INFLUENTIAL BLACK BRITONS
13 influential black Britons you may not have heard of
We delve into the lives of more than a dozen pioneering politicians, performers and public figures who deserve to be better known
OLAUDAH EQUIANO (c1745–97)
The title may be wordy by modern standards, but The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African was a literary sensation in Georgian Britain. With multiple editions printed in its author’s own lifetime, the memoir tells an extraordinary story of childhood enslavement – and of emancipation and activism. It was a key text in helping to secure the passing of the Slave Trade Act 1807, which outlawed the slave trade in the British empire.
Equiano’s life began in the Kingdom of Benin (in modern-day Nigeria), where he was captured prior to being transported to the Caribbean. Having purchased his own freedom in 1766 and travelled extensively, Equiano permanently settled in London. Here, he became active in the Sons of Africa, a group of freedmen who campaigned for the abolitionist cause. Equiano was a central figure in telling the world about the Zong massacre, the mass killing of more than 140 Africans aboard a British slave ship.
MARY PRINCE (c1788–after 1833)
Born in Bermuda, Mary Prince composed the first memoir of a black female slave to be published in the United Kingdom. Like Olaudah Equiano’s earlier autobiography, The History of Mary Prince (1831) helped to galvanise support for the abolitionist cause, and was important in the run-up to the passing of the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833.
From a 21st-century perspective, it seems remarkable that Prince ever got the opportunity to share her experiences so widely. Over an eventful life, she was sold multiple times, and spent time working in the salt ponds of the Turks and Caicos Islands, where conditions were notoriously bad.
Salvation came when Prince’s fourth owner, John Adams Wood, took her to London in 1828. Here, Prince left the Wood family after meeting abolitionist Thomas Pringle, who edited her memoir. Little is known of her later years, although she may have died in Antigua after returning to the Caribbean to be with her husband.
BILL RICHMOND (1763–1829)
Despite not finding fame as a bare-knuckle pugilist until he reached his 40s, welterweight Bill ‘The Black Terror’ Richmond was one of his era’s most famous boxers. So tough was he that, aged 51, he took on 27-year-old Tom Shelton and overcame an eye injury to best the younger contender over 23 rounds.
It was a late-blooming career that owed much to the soldier Lord Hugh Percy, who saw the teenage Richmond, then enslaved, fight a New York tavern brawl during the American War of Independence. In 1777, Percy arranged for Richmond’s freedom, and Richmond emigrated to England, where he was educated and apprenticed to a cabinetmaker.
Richmond was charming and witty, which helped him move in high society. He was an usher at George IV’s coronation and, in the 1820s, ran a pub, where he dispensed boxing advice to the likes of Lord Byron and essayist William Hazlitt. Boxer William Mondrich in the Netflix series Bridgerton is based on Richmond.
OTTOBAH CUGOANO (c1757–after 1791)
After being captured on the Gold Coast (modern-day Ghana), Ottobah Cugoano, baptised John Stuart, was transported to Grenada as a teenager. Freedom arrived when his owner, Alexander Campbell, brought Cugoano to England.
Working as a servant for artists Richard and Maria Cosway, Cugoano came to the attention of poet William Blake, and even the Prince of Wales learned of his story. Active in the Sons of Africa, Cugoano became a writer, and played a key role in freeing a kidnapped man, Henry Demane, who was due to be shipped to the Caribbean.
ARTHUR WHARTON (1865–1930)
In 1875, Arthur Wharton left the Gold Coast to attend school in London, where he also later trained as a missionary. But his true calling was as an athlete. In 1886, he ran 100 yards in 10 seconds, later ratified as a world record.
Despite his sprinting prowess, it was as a goalkeeper that Wharton found fame, becoming part of the Preston North End team that reached the FA Cup semi-final in 1887. He is believed to have been the world’s first black professional footballer.
HAROLD MOODY (1882–1947)
In 1910, Jamaica-born Harold Moody, who finished top of his class at King’s College London, qualified as a doctor. Because of prejudice he was unable to find a job, so he set up his own practice in Peckham.
These experiences played into his decision to found The League of Coloured Peoples (LCP) in 1931, an organisation whose earliest members included future Kenyan president Jomo Kenyatta. The group campaigned against the ‘colour bar’ in an era when black Britons faced overt prejudice in the workplace, in their social lives, and when trying to find housing.
SAM BEAVER KING (1926–2016)
In 1947, Sam Beaver King returned to his native Jamaica from Britain after serving as an RAF engineer. But he couldn’t settle into civilian life, and so, when he saw an advert for tickets aboard the Empire Windrush, he returned to the UK in 1948.
King became a key figure in London’s Caribbean community and was elected mayor of Southwark in 1983. Later, he co-founded the Windrush Foundation and called for the date of the Windrush’s arrival to be marked by a public holiday.
OLIVE MORRIS (1952–79)
In November 1969, the Nigerian diplomat Clement Gomwalk parked his Mercedes-Benz outside Desmond’s Hip City, the first black record shop in Brixton, south London. Police pulled Gomwalk from his car and assaulted him. A crowd had gathered to protest and several people were arrested, including teenager Olive Morris.
This was a watershed moment in her life as, Morris later recounted, she was threatened with rape, beaten, and subsequently convicted of assaulting a police officer.
Radicalised, Morris joined the youth section of the British Black Panthers, a prelude to founding the socialist-feminist Brixton Black Women’s Group. She was active in the squatting movement and, after getting a degree in economics and social sciences, worked at the Brixton Community Law Centre.
An inspirational figure who died tragically young of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Morris was commemorated on the £1 note of local currency the Brixton Pound. In 1980, poet Linton Kwesi Johnson dedicated Jamaica Lullaby to Morris.
WILLIAM CUFFAY (1788–1870)
To those in power in the 1840s, William Cuffay was a dangerous radical, a man who would be banished to Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania) after being tried for “conspiring to levy war” against Queen Victoria. So notorious was Cuffay that William Makepeace Thackeray dubbed him a “pore old blackymore rogue” in the poem The Three Christmas Waits (1848).
So what made the authorities so nervous of a 4ft 11in-tall, Kent-born tailor? It was because Cuffay was a leading light in the Chartist movement, which campaigned for voting reform. In 1848, he helped to organise a massive rally on Kennington Common. Moreover, Cuffay was among Chartists who thought violence might be needed to achieve the movement’s aims.
MARGARET BUSBY (1944–)
It’s difficult to overstate the importance of Daughters of Africa. Published in 1992, it ran to more than 1,000 pages, and collected pieces by more than 200 women from Africa and the African diaspora, including oral poetry and works from ancient times.
Few would have had the knowledge to assemble such a collection, but the book’s editor Margaret Busby drew on experience accumulated over a trailblazing career. Born in Accra, Gold Coast (now Ghana), she was educated in England and, with her business partner Clive Allison (1944– 2011), set up the publishing company Allison and Busby in 1967. She was the UK’s first African woman book publisher and also its youngest.
In a career that has also encompassed writing for radio and the stage, she has, in the words of novelist Zadie Smith, “been a cheerleader, instigator, organiser, defender and celebrator of black arts… shouting about us from the rooftops, even back when few people cared to listen”.
IRA ALDRIDGE (1807–67)
Opportunities for black thespians in the 19th-century US were limited. So it was that, in 1824, having gained some acting experience in New York, Ira Aldridge decided to emigrate. In Britain, he became a star, renowned for his appearances in Shakespeare plays and becoming the first African-American to manage a British theatre (the Coventry Theatre).
Around the time of his death, it was reported Aldridge had planned to tour the US. Although this never happened, he was an inspiration to many African-Americans, and his name was adopted by several amateur acting troupes when news of his passing was circulated.
BETTY CAMPBELL (1934–2017)
Growing up in working-class Butetown, Cardiff, Betty Campbell was determined to become a teacher. Top of her class, Campbell won a scholarship to the Lady Margaret High School for Girls, but latterly had to overcome huge hurdles to achieve her ambition – not least falling pregnant during her A-levels.
Ultimately, though, as the first black headteacher in Wales, Campbell became a nationally important figure, someone who pioneered teaching children about black history, slavery and apartheid. In 1998, Campbell met Nelson Mandela on his only visit to Wales.
IGNATIUS SANCHO (c1729–80)
Born on a slave ship, the life of writer, composer and abolitionist Ignatius Sancho began in dire circumstances. Aged two, Sancho was taken to England, where he was gifted to three sisters in Greenwich. Here, he encountered the Duke of Montagu (1690–1749), who encouraged him to become educated.
Working as a servant for the Montagu family, Sancho gained a foothold in society and became a friend to Thomas Gainsborough, who painted his portrait. He then became a shopkeeper in Mayfair, which gave him time to write the works that cemented his reputation.