Brighton & Hove Black History

Today is the day✊🏽 We are uniting to make it clear: hate has no home here. Not now, not ever. The only way forward is together, with love ❤️ #Together #Unity #Love

Princess Aida Desta was the granddaughter of Emperor Haile Selassie and her story connects Ethiopia to Brighton in a powerful and little-known way.

Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, visited Brighton in April 1938 during his exile in Britain. One of the most striking images shows him seated on Palace Pier a powerful reminder that Brighton is connected to global Black history. #BrightonHistory #brightonbh

Listen to "Neolithic

Scientific reconstructions suggest that early Neolithic people in Britain often had dark hair and darker skin tones. This reflects their ancestry from early farming populations that migrated into Europe thousands of years earlier.

@RegencySocBH thank you so much for restoring sake dean Mohammed’s gravestone. Much respect from us all at #Brighton and #hove #BlackHistory

They came from #Jamaica #Barbados #Trinidad #Guyana and beyond leaving families behind. #Brighton General Hospital became both a place of training and a new beginning Their work laid the foundations of #NHS care in #Sussex #Windrush75 #WindrushNurses @BrightonBH #Respect

@BrightonBH Thomas was brought to England and placed in the care of Henry and Eliza Thompson, a couple living at Great College Street in Kemp Town, Brighton. The Thompsons decided to raise Thomas in their home and give him a proper education and care much #love & #respect given #BrightonBH

Rescue by the Royal Navy In 1866, the ship HMS Highflyer stopped an Arab slave dhow off the coast of Zanzibar. Onboard were 152 enslaved Africans, including Thomas He was taken aboard HMS Highflyer and named after Captain Thomas Malcolm Sabine Pasley @BrightonBH

@PositiveHairDay and @lashabert doing a talk about #BlackHistory this week. It’s been 24 years!

It is 8 years since the veteran councillor Tehm Framroze died. Professionally he was a librarian at Sussex University and, with me, was one of three councillors that banned a film from cinemas in Brighton. Here is the tribute I wrote to him at the time wp.me/pDTWu-1aA

Don’t miss Glenn Ligon: All Over The Place at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, until 2 March 2025. A landmark exhibition featuring Ligon’s powerful work and his curated interventions, exploring race, identity, and culture through a critical lens. #GlennLigon #BHM @FitzMuseum_UK

Discover the extraordinary life of Ignatius Sancho: former slave, composer, grocer, and the first Black British voter. Join us on Saturday, 26 October at City Lit to explore his journey and impact on the abolition of slavery. #ReclaimingNarratives #BlackHistoryMonth

What a grand location for a day of workshop facilitation today at royal observatory Greenwich @ROGAstronomers @RMGreenwich to support #colonial Interpretation in the new #longitude #gallery. The grandest roundest room I’ve ever facilitated in!

@SmithsonianMag @BrightonBH @SmithsonianMag: “The ‘Six Triple Eight’ Battalion faced daunting challenges during WWII, clearing a massive backlog of mail in Europe. Their story of perseverance and service is a vital chapter in American history. #WomensHistory #BlackHistory” much #respect @BrightonBH

@SmithsonianMag Honoring the trailblasing Black women of the 6888th Postal Battalion, the only all-Black, all-female battalion deployed in Birmingham UK during WWII. Their dedication ensured millions of letters reached the troops, boosting morale on the front lines. #SixTripleEight @BrightonBH

Honoured to write an obituary for civil rights icon Paul Stephenson. The Bristol Bus boycott, a one man sit in, years of working on the ground for change, we lost a real one. We have to remember the generation who fought so hard against racism in the UK. theguardian.com/world/2024/nov…

Talk this Saturday by our black history researcher Suchi chatterjee at @BrightonMuseums brightonmuseums.org.uk/event/the-mari…

Happy Sunday all! One of my favourite views in #brighton 🖤

Dr. Bert Williams MBE @BrightonBH captivated us with his insights into the hidden Black history of Brighton & Hove! 🖤 In conversation with Dara Jafari, he shared his journey from Jamaica to the UK and his two-decade project promoting racial equality. #BrightonSummit