Beverley Bryan: the British Black Panther who inspired a generation of women Tobi Thomas
In the mid-60s, Beverley Bryan was a prefect at Lavender Hill secondary modern in south London. One of her responsibilities was to stand at the school gates and scribble down the name of any student who was late. One such girl was Olive Morris, who would become one of the country’s leading anti-racism activists. Bryan, meanwhile, would follow in the younger girl’s footsteps, becoming a British Black Panther, a founder member of the Brixton Black Women’s Group and, in 1985, the co-author of the seminal book The Heart of the Race: Black Women’s Lives in Britain – which helped educate generations of women about the struggles and triumphs of Black women in Britain.
The director’s “Small Axe” anthology intimately portrays Black spaces.
Parisa Taghizedeh/Amazon Studios
Shaniqua Okwok and Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn in “Lovers Rock.”
Mangrove, the
first film in Steve McQueen’s five-part anthology series, “Small Axe,” begins
with Frank Crichlow (Shaun Parkes), the proprietor of a local West Indian
restaurant, walking through the Notting Hill section of London while “Try Me”
by Bob Marley and the Wailers plays in the background. He crosses a
construction site where Black children are happily running around a makeshift
playground comprised of overturned trash bins, construction beams, an old
mattress, and a baby carriage. In the background, there is graffiti that reads