In Schools: Black Heroes
The Trust works in partnership with Manchester City Council and the University of Manchester to produce resources about Black and Ethnic Minority British Heroes with primary schools in Manchester. The biographies contain writing and illustrations produced by pupils and students, to create innovative new resources for children.
After all the hard work of activists and professionals during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, we still find British Black History fighting for space in, and to stay part of, the UK curriculum.
Britain's BME communities are part of Britain's hIstory and we will continue to use our work to show this.
Operation Black Vote is just one of many organisations working to raise awareness of the damage that could be done to the learning experiences of all our children if Black history and its role-models were taken out of the mainstream education offer in schools.
To find more about Operation Black Vote and it's campaign to keep Mary Seacole in the curriculum visit: http://www.obv.org.uk/news-blogs/28748-support-mary-seacole-petition
Black Olympians Project (April 2012)In April 2012 we will be publishing a book celebrating the achievements of Britain's Black Olympic Heroes. Since the summer of 2011, we have been working with schools in Manchester to develop artwork, biographies and poetry about BME sportspeople who've represented Great Britain on the Olympic stage over the last 40 years. The pupils and their class teachers chose icons to research and produced classroom displays on them. We will now combine this work into profiles about the athletes for our next biography based publication. The book will celebrate the way in which Britain's young people view our Black Olympic Heritage, and act as a contribution to Manchester's celebration of the Olympic games coming to Britain for the first time in over 80 years. Click here to order your copy
"To Be Free Is Very Sweet": The Life of Mary Prince (2010)Mary Prince was born into slavery in the Caribbean in 1788. She tried to resist the worst abuses of her ‘masters’ and did what she could to regain her freedom. After a hard life of toil and cruelty in Bermuda, Turks Island and Antigua, Mary was brought to London in 1828. She ran away, made contact with the Anti-Slavery Society and told them her life-story. Her account of her experiences was written down, becoming the first life of a Black woman published in Britain and an important weapon in the campaign for the abolition of slavery in 1833. Based on Mary’s own testimony, this accessible and beautifully illustrated biography of Mary Prince has been created by secondary school students so that other young people can read about the life of this significant abolitionist hero. Click here to order your copy
Samuel Coleridge Taylor: The Music Man (2007)The story of Samuel Coleridge Taylor, the 19th century composer. It has been illustrated and written by students from Rolls Crescent Primary School. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was a mixed race, genius musician who was born in 1875 and died in 1912. In his lifetime he played a range of instruments including the violin and the piano and loved to create different pieces of music. Click here to order your copy
Liberté: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan (2008)The story of Noor Inayat Khan, who served as an SOE agent with the Paris Resistance in 1943. Noor was captured and imprisoned by the Gestapo and was executed at Dachau in 1944. She was posthumously awarded the French Croix de Guerre in 1946 and the British George Cross in 1949. This book tells the story of Noor’s life in accessible language, with many illustrations, history fact boxes and a timeline. It is designed for primary school children and was written by children from a Year 6 class of Chorlton CE Primary School, Manchester. Click here to order your copy
Equiano - Son of Africa (2006 and 2007)The story of Olaudah Equiano, a major figure in the 18th century abolitionist movement in Britain. Kidnapped and enslaved from his home in Africa, Equiano was able to buy his freedom in 1766. He became involved in abolition campaigning and published his “Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa, the African” in 1789. This book tells the story of Equiano’s life in accessible language. It is designed for primary school children and was written in conjunction with two Manchester primary schools, Our Lady's RC Primary School and St Edward's RC Primary School, with children contributing the poems and the drawings. Click here to order your copy |
