Celebrating Black History Month in Faversham

October is Black history month in the UK. Started in 1987 and driven by London activists, black history month is now celebrated throughout the UK. It is a time to celebrate black culture and the contribution of black people throughout our history. It is also a time to reflect on what more needs to be done to ensure there is continued action to tackle racism and make sure that black history is represented and celebrated all year round.

The theme of this year’s Black History Month is “Time for Change: Action not Words”. This means coming together and making real long term change, in our learning, our work places and in the public sphere. Committing to tackling racism and to never being a passive bystander.

My own Council, Faversham Town Council, is currently holding it’s first Black History Month event. Working with a local historian who has specialised in the black history of the UK and more specifically Kent, the equality, diversity and inclusion committee went about organising both an exhibition for the public to drop into in the Town Hall and also a series of speakers events.

The exhibition came together as a collaboration of local historical research and more national resources from blackhistorymonth.org.uk. It includes a wall dedicated to black people who have changed the world, from William Cuffay and 18^th century activist and leader of the Chartist movement, Malorie Blackman, the first black Children’s Laureate, to some of our present politicians and activists like Marcus Rashford.

The Town Council are also hosting three speakers events. Professor Hakim Adi will be speaking about his new book “African and Caribbean people in Britain” and councillors worked with a local bookshop to ensure there will be copies to be able to buy on the day. The second event is a discussion of black history in Kent with historian Markka Sherwood and the final event will be an online event on “understanding England’s past” with Dr Onyeka Nubia from the University of Nottingham. As a Town Council, we have never done anything like this before and I hope that it becomes something that the Council will continue with and build into the future.

The Lib Dem Campaign for Racial Equality (LDCRE) are an Associated Organisation which organises recruitment, training and support for BAME members with the aim of promoting greater involvement in political processes of the party. They run events all year round and you can find out how to more involved by emailing hello@ldcre.org.uk and make sure that you follow their social media channels for updates. For this years black history month, LDCRE  teamed up with ALDC to present a Webinar celebrating the work of BAME Lib Dem Councillors.

The preamble to our constitution is a concise statement of our values as a party. Everyone deserves to be able to live their lives free from discrimination and prejudice and we should always fight inequality where it exists.

Happy black history month!