CANDIDATES
Gaynor Legall
Gaynor Legall
Gaynor is fiercely proud of her origins and of the fact that she grew up in the multi-cultural, multi-religious area of Cardiff once known as Tiger Bay, much maligned and misunderstood by the wider community. It gave her the foundation she needed to do the things she wanted to do – make changes.
Gaynor became “politicised” in her teens, involving herself in local challenges and campaigns. She was a founder member of Wales Anti-apartheid, helping to grow the organisation from a Cardiff-based group to a national campaign and was the first Black City Councillor in Wales. She is a collaborator and has worked with other like-minded people to establish a number of voluntary organisations such as FullEmploy Wales, a job and training organisation for inner city youth, AWETU, a Black mental health charity, BAWSO the first Black domestic violence organisation in Wales.
Now retired from full-time employments and is the chair of The Heritage & Cultural Exchange, a community-based organisation that aims to fully chronicle the heritage together with the cultural diversity of Tiger Bay and Cardiff Docklands. She is currently leading the task and finish group established by the Welsh Government to undertake an audit of public monuments, street and building names associated with aspects of Wales’ Black history. The exercise is focused on the slave trade and the British Empire, but it also touches on the historical contributions to Welsh life of people of Black heritage.
Roy 'Power' Noel
Roy 'Power' Noel
Roy Augustine Noel (AKA Power} came to England 1955. He first stayed in London before moving to Huddersfield in 1956 where he worked in the mills. Roy is a revered figure in Huddersfield due to his many contributions to the community as well as his work as an unofficial social worker.
Roy started a black community centre and went on to form the first steel band in Huddersfield – this was done the old fashion way with pans around the neck up to the park!
Roy started the Black Star Social Club which looked at issues on race discrimination also unfair treatment for children at school. The official name of the organisation was African Descendants Brotherhood Union (ADBU) and connected to other organisations across the country.
Yvette Williams MBE
Yvette Williams MBE
Yvette Williams MBE is a lead campaigner on the Justice 4 Grenfell campaign. She has lived in North Kensington for over 30 years she previously worked with the Mangrove Community Association and has served tenure as a Trustee for the Tabernacle Community Centre and the Pepper Pot Club.
She is also a founding member of operation black vote – a national campaign encouraging BME communities to engage in the democratic process to get their voices heard and has worked with a number of campaigns including those for Stephen Lawrence and Frank Critchlow. Yvette has a professional background working in Education and Criminal Justice.
Yvette has a strong track record of delivery and experience in all aspects of leadership at a senior level; specialising in cultural and organisational change, promoting equality and diversity and public and community engagement strategies, for over 30 years.
Yvette was head of Equality and Diversity for the Crown Prosecution Service in London for 14 years, developing hate crime prosecution policies and community engagement strategies. She was awarded an MBE in the New Year’s Honours list in 2012. She is a co-founder of the Justice 4 Grenfell Campaign. The campaign has used a variety of media to ensure that Grenfell Tower disaster remains in the public eye. From the campaign’s inception in June 2017, Yvette has been a key speaker at many events including the Women of the World festival, the Justice Lecture at the GMB union conference and TEDx London.
Paul Lawrence
Paul Lawrence
Sometimes shockwaves are sent rippling through the Community when we lose a stalwart and a key figure in the grassroots movement. The impact of losing someone whose life’s work is culturally and community focused, can make or break the organisation’s lasting legacy. We know that when something is started, there is no guarantee that the work will live on with the intention in which it began. So we take a pause…
Brave people do brave things, but it’s the support of others that keeps this bravery alive. A phone call, email, message, letter, social media share or a whisper in someone’s ear, it all counts. When you reach out it lets the visionary know that what they have been losing countless hours of sleep over, has been worth it. It provides reassurance that the many sacrifices are ok because the people ‘believe’.
When the sound of the drum bangs, everyone hears its tune but if there is no drummer will the drum still be heard? It’s important that the energy we use to support the movements of a visionary when they have passed on are strong, resounding & in time as this is where the legacy value continues to exist.
Paul Lawrence was the co-founder of 100 Black Men of London. The passion and foresight which has touched so many lives across the Community, “Our Community” was very real, heartfelt & undeniable, he was a visionary, a friend and advisor to many. He has now been promoted to become an Ancestor
Claudia Jones
Claudia Jones
Claudia Jones was a feminist, political activist, visionary, and pioneering journalist. Jones was born in Trinidad in 1915. After living and working in the United States, where she was an active member of the American Communist Party, Jones was exiled to the UK in 1955.
In the UK, Claudia continued her lifelong fight against racial inequality and intolerance. She worked with activist organizations to campaign against housing injustices, discrimination in the workplace, and racist immigration policies. Jones was also a staunch champion for women’s rights. She stressed that: ‘no peace can be obtained if any women, especially those who are oppressed and impoverished, are left out of the conversation’.
In 1958, Claudia founded the West Indian Gazette (WIG), an anti-racist newspaper campaigning for social equality. This was Britain’s first commercial Black newspaper. WIG sought to unite West Indians in diaspora and to foster dialogue with Black internationalist freedom movements. The paper also highlighted patterns of anti-Black violence, racial harassment and prejudice in the UK.
When violent riots broke out in Notting Hill in 1958, Claudia worked ‘to wash the taste of the riots from the mouths of Black people’. In an attempt to uplift Black British communities, she helped to launch the Notting Hill Carnival in 1959. The first carnival took place at St Pancras Town Hall. Televised by the BBC, it was a celebration of West Indian culture and heritage. Today, Notting Hill carnival is the second largest street gathering in the world. It is a meeting place for artists, activists and crowds that are eager to display unity and enjoy music, dance, calypso, steel drums, masquerade, and food stalls.
Claudia Jones not only played a key role in fighting for racial equality in the UK, but she also helped to bring Caribbean culture to the forefront of British life.
Walter Tull
Walter Tull
Lieutenant Walter Tull was the first British-born black army officer and the first black officer to lead white British troops into battle. He fought on the Somme in 1916 and became the first black combat officer in the British army, despite a military rule excluding “negroes” from exercising actual command.
Walter began his football career at east London amateur side Clapton, where he would win the London Senior Cup, the FA Amateur Cup and the London County Amateur Cup during the 1908/09 season. His short time at Forest Gate came to an end soon after when he was invited to join Tottenham Hotspur on their pre-season tour to South America in the summer of 1909. Impressing sufficiently, Tull was offered professional terms by the club and duly signed ahead of the 1909/10 campaign.
When the First World War broke out, Walter abandoned his football career to join the 17th (1st Football) Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment. During his military training, Walter was promoted three times. In November 1914, as Lance Sergeant, he was sent to Les Ciseaux in France.
On 25 March, 1918, Walter Tull was killed by machine-gun fire while trying to help his men retreat. Walter was such a popular man and several of his men risked their own lives in an attempt to retrieve his body under heavy fire but they were unsuccessful due to the enemy soldiers advance. Walter’s body was never found and he is one of the thousands of soldiers from World War One who has no known grave. He died in No Man’s Land. “A machine-gun bullet pierced his neck and came out just beneath his right eye,” a newspaper later reported.
Greg McKenzie
Greg McKenzie
Greg McKenzie is one of the UK’s most trusted news correspondents and documentary filmmakers, with a career spanning over 10 years. Greg has worked on some of the biggest news stories. As a broadcaster, he has helped to bring fourth cutting edge documentary films for the BBC.
Greg has investigated how antique guns are being brought into the UK perfectly legally and ending up in the hands of criminals. He’s also investigated accusations of financial irregularities against the Salvation Pro-claimers Anointed Church (SPAC Nation), a charity claiming to be dedicated to tackling gang violence and crime.
When thousands of young people born or brought up in the UK were having their dreams destroyed or lives disrupted because of their immigration status, reporter Greg McKenzie met those who said they were being treated as second-class citizens.
Jacqueline McKenzie
Jacqueline McKenzie
Jacqueline was a member of the independent advisory group that delivered the Windrush Lessons Learned Review in March 2020 which resulted in an official apology from the Home Secretary. The report concluded that the government’s actions, and the terrible consequences that followed, had been “foreseeable and avoidable”, and that immigration regulations had been tightened “with complete disregard for the Windrush generation”.
Jacqueline had an article published in the Discrimination Law Journal on the Windrush Lessons Learned Review and gave oral and written evidence to the Home Affairs Committee on the Windrush Compensation Scheme and represents hundreds of people affected by the Windrush scandal. Jacqueline has been working to secure the rights of Caribbean-born Britons, those who came into the country legally between the 1950s and 1980s, since before the scandal hit the headlines in 2018. She has been a campaigner on the rights of the Windrush generation in themes including education, social welfare, criminal justice and civil rights and some of these issues will be reflected in her work at Leigh Day.
Jacqueline has worked on several high-profile cases over the years including for the family of the late Jean Charles de Menezes, a Brazilian man who was shot dead in Stockwell station, by police, after being mistaken for a suicide bomber. She was admitted as a solicitor in England in Wales in 2008 after a 20-year local government career and worked at Birnberg Peirce and Partners, before moving on to run her own immigration consultancy, ‘McKenzie Beute and Pope’, in 2010.
Between 2012 to 2014, Jacqueline took a sabbatical during which time she was chief executive of the female prisoners’ welfare association, Hibiscus Initiatives, which works with foreign national women in prisons in the UK and she is the founder of the Centre for Migration Advice and Research. Jacqueline is admitted to practice at the Grenada Bar.
Joe Williams
Joe Williams
Joe Williams, from Leeds, is the founder and director of ‘Leeds Black History Walk’ and ‘Heritage Corner’, celebrating African history and diversity in Leeds. Since 2009, ‘Leeds Black History Walk’ has shared otherwise untold African narratives in local and world history with members of the public.
The two hour walk starting at University of Leeds explores African narratives and positive contributions to British history, such as connections Ethiopian royalty have with Queen Victoria. His ‘Heritage Corner’ project hosts educational workshops about the historic African presence in Yorkshire, using dance and poetry to share important historical narratives. He has worked with top artists and cultural experts to lead inclusive workshops at the British Library and the University of Leeds.
In a personal letter to Joe, Prime Minister Theresa May said: “By establishing ‘Heritage Corner’ and the ‘Leeds Black History Walk’, you are encouraging your local community to learn from the past in order to understand the present and shape the future. You should be tremendously proud of celebrating African history and sharing previously untold stories which promote Britain’s rich diversity.”
Joe said at the time: “African history is neglected in mainstream British society and I am indebted to many historians and educators who have empowered me to understand and promote a rich heritage that connects to Britain. ‘Heritage Corner’ promotes a shared heritage that seeks to find the best in all of us.”
