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5 Inspiring Black Educators to learn from this Black History Month

 

October is Black History Month in the UK and this year we’ve been celebrating by learning about influential Black Educators. Black History Month has been celebrated in the UK for over 30 years. It is celebrated in the US in February to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. However, October was chosen by Akyaaba Addai-Sebo, the architect of Black History Month, as this is traditionally the time of year when African chiefs and leaders gather to settle their differences.

As a company, we recently launched our CARE initiative to promote the diversity reflected in our schools and educational centres. With October being Black History Month, we wanted to take this opportunity to celebrate and amplify the stories of inspiring Black educators from the past and present. 

Betty Campbell MBE

Betty Campbell MBE was a champion of multiculturalism and Wales’ first Black head teacher. Born into a working-class household, she won a scholarship to the Lady Margaret High School for Girls in Cardiff. During her time at school, Betty expressed her interest in becoming a teacher only to be told that the problems she would face as a teacher would be insurmountable. In 1960, when Campbell had finished school and already had three children, she discovered that Cardiff Teacher Training College had started to allow female students to enrol. Campbell applied, and was one of only six female students to be admitted.  

Campbell overcame setbacks and racism to train as a teacher and eventually became head teacher at Mount Stuart Primary School in Butetown, Cardiff. Influenced by a trip to America, Campbell began teaching children about slavery, black history and the apartheid system which was happening in South Africa at the time. 

David Olusoga OBE

David Olusoga OBE is an award-winning historian, broadcaster and filmmaker. Born in Lagos, Nigeria, he migrated to the UK at five years old and became one of a very few non-white people living on a council estate in Gateshead. 

By the age of 14, the National Front had attacked his house on more than one occasion, resulting in police protection for him and his family and they were eventually forced to leave as a result of the racism.  

As well as being an award-winning documentary maker, he is author of books including The World’s War, Black and British and a contributor to The Oxford Companion to Black British History. David’s books and television programmes have explored the themes of empire, military-history, race, slavery, and contemporary culture in the UK and USA. 

Black and British: https://www.waterstones.com/book/black-and-british/david-olusoga/9781447299769
Black and British: A short, essential history: https://www.waterstones.com/book/black-and-british-a-short-essential-history/david-olusoga/9781529063394

Maggie Aderin-Pocock MBE

Margaret Ebunoluwa Aderin-Pocock MBE is a British space scientist and science educator. Born in London to Nigerian parents in the late sixties, she moved between 13 schools during her childhood, before studying physics at Imperial College London and taking a PHD in Mechanical Engineering. 

Having engaged with 350,000 school children globally, Aderin-Pocock is committed to educating and inspiring the next generation of astronauts, engineers and scientists and busting myths about class and gender across the industry. Since 2014, she has presented the long running astronomy programme The Sky at Night.  

Prof. Sir Geoffrey Palmer OBE

Professor Sir Geoffrey Palmer is a human rights activist and scientist. Born Godfrey Henry Oliver Palmer, now Sir Geoff Palmer, he was born in Jamaica and grew up in the care of his eight aunts. 

He moved to London in 1955. After leaving school with A-levels in botany and zoology, he worked as a junior lab technician, going on to get a degree in botany and a PhD in Grain Science and Technology. He went on to become the first Black professor in Scotland. In the early 2000’s, Palmer achieved an OBE and was named one of the ‘100 Great Black Britons’. 
Palmer remains a prominent human rights activist and is involved in a range of charity work, as well as publishing books and numerous articles on topics including race. 

Prof. Kehinde Andrews 

Kehinde Nkosi Andrews is an author, journalist and the first Black Studies professor in the UK. He led on the formation of the first Black Studies course in Europe, at Birmingham City University. Andrews has criticised universities for institutionalising racism and ultimately harming the performance of minority ethnic students, suggesting that they have an ‘overly white’ curriculum. 

As Director of the Centre for Critical Social Research, founder of the Organisation of Black Unity and co-chair of the Black Studies Association, Andrews works on discussing issues of racism, race, colonialism, slavery and more. 

Back to Black: Retelling Black Radicalism for the 21st Century: https://www.zedbooks.net/shop/book/back-to-black/
Resisting Racism: Race, inequality, and the Black supplementary school movement: https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Kehinde-Andrews/Resisting-Racism–Race-inequality-and-the-Black-supplemen/12807413

 

This Black History month we wanted to share these inspiring Black educators, all of whom have helped to shape the United Kingdom that we know today.  

 

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