Dear Carol

I agree with others that this is a wonderful idea and long overdue. It will
help map the geography of black people across London. Any support I can
lend, just ask

All the best

Carol Tulloch


on 27/6/02 1:00 pm, Harry Goulbourne at [log in to unmask] wrote:

> Dear Carol
>
> This is an excellent idea and I fully support it.  Two additional persons who
> come immediately to mind are George Padmore and Kwame Nkrumah, but of course
> there are several others from Asia, Africa and the Caribbean (even if
> restricted
> to those who have died).
>
> Best
>
> Harry Goulbourne
>
> Carol Dixon wrote:
>
>> At a recent BASA Management Committee meeting the issue of putting forward
>> names of black and Asian historic figures to English Heritage in order for
>> commemorative blue plaques to be erected on (or near the site of) their
>> former UK residences was discussed.
>>
>> Altho' proposals have been submitted by individual members of BASA for many
>> years this is the first time that the Association plans to co-ordinate a
>> UK-wide campaign involving nominations from the entire membership.
>>
>> For information: English Heritage (http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/), the
>> body responsible for awarding blue plaques in the UK since 1986, are able to
>> consider suggestions for plaques if the people being proposed have been dead
>> for twenty years or were born 100 years ago, whichever is the earlier. They
>> also state that for a nomination to be considered the figure needs to have a
>> "strong reputation" and gained recognition through their life and work.
>>
>> BASA's secretary, Marika Sherwood, has been in contact with representatives
>> of English Heritage on this issue and, to-date, has identified that plaques
>> currently exist for the following figures:
>>
>> Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
>> Mahatma Gandhi
>> Jimi Hendrix
>> Mohammed Ali Jinnah
>> Jomo Kenyatta
>> Sir Syed Ahmed Khan
>> Harold Moody
>> Jawaharlal Nehru
>> Sardar Patel
>> Paul Robeson,
>> Ram Mohum Roy
>> Vinayak Savarkar
>> Rabindranath Tagore
>> Lokamanya Tilak
>> Sol Plaatje.
>>
>> [In addition plaques for Marcus Garvey, Ignatius Sancho and Bob Marley are
>> under consideration, but given that in London alone some 800 plaques have
>> already been erected since 1986, this current list of <15-18 names is not
>> fully representative of the contributions and achievements of Britain's
>> numerous black and Asian pioneers and key figures]
>>
>> Please circulate your suggestions via this list - including dates, main
>> place(s) of residence in the UK (if known) and a brief statement about why
>> your nominees deserve a blue plaques, as English Heritage will need to
>> consider the merit of the nomination as well as verify all the surviving
>> places of residence as part of their research and assessment).
>>
>> Suggestions can also be sent to BASA post, c/o Marika Sherwood, BASA
>> Secretary, ICS, 28 Russell Square, London WC1B 5DS.
>>
>> To get the discussion started I've listed a few suggestions of my own below:
>>
>> John Richard Archer (1863 - 1932)
>> John Archer was born in Liverpool in 1863, the son of a Barbadian seaman and
>> an Irish mother. He left Merseyside in his early 20's, travelling around the
>> world as a seaman, and later settling in Battersea, South London, with his
>> Black Canadian wife, Bertha. Whilst in London he worked as a photographer
>> and became involved in local politics. He came to prominence in 1906 when he
>> won the local election and became the first British born Black Labour
>> councillor. In November 1913 John Archer was elected the tenth Mayor of
>> Battersea. In addition to his work in local government, he was also heavily
>> involved in the African Progress Union, and became its President in 1918,
>> working with many leading Black political figures of his time. Throughout
>> his political career he spoke out about racism and the social issues facing
>> Black peoples in Britain. In particular Archer helped to organise an
>> anti-racism protest in Liverpool in response to the riots of 1919.
>>
>> Pastor Kamal A. Chunchie (1886 - 1953)
>> Founder of the Coloured Men's Institute in London's East End during the
>> early 1920s, particularly as a result of the discrimination faced by black
>> and Asian seamen following racist legislation such as the Coloured Alien
>> Seamen's Order (1925).
>> Significant addresses associated with Chunchie and, thus, worthy of blue
>> plaques include: (1) Coloured Men's Institute, 13-15 Tidal Basin Road,
>> Victoria Docks (original building was demolished in 1930, but the plaque
>> could be erected somewhere near to the site as the top floor of the
>> Institute was Chunchie's residence for c. 4 years); (2) Queen Victoria
>> Seamen's Rest (The Seamen's Mission of the Methodist Church, 121-131 East
>> India Dock Road, Poplar, London E14)
>>
>> Ottobah Cugoano (c.1757 - 1801)
>> Ghanaian born former slave Ottobah Cugoano came to Britain from Grenada in
>> c.1772 and was granted his freedom by his master. The black community in
>> London advised Cugoano to become a Christian, as a further safeguard against
>> being returned to slavery in the Caribbean. As a free man Cugoano went into
>> service for a famous painter, Cosway, received an education and began
>> writing about the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade. By 1786
>> Cugoano's writing had made him one of the central figures in Britain's
>> anti-slavery movement and in 1787 published an influential book on the
>> system of slavery, entitled 'Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked
>> Traffic of Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species'.
>>
>> William Cuffay (1788 - 1870)
>> Chatham born William Cuffay was the son of an ex-slave from St. Kitts.
>> During his early adult life he worked as a tailor and became heavily
>> involved in trade unionism. In 1839 he became a leading member of the
>> Chartist movement, campaigning for social justice and parliamentary reform.
>>
>> William Davidson (1786-1820)
>> Jamaican-born political reformer involved in what became known as the 'Cato
>> Street Conspiracy' (London).
>>
>> Olaudah Equiano (c.1745 - 1797)
>> Anti-slavery campaigner famous for his autobiography 'The Interesting
>> Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustuvus Vasa the African',
>> published in 1789, and active in the campaigns to abolish the slave trade
>> whilst living in Britain - particularly his research into the Zong atrocity
>> in association with the Abolitionist Granville Sharp, where over two hundred
>> slaves were thrown overboard so that the owner could claim the insurance
>> money.
>>
>> Joseph Emidy (n.d. - 1835)
>> Famous violinist who was active in Cornish musical circles since his arrival
>> in England from Portugal in 1799.
>>
>> Claudia Jones (1915-1964)
>> Trinidad-born journalist and political activist Claudia Jones lived in the
>> UK between 1955-64 and was actively involved in political and cultural
>> organising among the black communities in London throughout this period. She
>> is particularly well known for founding and editing The West Indian Gazette
>> and Afro-Asian Caribbean News and was the founder of what has now become the
>> Notting Hill Carnival.
>>
>> Noor Inayat Khan (1914 - 1943)
>> British SOE secret agent in France during WW2, posthumously awarded the
>> George Cross, M.B.E. and the Croix de Guerre. Lived in Oxford whilst working
>> as a nurse for the WAAF in 1940.
>>
>> Dadabhai Naoroji (1825 - 1916)
>> Dadabhai Naoroji was the first Indian to run for Parliament in Britain,
>> becoming MP for Finsbury Park in 1892.
>>
>> Mary Seacole (1805-1881)
>> Jamaican-born nurse and heroine of the Crimean War. In 1857 she returned to
>> the UK and published 'The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many
>> Lands'. The book was a great success and Mary Seacole became a popular
>> figure. She spent the rest of her life travelling and working between London
>> and Kingston. She was awarded the Crimean Medal and the French Legion of
>> Honour.
>>
>> Udham Singh (1899-1940)
>> Indian political activist involved in the work of the Indian Workers
>> Association, UK. Udham Singh became famous after being convicted and hanged
>> for the assassination of Michael O'Dwyer, governor of the Punjab at the time
>> of the 1919 Amritsar (Jallianwallah Bagh) Massacre.
>>
>> Henry Sylvester Williams (n.d. - 1911)
>> Henry Sylvester Williams was born and died in Trinidad, but much of his
>> adult life was spent in the UK. Williams qualified as a teacher at
>> Tranquillity Normal School and taught in country schools until1890 when he
>> left for the USA to gain qualifications unobtainable in Trinidad. His
>> activities in North America are unknown, except for 1893-4, when he attended
>> Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. Arriving in London in 1896,
>> Williams enrolled at King's College and was admitted to Gray's Inn in
>> December 1897.
>> He earned his living as an official lecturer for the Temperance Society and
>> later as a lawyer. Throughout his time in England Williams lectured on
>> colonial issues on many platforms, including a meeting at the House of
>> Commons in 1899 when he appealed for representative government for Trinidad.
>> After travelling throughout the UK, he founded the African Association,
>> which called a Pan-African Conference in July 1900. In the early 1900s
>> Williams lived in England and South Africa, returning to Trinidad in 1908.
>> He was admitted to the Bar and soon built a successful practice in
>> Port-of-Spain and San Fernando. He died on 26 March 1911.
>>
>> Phyllis Wheatley (c.1753 - 1784)
>> Senegalese born Phyllis Wheatley was the first black woman to be published
>> in London. Her book, 'Poems on various subjects: religious and moral'
>> consisted of 39 poems and sold widely throughout Britain because the works
>> had been written whilst Wheatley was enslaved by a Boston-based family of
>> tobacco barons, resident in England between 1773-1778. Abolitionists eager
>> to prove the "human potential of black people" reissued her poems in the
>> 1830s.
>>
>> NB: Recipients of blue plaques do not have to be British-born, but need to
>> have been resident in the UK at some time during their lifetime, as the
>> primary objective (in the words of English Heritage) is to "mark the
>> interest of the surviving building".
>>
>> Best wishes
>> Carol