New York City in USA is going to create a high school for social justice and name it after Nelson Mandela, Mayor Bloomberg announced today.

A report in The New York Post said the new school will be housed within the Boys & Girls HS building in Brooklyn that the legendary South African leader visited during his trip to the city in 1990.

“I think a school named after him and at a location he visited I think is a nice ways to pay tribute,” the mayor was quoted as saying on his weekly WOR radio programme.

Bloomberg pointed out that Mandela viewed education as a key in improving people’s lives.

The mayor also said that Mandela’s legacy will be rooted in his message of forgiveness.

“The amazing thing is how he brought people together. After that number of years in jail you’d think he’d come out with a score to settle and he was much smarter than that,” said Bloomberg.

Mandela, who was South Africa’s first black President, died last night in his Johannesburg home and is being mourned across the world.

•Photo shows the great man, Nelson Mandela.