The Power of Olive Morris
June 26, 2020 1:23 AM Subscribe
Today's Google Doodle celebrates what would have been the 68th birthday of Olive Morris, a community leader and activist in the feminist, black nationalist, and squatters' rights campaigns of the 1970s in the UK.
"Olive Morris was a community activist in South London in the 1970s, who died of cancer aged 27 in 1979. Through her activities organising the black community and feminist activism, she left behind an extraordinary legacy of local activism" [Fawcett Society]
Do you Remember Olive Morris? was a community art project seeking to bring to wider public attention the history of Brixton-based activist Olive Morris (1952-1979). In her short life, Olive Morris co-founded the Brixton Black Women’s Group and the Organisation of Women of Asian and African Descent (OWAAD) and was part of the British Black Panther Movement. She campaigned for access to education, decent living conditions for Black communities and fought against state and police repression. Despite dying at a young age, she empowered the people who lived and worked around her.
Doodle illustrator Matt Cruickshank describes his design process, centering Morris in the Brixton community she loved and cared for.
"Olive Morris was a community activist in South London in the 1970s, who died of cancer aged 27 in 1979. Through her activities organising the black community and feminist activism, she left behind an extraordinary legacy of local activism" [Fawcett Society]
Do you Remember Olive Morris? was a community art project seeking to bring to wider public attention the history of Brixton-based activist Olive Morris (1952-1979). In her short life, Olive Morris co-founded the Brixton Black Women’s Group and the Organisation of Women of Asian and African Descent (OWAAD) and was part of the British Black Panther Movement. She campaigned for access to education, decent living conditions for Black communities and fought against state and police repression. Despite dying at a young age, she empowered the people who lived and worked around her.
Doodle illustrator Matt Cruickshank describes his design process, centering Morris in the Brixton community she loved and cared for.
Trigger warning for graphic retelling of police brutality and sexual harassment for the Wikipedia article.
This is my first time learning about Olive. It's a tragedy her life ended so soon. I feel like the UK's history of civil rights, police brutality, and anti-blackness has been more successfully swept under the rug than the US, which is already a very high bar. She seemed like an incredibly strong, bright, fierce young woman. Her words are relevant as ever, I can only imagine the kind of insight and direction she'd be able to give us now if she were still here. Olive is a family name that I've always loved, this only fortifies it
posted by FirstMateKate at 7:29 AM on June 26, 2020 [1 favorite]
This is my first time learning about Olive. It's a tragedy her life ended so soon. I feel like the UK's history of civil rights, police brutality, and anti-blackness has been more successfully swept under the rug than the US, which is already a very high bar. She seemed like an incredibly strong, bright, fierce young woman. Her words are relevant as ever, I can only imagine the kind of insight and direction she'd be able to give us now if she were still here. Olive is a family name that I've always loved, this only fortifies it
posted by FirstMateKate at 7:29 AM on June 26, 2020 [1 favorite]
Damn, 27. Yet accomplished so much. Thank you for posting.
This isn't showing on my Google page, and I just learned that Google Doodles can be regional, in case anyone else wondered.
posted by Glinn at 9:05 AM on June 26, 2020 [1 favorite]
This isn't showing on my Google page, and I just learned that Google Doodles can be regional, in case anyone else wondered.
posted by Glinn at 9:05 AM on June 26, 2020 [1 favorite]
Thanks for pointing out the TWs, FirstMateKate, I've updated the tags.
It's very much the case that police brutality and racism in the justice system continue to be ignored and forgotten about here. In reading more about Olive Morris I came across the fantastic website of an amazing project, Fighting Sus (powerfully subtitled The History They Want Us to Forget), an oral history and art project conducted by Year 10 (9th grade) students in Brixton about the so called "Sus law" that, though repealed in 1981, has its legacies in current Stop and Search, systemic racism and social injustice especially perpetuated by the police.
posted by Balthamos at 10:02 AM on June 26, 2020 [1 favorite]
It's very much the case that police brutality and racism in the justice system continue to be ignored and forgotten about here. In reading more about Olive Morris I came across the fantastic website of an amazing project, Fighting Sus (powerfully subtitled The History They Want Us to Forget), an oral history and art project conducted by Year 10 (9th grade) students in Brixton about the so called "Sus law" that, though repealed in 1981, has its legacies in current Stop and Search, systemic racism and social injustice especially perpetuated by the police.
posted by Balthamos at 10:02 AM on June 26, 2020 [1 favorite]
I have only heard of her today. She sounds awesome - I've always had a lot of respect for fierceness the women involved in 1970s feminism but it's always so whitewashed. It's great to learn about an amazing Black British woman from that era who sounds like she epitomised fierce.
posted by plonkee at 10:16 AM on June 26, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by plonkee at 10:16 AM on June 26, 2020 [1 favorite]
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