Paul Stephenson (civil rights campaigner)

Stephenson was born in Rochford, Essex in 1937 to a West African father and a British mother. His maternal grandmother Edie Johnson was a well known actress in the 1920s.[2] At age 3 he was evacuated to a care home in Great Dunmow, Essex, where he stayed for seven years.[3] He received his secondary education at Forest Gate Secondary School in London, where he was the only black child in the school.[4] Service in the Royal Air Force followed from 1953 to 1960. Stephenson gained a Diploma in Youth and Community Work from Westhill College of Education, Birmingham, in 1962 and then moved to Bristol to work as a youth officer for Bristol City Council,[4] becoming the city's first black social worker.[5]

In January 1955 the Passenger group, that is the section representing those working in Passenger Transport, of the local branch of the Transport and General Workers Union had passed a resolution that "coloured workers should not be employed as bus crews" by the Bristol Omnibus Company.[6] The Bristol Evening Post ran a series of articles in 1961 exposing this colour bar.[7] The union publicly denied the bar, but the company general manager, Ian Patey, did admit it. He attempted to justify the company policy by stating in a meeting with the city's Joint Transport Committee that he "had 'factual evidence' that the introduction of coloured crews in other cities downgraded the job, causing existing (white) staff to go elsewhere."[8]

Several members of the city's West Indian community set up an organisation, the West Indian Development Council, to fight discrimination of this sort, aided by Stephenson, who was the city's first black youth officer.[7] In 1963 Stephenson established that the bus company was indeed operating a colour bar and inspired by the example of Rosa Parks' refusal to move off a "whites only" bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama, leading to the Montgomery bus boycott, a Bristol Bus Boycott was organised.[9][10]

As an articulate and university educated person, Stephenson became spokesman for the boycott, which soon attracted nationwide media interest and the campaign grew to receive support from Bristolians of all colours, Tony Benn, MP for Bristol East, and Harold Wilson, leader of the Labour opposition. After 60 days, on 28 August 1963 (the same day that Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his historic "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington, DC),[11] the bus company capitulated and in September Raghbir Singh became Bristol's first non-white bus conductor.[12]

In August 2014, a plaque was unveiled inside Bristol Bus Station commemorating the bus boycott.[13]

Stephenson was famously refused service at the Bay Horse pub in Bristol

In the following year Stephenson achieved national prominence when he refused to leave a public house, the Bay Horse pub in Bristol, without being served. The bar manager reportedly told Stephenson, "We don’t want you black people in here – you are a nuisance." Stephenson was arrested and charged with failing to leave a licensed premises. The case attracted media attention, and the Bristol Evening Post ran the story with the headline "West Indian leader made a fool of himself." At his trial in a magistrate's court, prosecutors alleged that he had behaved aggressively, but witness accounts refuted this claim. The case was dismissed and the barman was dismissed by his employers.[3][4][14]

Following this, Stephenson left Bristol to work in Coventry as a Senior Community Relations Officer. In 1972 he went to London to work for the Commission for Racial Equality.[1] While in London he worked with boxer Muhammad Ali setting up the Muhammad Ali Sports Development Association in Brixton, and also set up the Cleo Laine Schools’ Music Awards from 1977 to 1982 with Cleo Laine and John Dankworth.[15] In 1975 he was appointed to the Sports Council and campaigned prominently against sporting contacts with apartheid South Africa. Stephenson became honorary president of Bristol's West Indian Parents' Association in 1979 and in 1981 was appointed to the Press Council.[4]

On his return to live in Bristol in 1992, he helped set up the Bristol Black Archives Partnership (BBAP), which "protects and promotes the history of African-Caribbean people in Bristol."[16] It was initiated when he placed his own personal archives with Bristol Record Office for safekeeping.[17]

In 1988 Stephenson received the Bristol City Council Community Award for Achievement and Services Rendered to the Black Community and the West Indian Community Publishers Award. Further awards include the Bristol West African and Caribbean Council Community Achievers' Award (1996), and the city council's One Person Can Make a Difference Award (2006).[18][19] In 2007 Stephenson was granted the Freedom of the City of Bristol, being the first black person to be so honoured. The citation stated: "Paul Stephenson has devoted his life to improving race relations and encouraging community involvement and is a founder member of the Bristol Black Archives Project which has contributed greatly to an understanding of the history of the City and has helped to build closer relations between all the communities of Bristol."[20]

In 2009 he was given an OBE "for his services to equal opportunities and to community relations in Bristol".[21] He received honorary degrees from the University of the West of England (Master of Education) in November 2009, "in recognition of his substantial contribution to pioneering work in race relations and the extension of opportunity to socially excluded young people",[18] and the University of Bristol (Doctor of Law) in July 2014 "for his dedication to fighting for equality and civil rights across Bristol and around the world for over 60 years". [22][23] In November 2017, Stephenson received a Pride of Britain Award for Lifetime Achievement,[24] presented to him by Lenny Henry, who said: "It is a well-known saying that to achieve greatness you have to stand on the shoulders of giants. You really are a giant. So without you, there wouldn’t be any black or Asian politicians."[25] The judges' citation said: "Thanks to Paul’s courage, principles and determination, Britain is a more open and tolerant place today. He has changed the way we all live for the better, and his story reminds us that the battle for civil rights was not confined to America."[11]

In June 2020, following the toppling of the Edward Colston statue in central Bristol by Black Lives Matter protestors, a campaign began to replace the statue with one of Paul Stephenson.[26][27] On October 20 2020, Great Western Railway named one of its Intercity Express Trains (800 036) in Stephenson's honour at a ceremony at Bristol Temple Meads.

Photographs, newspaper cuttings, letters and other miscellaneous items relating to Paul Stephenson and the 40th anniversary commemorations of the Bristol Bus Boycott campaign are held by Bristol Archives (Ref. 42840) (online catalogue).

The Bristol Black Archives Partnership collections are held at Bristol Archives (A Guide to African-Caribbean Sources at Bristol Record Office, multiple collections noted)

• Paul Stephenson OBE with Lilleith Morrison, Memoirs of a Black Englishman (Foreword by Tony Benn), Tangent Books, 2011, ISBN 978-1906477394.

• Madge Dresser, Black and White on the Buses, Bristol: Bristol Broadsides, 1986. ISBN 0-906944-30-9.

• "Open Letter to Bristol City Council from Paul Stephenson on EDL", Ujima Radio, 10 July 2012.
• Thomas L. Blair, "They fought racism on the buses – but has progress followed?", Chronicleworld's Weblog, 24 August 2013.