Black History Month - Who am I?

As part of Black History Month 2020 at BTG, students across all year groups took part in an activity each week in form time called “Who Am I?” This has run for the last three years at BTG; however, this year the interest among students was higher than ever before. 
Each week students were shown a PowerPoint presentation about a famous Black British figure. They were given information about their life, their background, their achievements and why they are significant. They were also shown pictures of the person. However, the name of the character was deliberately left out. Each year group was given a different person and this continued over the 4 weeks of October.
Students then had to work out or guess the answer. Students were encouraged strongly to research the person independently if they did not know the answer. Pupils then had to email the correct answer to me to win points for their House. 

To say I was inundated with emails from pupils with answers would be an understatement! I was amazed by the level of engagement of students, which was significantly up on last year, demonstrating the interest our students have in Black British history. This theme was chosen carefully to move away from the association that some people have of Black history with that which is actually Black American history. I sincerely believe this level of student engagement bodes well for our community and our society as we strive for racial equality. 

The characters covered in this activity were hugely varied: Black Tudors such as John Blanke; Black Georgians such as Bill Richmond, Ignatius Sancho and Francis Barber; Black Victorians such as Samuel Coleridge Taylor and Ira Aldridge (who both have a strong South London connection). Black British political leaders were prominent too, such as Olaudah Equiano, William Cuffay, John Archer and Darcus Howe. Black women were well represented: Claudia Jones, Mary Seacole, Baroness Doreen Lawrence and Mary Prince, to name just a few. Contemporary Black figures also featured, for example, Steve McQueen, David Adjaye, Bernadine Evaristo, Zadie Smith and Akala. 

Overall, this was a hugely popular activity that will be continued every year and I am sure interest in this area will continue to grow.


Mr. J. Taylor
Head of History and Politics