Beryl Gilroy
by Bernardine Evaristo
Beryl Gilroy, born in 1924, is the unsung heroine of the Windrush generation of writers. She arrived in Britain from Guyana in 1951 and worked as a schoolteacher in London for many years, eventually becoming a headteacher.
Her wonderful, groundbreaking memoir, Black Teacher (1976), is an account of her early years as a teacher in the 1950s and the racism she encountered and overcame, always with great humour and dignity in the face of extreme ignorance.
Unlike the book’s male counterpart, To Sir, With Love, by fellow Guyanese writer ER Braithwaite, which was turned into a Hollywood film starring Sidney Poitier, Black Teacher was shamefully overlooked. In 2021 Faber & Faber republished it and I was honoured to write an introduction.
Gilroy went on to write many fiction books for children and adults. She died in 2001, leaving behind two children, one of whom is the renowned scholar Paul Gilroy.
Bernardine Evaristo OBE is a British author and academic. Her novel Girl, Woman, Other jointly won the Booker prize in 2019
Olaudah Equiano
by Ben Bailey Smith, AKA Doc Brown
When I picked up a gig a few years back alongside David Olusoga to voice the audiobook for The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, I had next to no knowledge of who the man was or why his life had such an interesting narrative. Now there’s rarely a day that goes by when I don’t think about him.
A slave who through his own ingenuity eventually bought his freedom and became British, Equiano was part swashbuckling adventurer, part historian and a quiet, unsung hero. After settling in London it was his incredible memoirs that helped kickstart the abolitionist movement. A phenomenal human with an even more phenomenal life story.
Ben Bailey Smith, AKA Doc Brown, is an actor, comedian and rapper
Malorie Blackman
by Dorothy Koomson
Malorie Blackman is one of the true giants of British literature, and it would be brilliant to see her honoured on a postage stamp.
I first read her most well-known book, Noughts & Crosses, about 15 years ago, and I remember sitting in my London flat in the middle of the night, crying my eyes out and thinking I had to read more of her work. I was so excited to find she’d written such a wide range of books – children’s, middle grade and young adult books. I regularly give her books as presents to the younger people in my life, as I know they’ll love them.
Beyond being a literary superstar, Malorie has always come across as a phenomenal person. When I read her autobiography, Just Sayin’ – an incredible story of resilience, determination, love, hope and humanity in the face of all that life threw at her – I realised I was right. We should all be grateful that Malorie has fought hard to tell the types of stories that children and adults from all backgrounds, across the world, want to devour.
When I think of someone who is the epitome of creativity, imagination and grace, I think of Malorie Blackman, and I would love to see her image on a stamp to remind the world of all that she has, and continues, to achieve.
Dorothy Koomson is the bestselling author of My Other Husband and other novels
Doreen Lawrence
For me, the mother of modern Britain is Doreen Lawrence – not just for black Britons, but for us in particular. Her work in exposing institutional racism at the highest levels and fighting that racism opened the door to more equality in a profound way. It was self-sacrificing, but that self-sacrifice ushered in a new level of equality for those who are black British – then and ever since.
One of my favourite sayings is that “history is another country: they do things differently there”. It’s hard to explain how inaccessible many professions were for black Britons before the historic work of Doreen Lawrence. She is our Rosa Parks.
Kwame Kwei-Armah is an actor, playwright, director and broadcaster and the artistic director of the Young Vic
Callout
Paul Stephenson
by David Lammy
“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” Martin Luther King’s words ring in my ears when I think of Paul Stephenson leading the Bristol bus boycott 60 years ago.
After the Bristol Omnibus Company refused to employ Black or Asian bus crews, an organisation arose leading a boycott of the company’s buses, which lasted four months. Paul Stephenson was instrumental in not only achieving the overturning of the discriminative policy, but his actions were influential in the passing of the Race Relations Act 1965, which made racial discrimination unlawful.
Recognising Stephenson on a stamp would not only commemorate his achievements but would remind future generations of the importance of the fight for equality.
David Lammy is Labour MP for Tottenham and shadow foreign secretary
Mary Seacole
by Anne-Marie Imafidon
Mary Seacole was a nurse who combined her knowledge of European medical ideas with those from her homeland in the Caribbean. The world would be a better place if only we could take a global approach to solving problems today, as she did in the Crimean war.
In 2004, Mary was voted the greatest Black Briton. She was a social entrepreneur who, after the War Office refused to send her to Crimea, funded her own trip and set up a hospital to provide care.
Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon is a British computer scientist and CEO of the Stemettes, a social enterprise promoting women in Stem careers
Lenny Henry
by Brendon Batson
I’d like to celebrate Sir Lenny Henry, who I first saw on TV in the talent show New Faces when I was a young lad, watching with my mum. I remember that he did an impression of Frank Spencer, the character from Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em played by Michael Crawford. He started with his back to the audience, in the characteristic mac, and I can’t begin to describe our shock when he turned round. It felt unique to see a black man on TV doing impressions like that.
I met him just after I joined West Bromwich Albion in the winter of 1978 – he came to the ground and met Laurie Cunningham and me, and we had photographs taken. He’s been a part of my life ever since. I went to see his play, Rudy’s Rare Records, in Birmingham, and it was fantastic. He’s now the chancellor of Birmingham City University, but he’s never forgotten his roots in Dudley. His career spans so many decades now that many people chart their own journeys by him, and I’m one of them.
Brendon Batson is a former professional footballer, the first Black player for Arsenal and author of The Third Degree
Una Marson
Una Marson was a feminist, activist and writer, producing poems, plays and radio programmes in her native Jamaica and England. She was one of the first Black British women to speak out against racism and sexism in Britain. In 1941 she became the first Black woman to be employed by British broadcast media when she was hired by the BBC Empire Service to host the programme Calling the West Indies, in which West Indian second world war soldiers had their messages read on the radio to their families in the Caribbean.
Marson’s beautiful speaking voice and bright personality made the programme a popular morale booster for Black British and West Indian communities at home and abroad. She later became the programme’s producer, developing it into Caribbean Voices, an important forum for authors of the growing Caribbean literary movement. Among them were giants Edward Kamau Brathwaite, VS Naipaul, Derek Walcott, Andrew Salkey and icons of Black history Jomo Kenyatta, Haile Selassie, Marcus Garvey and Paul Robeson. The programme helped spur nationalism within the Caribbean islands and paved the way for the fame and success of many who were featured.
Barbara Blake-Hannah is an anti-racist activist and a former TV broadcaster
Ottobah Cugoano
by Ben Okri
Ottobah Cugoano was the first person to write against the institution of slavery at a time when it was widely accepted by most people as normal. He was an ex-slave and his book was a brave and tremendous act of freedom.
It was called Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species. Within it, he challenged the negative perceptions of black peoples and demolished the spurious religious and scientific reasons for this entrenched racism. It was published in 1787, five years before Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
His work has been neglected for over 200 years, and has only recently attained classical status as a fundamental text of protest and liberty.
Ben Okri is a novelist and poet. He is the author of Every Leaf a Hallelujah and The Famished Road
Prof Uzo Iwobi
I’d love to see Prof Uzo Iwobi CBE celebrated, because she is a trailblazer and a formidable leader, with a heart of gold. After qualifying as a barrister in Nigeria, Iwobi moved to Wales, where she founded the country’s first African Community Centre and she now serves as the chief executive officer of Race Council Cymru.
A committed educator, she lectured at Swansea Law School. In 2021, she was appointed a professor at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. Iwobi led the development of a groundbreaking exhibition and documentary about the Windrush generation in Wales.
In 2022, Queen Elizabeth II honoured her with a CBE for services to race equality, diversity and inclusion. Iwobi also became a fellow of the Learned Society of Wales and the Royal Society of Arts. In 2023, she was appointed an adviser to the Senedd Parliamentary Commission. In October, she hosted the Prince and Princess of Wales. Prof Iwobi’s outstanding achievements are uplifting, and her remarkable story is far from over.
Olivette Otele is a distinguished research professor of the legacies and memory of slavery at Soas University of London
Bernie Grant
In parliament Bernie Grant, the late MP for Tottenham, who passed away in 2000, was an isolated Labour backbencher. But outside, in Britain’s Black community, he was, and remains, a giant.
Turning up to Westminster wearing an African robe after the 1987 election, a breakthrough moment for Black representation, was hugely significant as it signalled unapologetic pride in his heritage and race and a rejection of assimilation in an oppressive society.
Demonised in the tabloids as “Barmy Bernie” as part of their war against the “loony left”, he became a national hate figure after he was misquoted as saying the police “got a bloody good hiding” after the Broadwater Farm riots of 1985 (what he actually said was: “The youth think they gave the police a bloody good hiding”).
Despite his fierce reputation, I can testify he was a deeply kind and friendly man. His legacy lives on, with the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in Seven Sisters, and Labour’s Bernie Grant leadership programme to develop the next generation of Black politicians.
Lester Holloway is editor of the Voice newspaper
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
We need no longer doubt or gape in wonder at the accomplishments of black classical musicians. I chose Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) because the robust variety of his life and music pleases me. His father was a Sierra Leonean Londoner who studied medicine. His mother was a white Londoner from a musical family. She and her violinist father made sure that Coleridge-Taylor received a thorough musical education.
His larger compositions are undoubtedly skilful but, for me, sound too turn-of-the-century grandiose. I prefer his chamber music, and I’ve basked in his 24 Negro Melodies for piano. They join the sumptuous passion of European Romanticism with the sombre lyricism of African American spirituals.
Coleridge-Taylor’s children followed in his footsteps. His son, Hiawatha, adapted and conducted his father’s works: his daughter Avril, perhaps more boldly, composed and conducted her own work.
Margo Jefferson is a Pulitzer-winning cultural critic. She is also the author of the critically acclaimed Negroland
Linton Kwesi Johnson
by Alex Wheatle
When I emerged from prison for my involvement in the Brixton uprising in the autumn of 1981, I was eager to hear stories that I, a fledgling writer, could relate to – ones that spoke to my lived experience. Serving my sentence, I had read Chester Himes, Richard Wright, CLR James and many more Afro-American and Caribbean writers. But I wanted tales that I could recognise.
I needed look no further than dub poet and activist Linton Kwesi Johnson. With anthems such as Inglan is a Bitch, Sonny’s Lettah and Di Great Insohreckshan, his fiery rhymes offered me the belief that the stories percolating and marinating inside my own head had value and were worth pursuing.
For me, there is no silhouette I would rather see printed proudly on a postage stamp than Kwesi Johnson’s iconic image.
Alex Wheatle is the author of Brenton Brown, Brixton Rock and East of Acre Lane
Diane Abbott
by Dawn Butler
Diane Abbott is a trailblazer for black history as the first black woman ever to be elected as a member of parliament in the UK. She challenged the status quo to make history.
But more than that, she has always spoken truth to power, for which we should all be grateful. I know from my own experiences of being an MP that this is no easy thing as whenever we, as black women, stand up and speak out it generates unbelievable quantities of vitriol.
Yet despite these struggles, she continues on. I draw a lot of inspiration from Diane’s strength and her struggle for equality over the years. She has a profound legacy and it should be celebrated. A postage stamp would be a fitting tribute to someone who has given their whole life to public office, championing diversity and inclusion and speaking up for social justice.
Dawn Butler is the Labour MP for Brent Central
Nadine White
by Nels Abbey
Operating and living in modern Britain leaves Black people in the know with no choice but to arm themselves with three crucial contacts: 999, 112 and, the most bankable of all, one method or another of reaching Nadine White, the UK’s first race correspondent.
White has been influential in defining the responsibilities and very concept of a race correspondent in British media. When Black unemployment ballooned to triple the rate of white unemployment during the pandemic, White helped elevate it as an issue of national concern.
As the nation descended into outright idol worship during royal jubilees and funerals, White broke the comfy consensus: “As a Black woman descended from enslaved African people, the likes of whom were branded with hot irons bearing the initials of royal family members, the past four days of wall-to-wall, uncritical responses to the jubilee have been a gaslighting experience.”
For her fearless journalism, White has often been unfairly singled out and finds herself under regular attack by armies of racist trolls. Nevertheless, without her work you are left with a deeply distorted view of today’s Britain.
Nels Abbey is a writer, broadcaster and former banker, and the author of Think Like a White Man
Pat McGrath
The legendary makeup artist Pat McGrath rose to prominence not just by creating some of the most creative and innovative makeup looks that high-fashion runways have ever seen, but also by creating a space for black women to see themselves represented in an industry where our features are usually borrowed but rarely the archetype celebrated.
Her makeup line, Pat McGrath Labs, is now said to be valued at more than $1bn. McGrath has shown us not just what is possible in beauty but also in the boardroom, a space that black British women still struggle to penetrate let alone gain access to.
In a time where we are often sold the idea that celebrity or social media followers are the only way to success, Pat McGrath is a reminder that staying connected to your passion and translating beauty from the inside out is often all you need to get the job done.
Candice Brathwaite is a journalist and author of I Am Not Your Baby Mother, Sista Sister and Cuts Both Ways
Frank Crichlow
by Danny Clarke, the Black Gardener
As a young child, I was a bit of a stamp collector. Whether it was England winning the 1966 World Cup or Britain’s array of wildlife being celebrated, I knew what an honour it was to have great deeds, actions or undertakings commemorated on stamps.
Many Black people have had a positive impact on me, but Frank Crichlow stands out. The black activist had a Notting Hill restaurant that opened in the 1960s called the Mangrove, which was visited by celebrities such as Diana Ross and the Supremes, Vanessa Redgrave and Sammy Davis Jr, and was constantly brutalised by the police.
A court case ensued after police charged peaceful protesters who frequented the establishment with causing a riot. The defendants, of which Frank Crichlow was one, became known as the Mangrove Nine, and two of them represented themselves. They won their case in a landmark victory that exposed institutional racism within the police. Their story continues to have an impact on the way police deal with minorities today.
Danny Clarke – the Black Gardener – is a British horticulturist and TV presenter who appears in the ITV show Love Your Garden
Ivor Cummings
I can think of no better Black British figure to honour with a postage stamp than Ivor Cummings. Without the so-called “gay father of the Windrush generation” it is likely the social makeup and history of Brixton would be very different.
As a senior official in the then Colonial Office, Cummings was responsible for the care and facilitation of new migrant arrivals to Britain – including those first migrants who walked the gangplanks of Empire Windrush. Cummings’ decision to house those Windrush migrants without accommodation in a defunct air raid shelter in Clapham led to their influx in neighbouring Brixton.
With Brixton such a site of Black history and heritage, it is only right that Cummings, who was an openly gay man, is fiercely remembered as a key force behind this settlement – particularly with Brixton being a space where Black and gay social relations have both blossomed and erupted.
Jason Okundaye is a writer and author of Revolutionary Acts: Black Gay Men in Britain
Olive Morris
Olive Morris’s name is one that deserves to be more widely celebrated. In Brixton she is rightly remembered and memorialised as a local countercultural legend of the 1960s and 70s who embodied the very best of our community.
A radical racial justice campaigner and feminist community leader, her activism centred the issues she faced as a Black woman in Britain. At a time when Black communities experienced routine harassment from the police and the National Front, she fought fearlessly against police brutality and for racial justice. She pioneered an intersectional approach that sought to tackle multiple oppressions, fighting for equality in education, housing and employment.
Olive Morris achieved more in her 27 years than many do in an entire lifetime of activism. As we salute our sisters this Black History Month, her legacy is our ongoing struggle.
Bell Ribeiro-Addy is the Labour MP for Streatham
James Somerset
by Henry Bonsu
James Somerset should be more widely known. He is the 18th-century enslaved African who challenged his status and forced the English legal system to make a landmark ruling on slavery.
Somerset was born in 1741, then captured and shipped from west Africa to Virginia in 1749. He was subsequently bought by a Scottish merchant, Charles Stewart, whom he served for 20 years, before being brought to England by Stewart in 1769.
In 1771, Somerset got baptised and acquired two godparents who happened to know the celebrated abolitionist Granville Sharp. Months later, he escaped from Stewart and disappeared into England’s population of 15,000 Africans. But Somerset was recaptured by Stewart, who planned to send him to the Caribbean. However, the godparents obtained a writ of habeas corpus, and after a six-month trial the chief justice, Lord Mansfield ruled slavery was “odious” and could only be enforced by “positive law”, which in Somerset’s case did not exist.
Henry Bonsu is a journalist and broadcaster.
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