An Obituary for Paul Stephenson
On November 3, 2024, Paul Stephenson, perhaps one of the most instrumental civil rights activists of his generation in Great Britain, died at the age of 87. He leaves behind a legacy whose repercussions can be found in the discrimination and equality act that exists today. His book, Memoirs of a Black Englishman, is widely read and appreciated. Still, his name is often a passing footnote, known mainly by his more famous acquaintances—Muhammad Ali, Cleo Laine, and John Dankworth.
Stephenson was born in Rochford, Essex in 1937, to a British mother and a West African father. He went to secondary school in London, where he was the only black pupil, and later moved to Bristol where he was the first black social worker for Bristol City Council. He said he first understood racism at the age of ten. In his youth, he was inspired by Rosa Parks and the burgeoning civil rights movement in the US.
He grew up in a particularly contentious point of social change. The British Nationality Act of 1948 gave all people living in the British Empire citizenship of the UK, resulting in a mass migration of people from the colonies in what is now referred to as the Windrush generation. It caused intense strain on race relations; the 1958 Notting Hill race riots in London shook the nation.
Stephenson sought to bring the civil rights movement fully to Britain. And in 1963, Stephenson led the ‘Bristol Bus boycott.’ The Bristol Omnibuses managers refused to hire people who weren’t white despite the shortage of staff. In response, Stephenson and others organized a city-wide boycott, distributing fliers and protesting outside bus stops, some even lying on roads and in front of buses. Hundreds of university students joined and campaigned.
Stephenson became the protest’s primary spokesperson because he was articulate and university-educated. And eventually, he and the other protesters were successful, the buses removed the ban.
The next year Stephenson was again at the front of business-reformative activism. In 1964 Stephenson went to Bay Horse pub, ordered half a pint, and was subsequently told to leave; he refused. The police were called and Stephenson was arrested and kept in a holding cell until midnight.
Informal segregation was rampant in the UK, and an innumerable number of pubs and lodging houses openly displayed the sign “No Irish, no blacks, no dogs.”
Stephenson’s following trial was on national news. Stephenson was painted as aggressive and violent. The Bristol Evening Post described him as a "fool." Thankfully, a spectating Irishman came to his aid in the trial and attested to Stephenson’s version of the events, the charges were dropped and Stephenson was given a 25 £ compensation.
In the next month, Stephenson was invited to 10 Downing Street (the official residence and executive office of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom) to discuss the first vision of the Race Relations Act, that would be passed in 1965, the first-ever legislation in the UK to address racial discrimination, specifically on the grounds of color, race, or ethnic or national origins.
Stephenson’s momentous contribution was acknowledged in 2009 when he was awarded Officer of the Order of the British Empire.
In June 2020, at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, the Edward Colston statue in Bristol was toppled; and immediately protestors put forth a campaign to have it replaced with one of Paul Stephenson. Unfortunately, that petition did not come to fruition. But we can hope that the death of this monumental figure will result in a commemoration that will spread the history of the equality act he did so much to create.
