 | |
|
The first Black Parliamentarians in our times- by the Editor
|
|
|
The General Election of 1987 saw the historic election to the House of Commons of four Black Members of Parliament. They all were Labour M.P.s and their names were Dianne Abbott, Paul Boateng, Bernie Grant, and Keith Vaz. At Westminster they joined the Labour peer, Lord Pitt, appointed to the House of Lords in 1975. |
Dianne Abbott A journalist by profession, she had worked as an administrative trainee with the Home Office; Race Relations Officer for the National Council for Civil Liberties; a reporter with TV AM and Thames Television; Public Relations Officer with the GLC and Head of Lambeth Council's Press Office. Abbott was active in the Black Sections movement within the Labour Party and in community politics, including OWAAD (Organisation of Women of African and Asian Descent); the "Scrap Sus" campaign to ban police stop-and-search tactics levelled at Black youth, and was a founder member of the Black Media Workers' Organisation. Active for many years in the trade union movement, particularly on race equality issues, Ms Abbott served for a year as Britain's first Black female Equality Officer in the Association of Cinematograph Television and Allied Technicians. 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 Committees. 
Paul Y. Boateng His political life began with membership in the Labour party in 1966 and he became a prominent member of the Greater London Council 1981-86, serving as chair of the Police Committee. Elected as M.P. for Brent South in 1987, he severed links with the Black Sections movement in 1988, and became Opposition spokesman on Treasury and economic affairs. He is now Parliarmentary UnderSecretary for Health in the Labour Government. 
Bernie Grant Grant had served for a decade of service as local councillor in the London Borough of Haringey, of which he was elected Leader in 1985. He was the first ever Black Leader of a local authority in Europe, and in this capacity had responsibility for an annual budget of some £500 million, and the well-being of a quarter of a million people, many of them Black and ethnic minorities. Bernie Grant brought to parliament a long and distinguished record as a leading campaigner against injustice and racism. He was a founder memebr of the Standing Conference of Afro-Caribbean and Asian Councillors and a member of the Labour Party Black Sections. Grant was a member of the National Executive of the Anti-Apartheid Movement in Britain, with a longstanding concern about the situation in Southern Africa. He also had a keen interest in the affairs of the Caribbean region, and of Central America, Ireland and Cyprus. He was also involved in efforts to tackle racism on a European wide level, in association with European Members of Parliament and European anti-racist groups. 
Keith Vaz Keith was born in Aden, South Arabia, his family originated from India. He was educated in Twickenham and Hammersmith schools and at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge University, and gained BA Law Hons. and MA Hons. degrees. Before his election he was solicitor to the Highfields and Belgrave Law Centre in Leicester. He stood as a parliamentary candidate in Richmond, Surrey when he was just 25, and a year later contested Surrey West in the European election. His sister, Valerie Vaz, was at the time the Deputy Leader of the London Borough of Ealing, the first Black woman to hold the post. 
Lord David Pitt Upon his return to live in Britain in 1947 he served as a Member of London County Council and a Chairperson of the Greater London Council and, from 1985-88, as President of the British Medical Association. He was Deputy Chairman of the Community Relations Commission from 1968-1977, and Chairman in 1977. Notably, Pitt was a member of black peoples' and anti-discriminations organisations such as the Legue of Coloured Peoples and the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination which he chaired in 1965. As a prominent member of the House of Lords, inner city issues were among his major concerns. He was Chairperson of the Shelter National Campaign for the Homeless; Chairperson of the Race Equality Unit of the Institute of Social Work; President of the Open Door Counseling Service for the Youth of North London; President of the African-Caribbean Medical Society and Co-Chairperson of the Urban Trust, which provided pump-priming finance for projects in inner city areas. Note: We speak of "in our times" because Black participation in British politics has illustrious forebears, among them are: the Jamaican William Davidson, one of the Cato Street conspirators who was executed in 1820 for his alleged part in the plot to blow up the House of Commons; a fellow Jamaican Robert Wedderburn a prominent street orator in 1817 who was imprisoned for sedition in Newgate prison; and William Cuffay, British-born of African background who in the 1840s was a key member of the Chartist movement, the first British working class movement. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries there were three British MPs of Indian origin.
Back to the Archive |