#BlackHistoryMonth – John Richard Archer defied the odds
Article by February 16, 2021
John Richard Archer, with Barbadian roots, was a British politician, Pan-Africanist, and civic leader who became
the first mayor of African-descent to be elected of Battersea, a civil parish and metropolitan borough in London, England.
Archer was born in Liverpool on June 8, 1863 to Richard Archer, a ship steward from Barbados, and Mary Theresa Burns, an Irishwoman.
There is not much known of Archer’s early life, except that he possibly may have attended medical school and was in the merchant navy that provided opportunities to travel abroad to the United States and Canada.