·Gottlieb, M. (2020) The case for a Cultural Humility Framework in Social Work Practice. Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in Social Work, DOI: 10.1080/15313204.2020.1753615

·Jeffery, D. (2005) ‘What good is anti-racist social work of you can’t master it’?: exploring a paradox in anti-racist social work education. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 8(4): 409-425

·Lavalette, M and Pinketh, L (2014). Race, Racism and Social Work. Contemporary Issues and Debates. Bristol: Bristol University Press

·Patel, T.G. (2017) Race and Society. London: Sage.

get automatically.

Momin Mohamed, an activist and anti-FGM campaigner and future lawyer: https://www.rarerecruitment.co.uk/rrs2021/04.php 

Ignatius Sancho is the first person of African descent to vote in a British general election. Born in a slave ship, Ignatius served as a slave for 18 years in Greenwich before running away to serve as a butler and valet to the 2nd Duke of Montagu where he learned about literature and music and was able to earn money. In 1774 Ignatius opened a grocery shop. Becoming an independent male property owner, he gained the right to cast his vote for the Westminster Members of Parliament in the 1774 and 1780 elections. Thereafter, Sancho became a predominant leader of the British abolitionist movement as well as an influential poet, writer and composer. 

The Ivory Bangle Lady is a skeleton found in York in 1901. The skeleton belongs to a female thought to have died in York in the 4th century AD. She was found with bracelets, pendants, earrings, beads as well as a glass jug and mirror, leading investigators to consider her a high-status adult female, potentially of North African descent, indicating that African descendants have been in Britain for far longer than previously thought (the first recorded Black resident in Britain was in 1583).

Mary Seacole was a healer ("doctress"), who having heard about the virtual collapse of nursing on the front at the Crimean War, self-funded a trip to care for British soldiers (having been originally turned down by the British War Office). She put her own safety at risk by treating the injured on the frontline and was a familiar and popular figure amongst the soldiers, known as "Mother Seacole". 

Outside of her incredible work during the Crimean war, she was widely praised for her work in treating cholera during her travels in Panama.

Mary published her autobiography, The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands, which is still in print today.

Kathleen Wrasama - Kathleen was from Ethiopia and as a child, came to England in 1917. After traumatic experiences in children’s homes in Yorkshire she ran away and found work as a farm labourer. During the 1930s she moved to London and worked as an extra in films, and later established a Black seaman’s mission in Stepney with her husband. She was a founder member of the Stepney Coloured Peoples Association, an organisation committed to improving community relations, education and housing for Black people in the local area.

Michelle Ogundehin - originally from Manchester! Is a British magazine editor and creative consultant turned TV presenter, and author known for writing and presenting on interior design.

Rose Hudson-Wilkin is the first black woman to become a Church of England bishop, along with a long list of other firsts such as the first black woman as chaplain to the Queen and the first woman appointed as chaplain to the speaker of the House of Commons. I chose Rose as I admire her straight-talking nature and how she does what is right rather than what will make her popular, calling out MPs, journalists and anyone whose actions run contrary to the justice that she seeks to see. In my research of her I found many excellent quotes, but love this one and hope and pray that she lives to see this wish fulfilled: “But if there’s one thing I would like to see change in my lifetime, it would be that all these “firsts” stop; that they become normal.”

-The Vanishing Half – Brit Bennett

-An American Marriage – Tayari Jones

-The Other Black Girl – Zakiya Dalila Harris

-Love in Colour – Bolu Babalola (British author)

Bernadine Evaristo and Yaa Gyasi are also authors that we'd recommend

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14680173211008110

https://www.communitycare.co.uk/2021/06/04/black-ethnic-minority-social-workers-disproportionately-high-asye-failure-rate-figures-show/

https://socialworkers.blog.gov.uk/2021/09/23/using-my-identity-and-areas-of-difference-to-drive-authentic-community-led-social-work/

https://blogs.kcl.ac.uk/socialcareworkforce/2020/10/10/black-history-month-in-social-work-and-social-care/

Betty Campbell

"I was determined that I was going to become one of those people and enhance the black spirit, black culture as much as I could." (Betty Campbell, 2016)

She was the first black headteacher in Wales – “As a champion of Wales' multicultural heritage, she sought to provide a sense of belonging and identity for young people and the wider community.” (itv news 2021)

 

Betty Campbell was born and lived in Butetown, Cardiff – also known as Tiger Bay. This is an area which in 2019 was identified as the highest area of child poverty in Wales (46% of children). In 1960 Betty was one of only 6 women who attended the Cardiff Teacher Training College in the first year they were allowing admission of women on the course.  

 

In the 1970’s she became a teacher and consequently the  headteacher for Mount Stuart in Bute Town her local area and remained there for 28 years.  On becoming the first black headteacher in Wales , and following a trip to the USA met people from the civil rights movement, she introduced a curriculum to the school which taught about slavery, black history and the system of apartheid that was current at that time in South Africa.

 

On his only visit to Wales in 1998, Nelson Mandela, met with her as part of her work with the Commission for Racial Equality.  She also worked with the Home Office’s race advisory committee.

 

Later in 1990s & 2000’s she became a city councillor  within Cardiff.  The school became a “template for multi-cultural education” and Mrs Campbell worked with The Paul Hamlyn Foundation on Education, contributing to “Learning to Succeed – A Radical look at Education today and a Strategy for the Future”(NCE, 1993).

In 2003 Betty Campbell was awarded an MBE for services to education and community life and in 2015 she received a lifetime achievement award from Unison Cymru for her contribution to black history and welsh education.  She helped create Black History Month.

 

In 2021 a statue was unveiled honouring Betty Campbell in the centre of Cardiff – only the second statue of a women in the city. The choice of subject for the statue was by public vote and the design is more than a statue of her but that of history and connections.

     Teen Vogue

Following on from George Floyd's death, Munroe publicly challenged L'Oreal's #blacklivesmatters post on Instagram for being performative, with it being three years prior that they terminated her job for speaking out against racism. After productive talks with L'Oreal's new President, Munroe agreed to be part of L'Oreal's new UK Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Board so that she could continue to advocate for both the trans and black community. 

In August 2020, not only did British Vogue name her in the top 25 most influential women in the country, she was also in October 2020 named among '100 Great Black Britons'. She will also be the first transgender person to feature on the front cover of Cosmopolitan UK's magazine with its 50th anniversary issue, to be published 21st Jan 2022.