Windrush activist lists ‘100 great black Britons’

The filmmaker Steve McQueen and Mayor of Bristol Marvin Rees have been named in a list of “100 great black Britons” curated by Windrush campaigners and historians to mark Black History Month.

Patrick Vernon and Dr Angelina Osborne came up with the idea to “honour the remarkable achievements of key Black British individuals over history”.

The book, according to the official website of the campaign that inspired it, describes the impact of black British men and women over the past 400 years, including their “contribution and legacy to British history”.

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British Vogue - whose current editor Edward Enninful also made the list - says the authors are “keen for the book to be distributed throughout schools as an educational tool”. A GoFundMe fundraiser has been set up to raise money for the project.

The book arrives weeks after calls for a review to add more black, Asian and ethnic minority history to the English national curriculum was rejected by the government.

Other figures that made the list include model and trans activist Munroe Bergdorf, the Booker prize-winning author Bernardine Evaristo and Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton.

Vernon, a prominent campaigner for the black Britons affected by the Windrush scandal, said “a key golden thread” connected the lives of those included. “The people never gave up, they struggled, whatever field they were in, or discipline or time period in history, they were ahead of the game and they never gave up,” he said.

“If that can inspire young people around our own personal goals, achievement and fighting for equality in Britain and learning and educating then I think that would be a fantastic legacy.”