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Black History Season 2008
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 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | Baroness Patricia Scotland Patricia Scotland was born in Dominica in 1956, and arrived in Britain at the age of 2 along with 10 other siblings. As she grew she took a liking for dance and wanted to be a modern expressionist ballet dancer at 16. She later attended university and distinguished herself as a lawyer before entering the political arena in 1977, where she was called to the bar and served two terms of government for Labour firstly in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as Foreign Office Minister working for the home department at the Lord Chancellor's Office. There she is effectively number two to Lord Irvine of Largs and the lead minister on immigration and asylum matters, legal aid, legal services and the development of Civil Law in the UK
In 1991 she made legal history becoming the first black female QC (Queens Counsel) at the age of 35. She was made a bencher of the Middle Temple in 1997, becoming a judge in 1999, and raised to the Privy Council in 2001 Baroness Valerie Amos Baroness Amos is one of three black peers that sit in the House of Lords. She was created a life peer in 1997. She is what is referred as 'a working peer', and is currently the Secretary of State for International Development
Prior to her appointment as Secretary of State for International Development, Baroness Amos was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs in June 2001 with responsibility for Africa, the Commonwealth, the Caribbean, Overseas Territories, Consular Issues and FCO Personnel.
Previously she was the Government Whip from 1998 to 2001 and a co-opted member, European Union Sub-committee F (Social Affairs, Education and Home Affairs) from 1997-98. Benjamin Zephaniah Dr. Benjamin Zephaniah was born in Birmingham, but spent his early years in Jamaica, where he absorbed much of the music and poetry that influences his work. Benjamin had a difficult school life, and at 14 was sent to a borstal, and spent two years in prison. It was there that he decided, 'I'm going to use this energy differently. I've got the talent to be a poet…I wanted to educate myself, be a bit more spiritual, a bit more political'.
He published his first poetry collection, Pen Rhythm, in 1980, and through the dancehall and sound system scene he became involved in performance poetry. His second collection of poetry, The Dread Affair: Collected Poems (1985) contained a number of poems attacking the British legal systemRasta Time in Palestine (1990) is an account of a visit to the Palestinian occupied territories. In 1989 he was nominated for Oxford Professor of Poetry, narrowly beaten by Seamus Heaney. Bernie Grant Labour MP Bernie Grant was one of the most charismatic black political leaders of modern times. His death on 8 April 2000 marked almost four decades campaigning for racial justice and minority rights. Though in life he was an outspoken maverick, in death, Bernie Grant was praised from the heights of the Establishment, from Cabinet ministers and Scotland Yard to political associates and black community leaders, and Prime Minister Tony Blair described Grant as "an inspiration to Black British communities everywhere".
Born February 17, 1944 in British Guiana, now Guyana, Bernard Alexander Montgomery Grant was the son of school teachers, Eric and Lily, who named him after two generals then fighting the Second World War. Bernie came to Britain in 1963, and worked as a British Railways clerk, a National Union of Public Employees area officer, and as a partisan of the Black Trade Unionists Solidarity Movement Beverley Knight Born in Wolverhampton in 1972, Beverley started singing with her church aged four and started writing songs when she was twelve. After gaining a degree in theology, she landed a record deal with Dome Records in 1995 resulting in her debut album 'The B-Funk' Two further albums, 'Prodigal Sista' (1998) and 'Who I am' (2002) followed.
Beverley is a three-time Mobo award winner, and has duetted with Jay Kay of Jamiroquai and Musiq Soulchild, performed at the South African Freedom Day before Nelson Mandela, and sung Happy Birthday to Mohammed Ali. She has collaborated with some of the UK's best soul bands, including D-Influence, and with Country Award winner Craig Wiseman (with whom she co-wrote 'Shoulda Woulda Coulda'). She has also worked with Philadelphia producer James Poyser who has worked with D'Angelo, Lauryn Hill and Jill Scott. She is one our most successful R&B performers. Bruce Oldfield Bruce Oldfield is one of the world's leading fashion designers, and has designed outfits for Jerry Hall, Barbra Streisand, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Diana Ross and Diana, Princess of Wales as well as other leading members of the British and European aristocracy.
It is reputed that his father was a Jamaican boxer, although he never knew his natural parents. He was just a day and a half old when he became a Barnardo baby, and was fostered by a dressmaker called Violet Masters in County Durham, who taught him how to sew and cut cloth at an early age. When he was thirteen, he started getting into trouble, and was sent back to Barnardo's. He got the opportunity to attend grammar school, and went to teacher training college, but decided to switch to an art college in London, with the help of a Barnardo's educational grant (they would later provide him with a start-up loan for his business). He attended St. Martin's School of Art in 1973, started his ready-to-wear label in 1975, and his couture label in 1978. | |
|  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | Craig David It has taken just three short years for Craig David to progress from being Britain's most exciting, talked about new artist to become our world ambassador for urban music. His two, genre-shaping albums are each now multi-million sellers and the 21 year old has toured the world several times over, recently selling out a tour of more intimate UK venues and headlining a prestigious LA radio concert with Christina Aguilera and Nelly. He has won awards, broken down barriers and been praised by his idols, and no one has been more astounded at each new achievement than Craig himself.
Brought up on Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson on Southampton's Holyrood Estate, he found salvation in his first pair of decks at the tender age of 13. He was soon rushing his homework so he could play local clubs and pirate radios at the weekend, and had won a national song writing competition at the age of 16. Daley Thompson The decathlon requires proficiency in ten events - the shot put, discus and javelin throws; the long and high jumps; the pole vault; the 100 m, the 400 m and the 1500 m run and the 110 m hurdles. The winner is considered the all-round athletics champion. In 1984, a British athlete, Daley Thompson, became only the second person in Olympic history to claim the decathlon gold twice.
Born on July 30th 1958 in Notting Hill, London, of Scottish and Nigerian parentage, Thompson first competed in the decathlon in the 1976 Montreal Games as an 18-year-old. He finished 18th! Four years later at the Moscow Olympics, he won the gold medal, finishing 150 points ahead of his nearest rival. Denise Lewis A superb all-round talent, Denise has progressed to the highest world-class at the heptathlon, her highest accolade to date the Olympic gold medal she won in Sydney. She achieved a best of 5277 points in her first year at the event in 1989.
She was Britain's woman athlete of the year in 1996, when she was Britain's only female Olympic athletics medallist, 1997, when she took the World silver medal, and in 1998, she won gold at both the European and Commonwealth Games. In 1999 she won the World silver medal with 6724 points, just 12 points short of her Commonwealth record. Des'ree Des'ree was born in London on November 30 1969. She decided to devote her life to music at 14, and started to write poetry and set it to melody. At twenty three, she made a demo tape which found its way onto the right desk at Sony. The tape contained the song Feel So High, which became her first hit single.
In 1994 she released the album, I Ain't Moving, with the song You Gotta Be breaking US and UK records, after 80 weeks it was still on the billboard recurrent airplay chart. That same year she won an Ivor Novello award. Diane Abbott Representing the London constituency of Hackney North and Stoke Newington, Diane Abbott was Britain's first Black woman MP.
She also served as an elected local councillor in the London Borough of Westminster for four years, during which she was a member of the Environment, Grants and Social Services. Herman Ousley Lord Ouseley was born in Guyana in 1945, and came to England when he was 11. He was educated at William Penn School and Catford College, where he gained a diploma in municipal administration. He was appointed as the first principal race relations advisor in local government, and served as Head of the GLC's Ethnic Minority Unit. He later became Chief Executive of the London Borough of Lambeth and the former Inner London Education Authority (the first black person to hold such an office), responsible for over 1000 schools and colleges across the capital. In 1993, he became the executive chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, a position he held until 2000. He is widely credited with having restored the CRE's flagging credibility.
In 2001, he was raised to the peerage of Baron Ouseley of Peckham Rye in Southwark. He is often called upon to chair independent inquiries into racism, be it in the educational system, or the Bradford riots. He is actively involved in the work of many independent and voluntary organisations including the Institute of Race Relations and the Ethnic Minority Foundation. He is non-Executive Director of Focus Consultancy Ltd, Brooknight Security Ltd and Quiktrak. | |
|  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | Ian Wright Ian Wright was one of the best known footballers in Britain. He was born 3rd November 1963 in Woolwich. He was first employed as a builder doing plastering for very little money, playing at the weekends for the "10 Em Bee Club". His managers soon recognised his talents as a striker, and when he was 17 scouts from Crystal Palace saw him, and he was signed up for a three month contract at £100 a week. His first game came in 1985 when he came on as a sub against Oldham FC. Within minutes he scored.
In 1990, he was an FA runner up with Palace, and in 1991 he was chosen to play for England in a friendly against Cameroon. After six years at Palace, he moved to Arsenal for 2.5 million pounds, and scored on his debut in the Coca-Cola Cup against Leicester City, and then scores a hat-trick against Southampton in his first league start for the Gunners. He ended the season with 24 goals in 30 appearances, and makes a further three appearances for England. Jazzie B Soul II Soul put something called Black British Music on the international map. They-- Jazzie B and Dadde Harvey, and Aitch B-- created a totally British black 'funky dred' sound based on an eclectic mix of soul, reggae, funk and European music. Perhaps Soul II Soul's great contribution was their initiative in creating an assertive new sound, not a traceable copy of something that black Americans had done, which was set at the time against an exciting backdrop of new black British film, theatre, and writing.
Jazzie B was the progenitor of Soul II Soul. He was born and raised in Hornsey Rise, North London. His sole ambition-- to be the best DJ, and a producer of music-was realized by the late 80's. Jazzie B with a musical outfit, which would remain a sort of sound system cum group, signed to Virgin Records after being heard at his the historic Africa Centre, his regular Dee-jaying spot. Their debut track Fairplay, featuring Rose Windross, became a dance classic. The group released their second single Feel Free with singer Do'Reen which went to number one on the dance charts. However, their third single Keep on Movin' featuring the amazing singer Caron Wheeler zoomed straight into the national charts at number 5 and was played internationally. Back To Life the follow up single shot to Number one in every chart. Joan Armatrading Joan Armatrading is credited with being the first black female singer/songwriter to gain prominence on the British music scene. She offered a unique take on folk and reggae that was highly influential to artists like Tasmin Archer and Tracy Chapman.
Born in St Kitts in 1950, she moved to Birmingham with her family when she was eight, where she taught herself to play piano and guitar. She began her career playing small sets of her own music at local clubs as a teenager. Lennox Lewis Despite a reputedly high, undisclosed personal wealth, Lennox Lewis remains one of the most likeable sporting personalities of this century. Lennox Claudius Lewis was born in Stratford, London on 2 September 1965.
His names could not be more aptly chosen as Lennox is Gaelic and means 'chieftain' and Claudius was a Roman emperor who conquered Britain. The younger of two children, the 6ft 5in champion was by no means born with a silver spoon in his mouth. His humble beginnings however did not mar his determination to make his mark in society. Linford Christie Linford Christie was the first of a new breed of athlete that defied age as a barrier to perform, winning his first major title at the age of 26. He went on to become the World's No 1 in the most fiercely competitive and prestigious event in athletics, the men's 100m.
Linford's impressive title collection includes an Olympic, a World Championship, three European, three Commonwealth, ten European Cup and four World Cup medals. Linford was the first man to retain the World Cup 100m title and in 1997 won a record 7th European Cup title. From 1995 to 1997 he was the inspirational captain of the men's British Athletic team and is the only European to have run under 10 seconds. Lord Leary Constantine Before 1944 it was common for West End hotels to refuse accommodation to black people. In 1943 this happened to Learie Constantine, one of the world's most distinguished cricketers. He sued the hotel and won his case. As CLR James put it, he revolted 'against the revolting contrast between his first class status as a cricketer and his third class status as a man'. His legal victory was a turning point in the struggle against the humiliating forms of colour bar in Britain.
Learie Constantine was born in Trinidad in 1902. his father, an overseer on a cocoa estate, was a keen cricketer. Learie's performance in three first class matches won him a place on the West Indies team, and he came to Britain in 1923. As a batsman, so powerful were his strokes, he was likened to a blacksmith. He was also a devastating bowler. His fielding was near perfect - his performance at Lord's in 1928, where he took 100 wickets and made 1,000 runs - led to an invitation to turn professional and join the Nelson team in the Lancashire League. | |
|  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | Martin Offiah Martin Offiah has been one of the most prolific try-scoring wingers ever to play the 13-a-side code. He has proved to be one of the greatest entertainers the sport has produced in its 106-year history.
His record of 501 tries across a 14-year career in England and Australia is testimony to a strike rate beyond most ordinary mortals. Mike Fuller Michael Fuller joined Kent Police as chief constable in January 2004.
Michael joined the Metropolitan Police Service as a cadet in 1975. He has served in busy and demanding uniformed and CID positions throughout London and this has included service at New Scotland Yard. Moira Stewart Since 1981, Moira has presented virtually every news bulletin devised. These include News Afternoon, the 5.40 News, the Six o'clock News, and the Nine o'clock News. She has also presented a variety of other programmes on both TV and radio, including the Quincy Jones Story, The Best of Jazz, Open Forum and the Holiday Programme.
She was voted Best Newscaster of the Year in 1988 by the TV and Radio Industries Club Awards, and in 1989 Best TV Personality by the Women of Achievement Awards. The Black Journalists' Association named her Best Female TV Personality in 1994, and in 1997 Best Media Personality by the Voice newspaper. She joined the BBC Breakfast team at the programme's launch in 2000. Moira presents the news bulletins from Mondays to Wednesdays as well as presenting the bulletins in Breakfast with Frost on Sunday mornings. In 2001 she was awarded the OBE. Ms Dynamite Ms. Dynamite is an aptly named artist. The 21-year-old English hip hop/R&B diva has taken the U.K. by storm over the last year and a half, proving herself one of the most dynamic new acts on the globe with her first album, A Little Deeper. Final proof of that came when she won this year's coveted British Mercury Music Prize, beating out the likes of superstar David Bowie.
Born Naomi McLean-Daley and raised in North London, Ms. Dynamite started rapping in clubs just for fun when she was 17. "I loved music but it's something that I never thought that I could or should take seriously," she recalls. But then her single "Booo!" helped launch her from the English garage scene to stardom thanks to its infectious beats and her no holds barred observation on violence in the London clubs. With her vocal mix of singing and rapping and tracks that draw from soul, hip-hop and Caribbean music, Ms. Dynamite has a broad appeal. And she is determined to use that as a platform for pointed social commentary. Naomi Campbell By the age of 27,Naomi Campbell had already conquered the fashion world, setting modelling runways and magazine covers ablaze with a sophisticated, sultry style that has made her both a media star, and international celebrity. After only a few years in the modelling business, she quickly began breaking new ground, becoming the first black model to appear on the covers of Time Magazine, as well as French and British Vogue. Since then, she has become a veritable renaissance woman proving herself exceptional beyond the realm of supermodel.
She was born in May 1970, in Streatham to Valerie Campbell, a fashion designer and model. Naomi began her career at 15, when Beth Boldt, an agent at Elite, spotted her walking down a London Street near Covent Garden (and near her school) and offered to have her pictures taken. She spent two years on the Paris runway; hit the cover of French Vogue and a year later made history again, when her face--and legs--appeared on the cover of American Vogue, making her the first black woman to appear on the number one fashion magazine in the States. She quickly became the darling of top international designers, forging an especially close relationship with Versace, for whom she modelled for 12 years before an acrimonious parting of the ways in 1999. Ozwald Boateng Ozwald Boateng is widely credited with introducing Savile Row tailoring to a new generation. The first tailor to stage a catwalk show in Paris, Boateng's many clients include Laurence Fishburne, Samuel L. Jackson, Keanu Reeves and Mick Jagger.
While studying computing at Southwark College, he was introduced to cutting and designing clothes by his girlfriend at the time. Using his mother's old sewing machine, he started designing and selling clothes to his fellow students. At sixteen he sold his first collection to a menswear shop in Covent Garden, and by the time he was twenty-three he had set himself up full time in business. | |
|  | |  | |  | |  | |  | | Paul Boateng The Rt. Hon Paul Boateng MP was appointed Chief Secretary to the Treasury on 29 May 2002. In 1997, he made history when he was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Health, the first black person to hold ministerial office in the Government. In October 1998, he became the minister of State for Home Affairs.
Born in Ghana in 1951, Boateng is himself the son of a former Ghanaian cabinet minister, and his mother is Scottish. Following a military coup in Ghana in 1966, he moved to England with his family. He came to prominence in the late 1970s as a civil rights lawyer in Lambeth, and became a familiar figure at protests of police activity in South London. He was elected to the GLC in 1981 and became chairman of its police committee, in which role he campaigned for greater accountability and control over the Metropolitan Police, and vice-chair of its ethnic minorities committee. He continued to be a persistent critic of the police, especially in relation to their dealings with the black and Asian communities. Sade Sade Adu has one of the most distinctive voices in pop music. For nearly 20 years, her unique blend of soul and jazz has kept her at the top of her profession and earned her a very large fan base and many accolades throughout her career.
Born Helen Folasade Adu in January 1959, in Ibadan Nigeria, her father was an economics professor, and her mother a nurse. Her parents separated when she was four and she and her brother moved to England with her mother. At seventeen, she studied fashion at St. Martin's School of Art, and also worked as a model. In 1981, she joined the jazz funk group Pride, and began writing with the group's saxophonist, Stewart Matthewman, who along with Andrew Hale and Paul Denman became the founder members of the group Sade. They made their debut at Ronnie Scott's in 1983, and landed a record deal that same year, releasing Your Love is King in 1984, which got to No. 4 in the UK charts. The album Diamond Life was released in July 1984, and was No.1 in the UK, and No. 5 in the US. The album stayed in the British charts for 98 weeks and sold over 6 million copies worldwide. The album also earned Sade a Grammy for Best New Artist. Seal Seal Henry Olusegun Olumide Adeola Samuel was born in Paddington, London to a Brazilian mother and Nigerian father. After graduating with a degree in architecture, he took various jobs around London, including electrical engineering and designing leather clothing. After a while, he began singing in local clubs and bars, and eventually joined a funk band called Push, touring Japan with them in the mid 80s. After travelling around Thailand and India, he returned to England and met Adamski, a house and techno producer. They collaborated on the song Killer, which became a No. 1 hit in 1990.
After Killer became a hit, he signed a solo recording contract and recorded his first solo album Seal, which featured his first Top Ten hit Crazy. His first album went gold. In 1994 he released his second album, also entitled Seal. The song, Kiss from A Rose earned him three Grammys for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. The song was also featured on the Batman Forever soundtrack. Sir Bill Morris Bill Morris was born in Bombay, Jamaica in 1938 and lived with his parents (his mother was a domestic science teacher, his father a part-time policeman) in a small rural village, Cheapside, Manchester. He was educated at nearby Mizpah School where his ambition was to play cricket for the West Indies.
His plans to attend a prestigious agricultural college had to be rethought in 1954, when he joined his recently widowed mother in Britain, living in the Handsworth district of Birmingham. The cultural differences were considerable - as was the weather - but he coped with the snow and the rain and started work at the Birmingham engineering company, Hardy Spicers, attending day-release courses in engineering skills at Handsworth Technical College. He later married and had two sons, Garry and Clyde, and now has two grandchildren, Una and Rohan. His wife, Minetta, died in 1990. Sir Trevor MacDonald Born in Trinidad in 1939, Trevor worked in various aspects of the media including local newspapers, radio and television. He joined the Caribbean regional service of the BBC World Service in 1960 as a producer, before moving to London at the end of that decade to work for the corporation (BBC Radio, London).
Moving to Independent Television News (ITN) in 1973, he rose steadily through the ranks. He's served as news, sports and diplomatic correspondent before moving on to become diplomatic editor and newscaster. Twice voted Newscaster of the year, McDonald is perceived as the face of ITN after years of fronting its flagship 'News at Ten' bulletin. | |
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