Race, gender and class inequalities were rife, relations with the police were fraught - and the realities encountered back then remain as pernicious as ever in 2023, as Black History Month celebrates women
A short biography of south London based anti-racist community organiser Olive Morris who worked tirelessly as a feminist, black and squatting activist throughout the late 60s and 70s.
She co-wrote a classic, The Heart of the Race, and helped draw attention to overlooked atrocities – including racism in schools, police brutality and deaths in custody
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.