A Black pioneer has joined his ancestors: one of Britain’s most celebrated civil right activists, Roy Hackett, has passed away. The whole country should know his name and be taught the extraordinary story of one of the most powerful organised resistance movements against racial discrimination in 20th-century Britain. It is a story of community determination, collaboration and hope.
I met Hackett when I was a PhD student working on the links between the city of Bristol and the transatlantic slave trade. He emphatically congratulated me on tackling a subject that was bound to make many feel uncomfortable but that could also lead to a form of healing. He believed that it was important for younger generations of people of African, Caribbean and Asian descent to actively participate in the writing of the history of the city and of the UK. Following in the footsteps of US pioneers such as Charlie Brady Hauser (who was the father of the first Black female lord-lieutenant of Bristol, Peaches Golding) and Rosa Parks, Hackett knew that you could not fight against what is now known as institutionalised racism without careful planning.
