Here’s a story for Black History Month, though there hasn’t been so much about it this year. There have been pieces published online reporting that there are debates going on ab out its future. I think there may be problems with funding, but also over the scale of the celebration. Some campaigners believe it should be extended so that it covers the entire year. In Bristol one of the schools did a project on the bus boycott. This was a campaign in the 1960s against the local bus company which at the time would not employ Blacks. The boycott was led by Paul Stephenson and supported by local Labour MP Tony Benn.
In Cumbria, according to an article by BBC journo Pamela Tickell, local schoolchildren are stepping up to a walking challenge to raise money for a headstone for the grave of Britain’s first Black policeman. The article begins
‘School children hope to “shine a light” on their region’s diverse past by commissioning a gravestone for Britain’s first black policeman, John Kent.
Students at Grayrigg Church of England primary school in Cumbria are taking on a walking challenge to raise funds to mark the unmarked grave at Carlisle Crematorium.
Mr Kent was born in Cumbria in 1805 and began his duties as a police officer in Maryport in 1835 before joining Carlisle Police in 1837.
Labour MP for Carlisle, Julie Minns, has also applied to Historic England for a blue plaque in the city where he spent the majority of his career.
Mr Kent, who died in 1886, was the son of Thomas Kent, a slave who was brought to Whitehaven and freed in the UK.
Grayrigg students are walking 41 million steps collectively, or 17,000 miles (27,358km) to mark the route slaves were taken from Africa to the Caribbean and to Cumbria.
They have so far raised more than £1,000 and hope to commission local artist Lela Harris to create a portrait of Mr Kent for Carlisle train station.’
The article went on to quote the current head of the National Black Police Association,
‘President of the National Black Police Association, Andy George, said Mr Kent’s story showed that black presence and contribution was “woven deep into the fabric of British history”.
“At a time when the call for representation and trust in policing has never been more urgent, figures like John Kent are more than historical footnotes, they are symbols of belonging and possibility,” he said.’
See: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c874pd04zwqo
At a time when there is a vicious debate, led by Reform and parties like it, over race and immigration, this is a more positive story about a fascinating figure in Black British history.
Beastrabban\'s Weblog 