Beverley Bryan
February 3, 2021 7:26 AM   Subscribe

Beverley Bryan: the British Black Panther who inspired a generation of women In the mid-60s, Beverley Bryan was a prefect at Lavender Hill secondary modern in south London. One of her responsibilities was to stand at the school gates and scribble down the name of any student who was late. One such girl was Olive Morris, who would become one of the country’s leading anti-racism activists. Bryan, meanwhile, would follow in the younger girl’s footsteps, becoming a British Black Panther, a founder member of the Brixton Black Women’s Group and, in 1985, the co-author of the seminal book The Heart of the Race: Black Women’s Lives in Britain – which helped educate generations of women about the struggles and triumphs of Black women in Britain. [SL Guardian] posted by halcyonday (5 comments total) 14 users marked this as a favorite
 
Being completely unfamiliar with this person, I had the vague thought "oh, this makes me think of Steve McQueen's Mangrove. Very affirming to see there is a connection there. (Not that I deserve any credit for knowing a teeny tiny bit based on a film...)
posted by zenzenobia at 2:59 PM on February 3, 2021


This is an incredible story. Thank you for sharing!
posted by Hopeful and Cynical at 8:10 PM on February 3, 2021


I am a little surprised, and yet completely not, about how I knew basically none of this history before reading the article, like I had no idea there were Black Panthers in the UK; I only knew about the organization in the US. I'm a white Canadian and US Civil Rights movements often even overshadow Black Canadian history, so I guess it's perhaps not surprising that I don't know the history in the UK.

Super interesting, thank you for posting this.
posted by urbanlenny at 9:35 PM on February 3, 2021 [1 favorite]


Thanks for this. I don't know much about this part of history and your links are a good start for me.
posted by wuwei at 9:55 AM on February 4, 2021


Being completely unfamiliar with this person, I had the vague thought "oh, this makes me think of Steve McQueen's Mangrove. Very affirming to see there is a connection there. (Not that I deserve any credit for knowing a teeny tiny bit based on a film...)

It didn't click for me what you meant until someone mentioned Steve McQueen's Small Axe and then I put two and two together - it's part of the BBC Miniseries and a different Steve McQueen than I had in my head! I'll check it out.
posted by urbanlenny at 11:52 AM on February 5, 2021


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