC national executive in March 1950, and the following year was elected national president of the ANCYL. The Defend Free Speech Convention was held in Johannesburg in March, bringing together African, Indian, and communist activists to advocate for a national strike on May Day in protest of apartheid and white minority rule. Mandela opposed the strike since it was multi-racial and not led by the ANC, but a majority of black workers participated, resulting in heightened police brutality and the passage of the Suppression of Communism Act, 1950, which impacted all protest groups' actions. He continued to argue against a racially united front at the ANC national congress in December 1951 but was defeated.

Following that, Mandela abandoned Lembede's Africanism in favor of a multi-racial front against apartheid. His suspicion of communism was broken down by friends like Moses Kotane and the Soviet Union's backing for national liberation battles, and he began reading books by Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, and Mao Zedong, eventually accepting the Marxist doctrine of dialectical materialism. Mandela started working at the H.M. Basner law company in April 1952, which was run by a communist, albeit his increasing devotion to work and activity meant he spent less time with his family