Often called "South Africa's moral conscience", Archbishop Desmond Tutu, began his career as a teacher, leaving the profession after the passage of the Bantu Education Act of 1953, which enforced racial separation in South Africa's educational institutions. He went on to join the church, becoming the first black Anglican Dean of Johannesburg in 1975. Right up to the 1990s, Tutu was a prominent figure in his country's anti-apartheid movement and received the Nobel Prize for peace in 1984. He retired in 1996 as the archbishop of Cape Town. Now at 80, the activist lends support to a range of issues such as AIDS, homophobia, poverty and racism. He is also chairman of The Elders, a group of independent global leaders working together for peace and human rights.