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100 Great Black Britons

100 Great Black Britons is a poll that was first undertaken in 2003 to vote for and celebrate the greatest Black Britons of all time. It was created in a campaign initiated by Patrick Vernon in response to a BBC search for 100 Greatest Britons, together with a television series (2002), which featured no Black Britons in the published listing. The result of Vernon's campaign was that in February 2004 Mary Seacole was announced as having been voted the greatest Black Briton. Following the original poll, 100 Great Black Britons was re-launched in 2020 in an updated version based on public voting, together with a book of the same title.

Background

In 2002, the BBC launched a campaign and television series called 100 Greatest Britons, with the definition of a great Briton as "anyone who was born in the British Isles, or who has lived in the British Isles, and has played a significant part in the life of the British Isles". The series was the idea of Jane Root, then Controller of BBC Two, and in the final results of the BBC poll, Winston Churchill was voted "the greatest Briton ever". At the time, the poll was criticised for lacking in diversity, as out of 100 nominees only 13 were women while none were Black (of African descent).

In response to the absence of any Black people in the "100 Greatest Britons poll", Every Generation and Patrick Vernon launched a website and the alternative campaign, 100 Great Black Britons, in October 2003 during Black History Month, to "raise the profile of the Black contribution to Britain". Vernon said: "Black history hasn't been recognised. We didn't come here at Windrush in [1948] – we've been here for a thousand years. We've influenced and shaped Britain." Believing that people were not aware of the long history of Black people in the UK, he later added that the poll was part of a campaign to provide role models of Black Britons of all ages. The website that hosted the survey www.100greatestblackbritons.com received more than a million hits during the online campaign, and more than 100,000 people voted in the poll over three months, choosing from a selection of present-day and historic Black figures. The poll has been described as a landmark moment and one of the most successful movements to focus on the role of people of African and Caribbean descent in British history.

Top of the subsequent list of 100 Greatest Black Britons was Mary Seacole, a nurse who helped soldiers during the Crimean War and who is often overshadowed by the work of her contemporary, Florence Nightingale, and whose contribution was often ignored by the history books. Other figures in the first poll of 100 Greatest Black Britons of all time included musicians, politicians, media figures, religious leaders and even royalty. Response to the list saw Black historical figures being added to the school curriculum, blue plaques were put up in memory of some of the individuals on the list and a statue of Mary Seacole was unveiled in the garden of St Thomas' Hospital in London. In March 2020, a petition was started to campaign for the temporary field hospital in Birmingham to be named after Mary Seacole after it was established that Birmingham's National Exhibition Centre would be used to treat COVID-19 patients: this was in response to the temporary hospital at London's ExCel centre being named the Nightingale Hospital after Florence Nightingale.

Criticism

Paul Phoenix, of Black Parents in Education, criticised the poll for being inspired by the 100 Greatest Britons poll and copying the idea. Phoenix said, "Why do we always have to keep reacting to what other people do? We should celebrate our heroes every single day the year and not wait until Black History Month to bring these issues to public attention". Sam Walker, of the Black Cultural Archives, responded in support of the 100 Great Black Britons poll, stating that "it doesn't matter whether the poll is a copycat idea; so is Black History Month, which came from America in the late 1980s and has served us well to date".

The inclusion of Queen Philippa of Hainault on the list was criticised, as historians dispute that she was "black" in any modern sense. She was of predominantly European ancestry, with remote Armenian ancestry on her father's side, and Cuman (Turkic/Asian) ancestry on her mother's side. A report written by Bishop Walter de Stapledon in c.1319 describes either Philippa (then a child) or one of her sisters as "brown of skin all over", with hair "betwixt blue-black and brown"; but, aside from the confusion over who is being described, it is unclear precisely what these terms imply. All known portraits appear to show Philippa as white. Historian Kathryn Warner concludes that she was "a European woman and emphatically not of African ancestry".

2003 poll results

Top 10

2003 poll – full list

2019–2020 relaunch

In 2019, the decision was taken to relaunch and update the 100 Great Black Britons poll 16 years after the first poll. This was made in reaction to the lack of awareness in the general of public to Black British culture, establishment in Britain and Black Britons in general, in addition to both the "Windrush scandal" and the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum. The campaign and poll was re-launched by Vernon and Dr Angeline Osborne, an independent researcher and heritage consultant, in the wake of the Windrush scandal, the Brexit referendum, the rise of right-wing populism and the continuing economic issues faced by black communities across the UK. Repeating the poll was believed to be of great importance as academics and independent scholars have discovered new Black British historical figures and new role models have emerged since the first poll in 2003. The poll and campaign was re-launched to celebrate and tackle the invisibility of Black people's achievements and contributions in the UK. The public was invited to vote for the most-admired Black Briton in several categories, and from the thousands of nominations received in 2019 a shortlist was selected.

As part of the 100 Great Black Britons campaign, children and young people have been encouraged to explore Black British history and celebrate the continued legacy and achievements of Black people in Britain. The competition is sponsored by the National Education Union (NEU) and Kevin Courtney, the NEU's joint general secretary has said: "The NEU supports this competition to celebrate what we have always known: that Britain's history is irrefutably rooted in black and global history". Schools have also been encouraged to engage with the competition, with suggestions that young people could dress up as their favourite Black Briton, create a project or write an essay to honour the legacy and heritage of Black Britons and to celebrate Black British history. Arike Oke, managing director of Black Cultural Archives, has said: "The resources on the 100 Great Black Britons site can be used by families, parents, guardians and carers to help children understand themselves and their wider history".

The results of the updated poll were revealed in a new book published on 24 September 2020. The 2020 list was compiled by a panel after the public was invited to submit nominations and, according to Vernon, "could easily have been called 1,000 Great Black Britons", based on the volume of nominations, which have been listed in the book, alongside biographies of the top 100. The selection was made from among people who have made major contributions to arts, science, business, philanthropy and other areas in the UK and who had used their positions to advance the Black community. Described by the Hackney Citizen as "inspiring and highly educational", the book was ranked at the top of the Amazon book charts two weeks before it was published. With the book's publication, a campaign was launched to pay for a copy to be sent to every secondary school, against the background of calls for Black and other minorities' history to be added to the National Curriculum being rejected by the government.