Black History Month: 100 Great Black Britons by Patrick Vernon – 24th October 2022

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A long-overdue book, 100 Great Black Britons honours the remarkable achievements of key Black British individuals through history, in collaboration with the 100 Great Black Britons campaign founded and run by Patrick Vernon OBE and Dr Angelina Osborne. With a foreword written by David Olusoga, this book includes a list of Black British names and accompanying portraits – including new role models and previously little-known historical figures. Each entry explores in depth the individual’s contribution to British history – a contribution that too often has been either overlooked or dismissed.

The arrival of the SS Empire Windrush in Britain from the Caribbean has been mythologised as the defining moment that changed Britain from an exclusively white country into a racially diverse one. Yet Africans have been present in Britain since Roman times and there has been a constant Black presence in Britain since the sixteenth century.

In 2003, Vernon and Osborne, frustrated by the almost complete exclusion of the Black British community from mainstream notions of Britishness in education and popular media, launched their ground-breaking 100 Great Black Britons campaign, which invited the public to vote for the Black  Briton they most admired. The campaign was a huge success across Britain.

In 2019, in the wake of Brexit and the 2018 Windrush Scandal, Vernon and Osborne decided it was time to relaunch the campaign to ensure recognition of the continued legacy and achievement of Black people in Britain. The results will be announced in September 2020, and their book, out on 24 September 2020, will compile the updated list and act as a companion to this vital and updated campaign.

About the Presenter 

Patrick Vernon was born in the constituency where Enoch Powell was an MP. His family still lives in Wolverhampton and he is proud of his roots and the contribution of migrant communities from the Windrush Generation have made to Britain which forms a larger of his values and principles – Windrush Day Matters.

Patrick is a Clore and Winston Churchill Fellow, Fellow at Imperial War Museum, fellow of Royal Historical Society and former Associate fellow for the department of history of medicine at Warwick University. He has over twenty years’ senior experience working across mental health, public health, heritage and race equality and is well known in health, local government and the voluntary sector. Patrick is currently Associate Director for Connected Communities at the Centre for Ageing Better, Equality and Diversity Adviser to Lambeth Council, Chair of Citizens Partnership for Healthcare Investigation Branch (HSIB) and Senior Associate at OLMEC. He was the first director of Black Thrive a mental-health multi-agency tackling mental health in Lambeth, former non-executive director of Camden and Islington Mental Health Foundation Trust, Health Partnership Coordinator for National Housing Federation, former director of Afiya Trust, committee member of Healthwatch England, NHS England Equality Diversity Council, director of Brent Health Action Zone and regional director for MIND. Patrick was former Independent Chair of Westminster Partnership for Race Equality where he played a key role with the Met Police and the Muslim community with the aftermath of 7/7 bombings in Westminster in 2005.

He is a former member of the Labour and the Coalition Government Ministerial Advisory for Mental Health. Patrick was a former councillor in Hackney between 2006- 2014 and was appointed by Jeremy Corbyn as Race Equalities Adviser to the Shadow Equalities Ministerial Team between 2015 to 2017.Patrick is also founder of Every Generation Media and 100 Great Black Britons, which develops education programmes, publications and films on cultural heritage and family history. Patrick was made Pioneer of the Nation for Cultural History by the Queen in 2003. He is a leading expert on African and Caribbean genealogy in the UK. In 2017 was appointed editor for Black History Month magazine (2017 and 2018 magazines) and in 2018 for Windrush Commemorative magazine.

Platform: Please note this event will take place virtually via MS Teams.