Dr Paul Stephenson; desegregating Britain (but more to be done)
JVL Introduction
Dr. Paul Stephenson, a civil rights leader in the UK has died aged 87 after a life standing up for equality. Many learn a little about the civil rights movement in the USA but less (if anything) about what was endured and fought against by courageous people like Dr. Stephenson. Most famously he was an organiser of the 1963 Bristol Bus Boycott when the Bus Company refused to hire Black and Asian staff. This was one of the factors that led the Labour government to pass the first Race Relations Act.
There is more about his life, including that Mohammed Ali wrote a poem about him in this tribute to him from four years ago, entitled: Paul Stephenson: the hero who refused to leave a pub – and helped desegregate Britain
We are pleased to share this and the obituary published in The Voice newspaper to honour the man and to know that we can make a difference. However, “we who believe in freedom cannot rest”; more than 40 years after the Bristol Bus Boycott, the fight against racism is never over; certainly not while we live within a system that benefits from it.
LL
This article was originally published by The Voice on Sun 3 Nov 2024. Read the original here.
Civil rights trailblazer Dr Paul Stephenson, leader of the Bristol Bus Boycott, dies at 87
Tributes paid to the man whose activism transformed British race relations and inspired generations
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Very much written out of our history.
It goes to show how bad things could be in this country and what can be done about it.