October 2021

What is Black History Month, and why is it

celebrated?

Black History Month is an annual celebration of achievements

and a time for recognizing the central role of black people in

history.

It began as a way of remembering important people and

events in the history of the African diaspora. It is celebrated in

February in the United States and Canada, while in Ireland, the

Netherlands, and the United Kingdom it is observed in October.

When did we first begin to celebrate

Black History Month?

1976

President Gerald Ford officially recognized Black History

Month in 1976, calling upon the public to “seize the

opportunity to honour the too-often neglected

accomplishments of black Americans in every area of

endeavour throughout our history.”

Black History Month was first launched in London in 1987

where the aim was for the local community to challenge

racism and educate themselves and others about the history

that was not taught in schools

What do the colours symbolise for Black

History Month?

The Pan-African Flag, created in 1920, is an emblem of pride featuring the colours red, green and black. Do you

know what the different colours symbolise?

Red: the blood that unites all people of Black African

ancestry, and shed for liberation

Black: for the people whose existence as a nation,

though not a nation-state, is affirmed by the existence of

the flag;

Green: the abundant and vibrant natural wealth of

Africa, the Motherland.

Black History month celebrates influential

African Americans. Here are a few..

Martin Luther King Jr.

No single African American in history is perhaps as

famous as Martin Luther King Jr., otherwise known as

MLK. There is a federal holiday on the third Monday

each January celebrated in his honor, and whole

sections of textbooks are devoted to his civil rights

activism in the 1950s and 1960s. A Baptist minister in the

city of Montgomery by trade and a prominent civil

rights activist, Martin Luther King made his mark by

preaching nonviolent means of protesting the

segregation of whites and blacks in the United States.

MLK’s assassination at the hands of a white man in

1968 sparked riots and mourning across the world.

Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks is best known for refusing to move to the

back of a bus after the driver demanded she give

her seat to a white passenger. While not the first

person to refuse to obey the segregation laws in the

United States, Rosa Parks was labelled as the

“Mother of the Freedom Movement” following her

bold disobedience and subsequent arrest. Like MLK,

Rosa Parks was from Montgomery, and she and King

together made great strides in procuring basic

human rights for African Americans across the

country.

Muhammed Ali

Born Cassius Clay in 1942, Muhammad Ali made his

name in the sport of boxing, where he was one of the

greatest heavyweight champions of all time. Ali’s

best years were in the early 1960s, during which time

he changed his name from “Cassius Clay,” which he

associated with slavery, and adopted a new one,

adopted from the Islamic tradition that symbolized a

new black separatist movement in the United States,

the Nation of Islam. Ali also gained status as a

conscientious objector to the Vietnam War, which

moved him further into the realm of left-wing activism

and intersected race with the larger counterculture

movement in the United States.

To celebrate Black History Month,

we are going to explore the

Windrush Generation and how they

influenced the National Health

Service (NHS)

Research time.

What is the Windrush Generation?

The windrush generation explained

Windrush and the NHS

Ever since the turn of the twentieth century, successive governments have resolved national workforce crises through recruiting workers from overseas. The period immediately after the Second World War was no different.

In June 1948, the merchant vessel Empire Windrush arrived at Tilbury Docks carrying 492 workers from the Caribbean. They came to Britain to assist with post-war reconstruction. Many of the Windrush generation would go on to work in, and support the establishment of, the newly created National Health Service (NHS).

The arrival of the Windrush helped to mark a new chapter in both the birth of our NHS and the growth of multicultural Britain.

The impact that the windrush generation made on society is significant. Many aspects of British society today would be unrecognisable without the contributions which immigration has made over the generations, especially, our NHS.

‘We owe debt of gratitude to Windrush

generation,’ Prince Charles – June 2020

Lets hear the history of black and

ethnic minority staff, working in the

NHS, through their own stories.

Elaine was born in the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba in 1941. She

won a scholarship to study nursing in Holland. In the early 1960s she

came to Manchester where she worked first at the Manchester Royal

Infirmary (MRI) and then the Northern Hospital as a staff nurse and

ward sister. She reflects on the differences in healthcare in these

various settings, the hierarchies in NHS nursing, including the

experience of being in a role of authority as a woman of colour and

the first black ward sister in the Northern. She moved with her

husband to Nigeria in the 1970s where she developed a nursing

school. In 1992 she returned to the UK and took up work in nursing

home care. She went on to volunteer at the Macmillan Centre at the

MRI and the Health Authority. She continues to serve on various

health and social care committees in Greater Manchester.

Elaine Unegbu

Eulon Graham

Eulon came to Chorley, Manchester, to train as a nurse in the

1960s as at that time it could take up to three years to get a

training place in her home country of Jamaica. Eulon’s brother

was already working in Chorley as a mechanic and he sent her

the address of a local hospital so she could apply directly. Living

in the Nurses’ Home brought her a lot of ‘fun’. She remembers

being shocked when she first saw snow; she had never worn a

cardigan in Jamaica. After she had her family, the nursing officer

helped her to find a post that fitted in with looking after her

children. The freedom to express religious beliefs has changed

over the years. She reflects that nurses were able to offer to pray

with patients, but now they are not allowed to show their faith in

visible ways. She is part of the NHS Retirement Fellowship and

volunteers with Oldham Bereavement service.

Take a look at Morvias story. A

personal story of Black History

within the NHS

https://www.leadershipacademy.nhs.uk/bl

og/personal-story-black-history-within-nhs/

Research time. Who are these

influential figures in US health care?

First neurosurgeon to successfully separate

conjoined twins attached at the back of the head

First black woman awarded a nursing degree

First black man to lead a major pharmaceutical

company

First black physician to teach at Harvard Medical

School

Ben Carson, MD

Rebecca Crumpler

Kenneth Frazier, JD

William Hinton, MD

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