Black History Month UK | People Who Help Tell the Story of Britain
When children learn about Black history, the same few names often appear. Rosa Parks. Martin Luther King Jr. Nelson Mandela. Harriet Tubman. These are hugely important historical figures, and their stories absolutely deserve a place in children's education. But they are not British history.
During Black History Month in the UK, there is an opportunity to introduce children to another collection of stories: the Black people who have lived in, contributed to and helped shape Britain across centuries. One of the biggest misconceptions about Black British history is that it began with the arrival of the Empire Windrush in 1948. It didn't. Black people can be found throughout Britain's history: in Roman Britain, Tudor England, Georgian society, Victorian Britain, both World Wars and modern Britain. There were musicians and writers. Soldiers and sailors. Doctors and nurses. Campaigners and politicians. Scientists and athletes. Some became famous. Others appear only briefly in surviving historical records. And that itself raises an interesting question for children: Whose stories get remembered and whose get left out?
Here are 15 people children can discover during Black History Month, with plenty of opportunities to connect their stories to the history they may already be learning.
1. Septimius Severus — An African-Born Roman Emperor Who Died in York
Septimius Severus was born in Leptis Magna, in what is now Libya, in AD 145. He eventually became emperor of the enormous Roman Empire. What makes his story particularly interesting for British history is that Severus travelled to Britain during the later years of his reign, campaigning in the north before dying in York in AD 211.
For children studying Roman Britain, his story is an opportunity to challenge a very modern idea of what a "Roman" looked like. The Roman Empire stretched across parts of Europe, North Africa and western Asia. People, armies, goods and ideas travelled enormous distances within it. Roman Britain was connected to this much wider world.
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Find Leptis Magna and York on a modern map. Then look at a map of the Roman Empire.
How far had Severus travelled from the place where he was born?
This can lead into discussions about empire, migration, identity and what it actually meant to be "Roman".
2. John Blanke — A Black Musician in Henry VIII's Court
John Blanke is one of the most fascinating people to include when children study the Tudors. He was a Black trumpeter who worked at the royal courts of Henry VII and Henry VIII in the early sixteenth century. We know about him because he appears in historical financial records and he was also depicted in the Westminster Tournament Roll. This makes him especially useful for young historians because children can look at actual historical evidence connected with his life. His existence also challenges a common picture of Tudor England. Black people were present in Britain centuries before the Windrush generation.
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Find an image of the Westminster Tournament Roll and see whether your child can spot John Blanke. Then ask:
What can a picture tell us that a written document cannot?
And equally importantly: What can't it tell us? Now you're practising historical source analysis.
3. Ignatius Sancho — Writer, Composer and Voter
Ignatius Sancho had an extraordinary life. Born in the eighteenth century against the background of the transatlantic slave trade, Sancho eventually lived in Britain and became a writer, composer and shopkeeper. His surviving letters provide historians with valuable evidence about his experiences and Georgian Britain. Sancho is also widely recognised as the first known Black Briton to vote in a British parliamentary election, having met the property requirements then necessary to vote. That last detail creates a fantastic citizenship investigation.
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Ask: Who was allowed to vote in Britain during Sancho's lifetime?
The answer may surprise children. Voting rights were extraordinarily limited compared with Britain today. From Sancho, you can move into the history of democracy and ask: How did Britain get from that system to universal adult suffrage?
4. Olaudah Equiano — A Voice in the Abolition Movement
Olaudah Equiano became one of the best-known Black writers associated with Britain's abolitionist movement. His autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, was published in 1789. The book described his experiences of enslavement, freedom, travel and life within the eighteenth-century Atlantic world. His writing reached a wide audience at a time when Britain was debating the slave trade. For older children, Equiano offers something particularly valuable: a historical voice. Rather than learning exclusively from a modern textbook describing enslavement centuries later, children can examine what somebody living at the time actually wrote.
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Introduce the idea of a primary source. Ask: What is different about learning history from someone who experienced the period themselves?
Then consider another question: Does being a primary source automatically mean a source tells us everything?
That is the beginning of sophisticated historical thinking.
5. Dido Elizabeth Belle — Race and Class in Georgian Britain
Dido Elizabeth Belle was born in 1761 to an enslaved African woman and British naval officer Sir John Lindsay. She was raised at Kenwood House by her great-uncle William Murray, Earl of Mansfield, one of Britain's most senior judges. A famous portrait shows Dido alongside her cousin, Lady Elizabeth Murray. Her life is particularly interesting because it allows children to investigate the intersections between race, class, wealth, family and slavery in eighteenth-century Britain. Dido occupied an unusual position within Georgian society, and historians continue to examine what her life can tell us about the period.
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Look closely at the portrait of Dido and Elizabeth.
What are they wearing?
How are they positioned?
What objects appear in the painting?
What might the artist have been trying to communicate?
Art can be historical evidence too.
6. Mary Seacole — Medicine, Travel and the Crimean War
Mary Seacole was born in Jamaica in 1805. Her mother practised traditional Caribbean medicine, and Seacole developed medical knowledge while also becoming a successful businesswoman and extensive traveller. During the Crimean War, she travelled independently to the Crimea and established the British Hotel, where she provided food, supplies and assistance to soldiers. Mary Seacole is often taught alongside Florence Nightingale. That comparison can be useful but children do not need to decide which woman was "better". A much richer investigation is to compare their experiences.
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Ask children:
What did Mary Seacole and Florence Nightingale have in common?
How were their backgrounds different?
What roles did they perform?
How were they remembered afterwards?
History rarely needs to be a competition between two people.
7. Pablo Fanque — Britain's First Black Circus Owner
Here's one children may be much less likely to know. Pablo Fanque was born William Darby in Norwich in 1810. He became an accomplished equestrian performer and eventually ran his own circus, becoming Britain's first Black circus proprietor. His shows were successful across Victorian Britain. And there is a wonderful connection for music-loving families. More than a century later, an old circus poster advertising one of Fanque's events inspired John Lennon while writing "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" for the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Now Victorian history connects with twentieth-century popular music.
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Investigate Victorian entertainment. Before television, cinema, YouTube and video games: What did families do for entertainment?
8. Walter Tull — Footballer and First World War Officer
Walter Tull was born in Folkestone in 1888. He became a professional footballer, playing for clubs including Tottenham Hotspur and Northampton Town. Then came the First World War. Tull joined the British Army and eventually became an officer despite racial barriers within military regulations of the period. He served on the Western Front and was killed in action in France in 1918, aged just 29. His story provides an excellent entry point for children interested in sport. Football can lead directly into: the First World War, racism in Edwardian Britain, military history and social change.
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Research what professional football was like in Britain before the First World War. How does it compare with football today?
9. Lilian Bader — A Black British Woman in the Second World War
Lilian Bader was born in Liverpool in 1918. During the Second World War, she became one of the first Black women to serve in Britain's armed forces, joining the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF). She trained as an instrument repairer, working with aircraft equipment. Her story is useful because it broadens two historical narratives simultaneously. When children learn about the Second World War, they often learn about soldiers, evacuees and the Blitz. When they learn about women's wartime work, they may hear about factories and nursing. Bader shows another part of that picture.
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Investigate all the different jobs women performed during the Second World War. Create a chart. Children may be surprised by the variety.
10. Sam King — Windrush Passenger and Mayor
The Windrush generation should not be represented to children simply as a photograph of a ship. Individual people had individual lives. Sam Beaver King is one of those people. King served in the RAF during the Second World War before returning to Britain aboard the Empire Windrush in 1948. He later worked for the Post Office, became involved in community life and entered local politics. In 1983, he became Mayor of Southwark. His story allows children to follow one life across several major parts of twentieth-century British history.
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Rather than simply asking "What was Windrush?", ask: Who travelled on the ship?
Choose individual passengers and investigate what happened to them afterwards. A historical event becomes a collection of human stories.
11. Claudia Jones — Journalism, Activism and Caribbean Culture
Claudia Jones was born in Trinidad in 1915 and spent much of her earlier life in the United States. After being deported from the US, she arrived in Britain in 1955. Jones became an important journalist and activist and founded the West Indian Gazette, one of Britain's first major Black newspapers. Following racist violence in Notting Hill, she also helped organise Caribbean cultural celebrations in London. These events are often discussed as important precursors to what eventually became Notting Hill Carnival.
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Investigate Notting Hill Carnival. Don't stop at costumes and music. Ask: Why did it develop? Celebrations often have histories behind them.
12. Olive Morris — A Young Community Activist
Olive Morris was born in Jamaica in 1952 and moved to Britain as a child. During the 1960s and 1970s she became involved in campaigns concerning racism, housing, women's rights and community issues, particularly around Brixton. Morris died from cancer in 1979 when she was only 27 years old. Her story can challenge another assumption children sometimes develop about history: that people have to be old, powerful or famous before they can make a difference.
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Ask: How old does somebody have to be before they can change their community?
Find examples of young campaigners from different historical periods.
13. Paul Stephenson — The Bristol Bus Boycott
Paul Stephenson was an important figure in Britain's civil-rights history. In 1963, he helped lead the Bristol Bus Boycott. At the time, the Bristol Omnibus Company operated a discriminatory employment practice that prevented Black and Asian people from working as bus crews. The boycott challenged that discrimination and attracted national attention. The company eventually changed its policy. The campaign took place two years before Britain's Race Relations Act 1965. This is an important story because British children sometimes learn extensively about the American Civil Rights Movement without realising that Britain had its own struggles against racial discrimination.
Explore further
Compare the Bristol Bus Boycott with the Montgomery Bus Boycott in the United States.
What was similar?
What was different?
What does comparison help us understand?
14. Diane Abbott — A Parliamentary First
Diane Abbott made British political history in 1987 when she became the first Black woman elected to the House of Commons. Interestingly, 1987 was also the year the UK's first Black History Month was held. For children studying democracy or Parliament, her election provides an opportunity to investigate how representation has changed over time.
Who could become an MP 200 years ago?
When were women permitted to sit in Parliament?
Who was the first Black woman MP?
What does Parliament look like today?
Historical milestones can be studied regardless of our personal opinions about individual politicians or political parties.
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Create a representation timeline of the UK Parliament. Children can investigate the people who broke different barriers to parliamentary representation.
15. Maggie Aderin-Pocock — Looking Towards Space
Black British history is not only about the past. It is being made now. Maggie Aderin-Pocock is a British space scientist and science communicator. Born in London to Nigerian parents, she has worked in science and engineering and has become widely known for communicating astronomy to the public. Her story is particularly useful because Black History Month and World Space Week both take place during October. It gives us an opportunity to connect history with STEM. Black history does not need to sit in one corner of the history curriculum. It belongs in science too.
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Ask: What does a space scientist actually do?
Then investigate the enormous variety of careers connected with space: astronomers, engineers, mathematicians, computer scientists, physicists, technicians, doctors, and many more.
Put Them on a Timeline
One of the simplest activities you can do with these 15 people is also one of the most powerful.
Create a long Black British history timeline. Place each person roughly where they belong.
Roman Britain
↓
Tudor Britain
↓
Georgian Britain
↓
Victorian Britain
↓
First World War
↓
Second World War
↓
Windrush and post-war Britain
↓
Civil-rights campaigns
↓
Modern Britain
That visual immediately challenges the idea that Black British history suddenly began in the twentieth century. Then leave spaces on the timeline. Because these 15 people are only a beginning.
Don't Teach 15 Mini-Biographies and Call It Done
There is a bigger educational opportunity here. We don't simply want children to remember:
John Blanke = Tudor trumpeter.
Mary Seacole = Crimean War.
Walter Tull = footballer and soldier.
Those facts are useful starting points. But each person is a doorway into a larger historical period.
John Blanke can lead into Tudor society.
Ignatius Sancho and Olaudah Equiano can lead into Georgian Britain, enslavement and abolition.
Mary Seacole can lead into Victorian medicine and empire.
Walter Tull can lead into the First World War.
Lilian Bader can lead into the Second World War.
Sam King can lead into migration and post-war Britain.
Paul Stephenson can lead into British civil rights.
Diane Abbott can lead into democracy and representation.
Maggie Aderin-Pocock can lead into modern science.
People make enormous historical topics human.
Black British History Is British History
Perhaps that is the most important message for children. These people do not need to disappear from learning when October ends. When you study the Tudors, John Blanke belongs there. When you study Georgian Britain, Ignatius Sancho, Olaudah Equiano and Dido Belle belong there. When you study Victorian Britain, Mary Seacole and Pablo Fanque belong there. When you study the First World War, Walter Tull belongs there. When you study the Second World War, Lilian Bader belongs there. When you study post-war Britain, Windrush and Britain's Black communities belong there. And when children learn about modern British science, literature, politics, sport and culture, Black Britons belong there too.
Black History Month gives us a reason to start looking.
A rich history curriculum gives us a reason to keep looking all year.
Try This During Black History Month
You don't need to study all 15 people this October.
In fact, I would rather a child investigated three people properly than copied 15 sets of dates from a webpage. Let your child choose. Pick one person from before 1800. One from the nineteenth or twentieth century. And one modern figure. Then ask the same five questions:
When and where did this person live?
What was Britain like at the time?
What did they do?
What evidence tells us about their life?
What else does their story make us want to investigate?
That final question may be the most important because good history teaching doesn't simply produce answers. It creates better questions.
Fifteen people cannot represent the entirety of Black British history. That is precisely the point. There are more people to discover. More records to examine. More stories to read. More connections to make. Black people have been present throughout many different periods of Britain's past, and learning their stories helps children develop a more complete picture of British history.
Black British history isn't an additional story sitting beside British history.
It is part of the story of Britain.
