Len
Garrison
13.06.43 - 18.02.03
Len Garrison successfully combined academic pursuit
with community activism. His search for a black identity
emerged through his poetry, photography, essays and
political activism in the black community. His work
embraced all aspects inherent in the African-Caribbean
experience of the new black presence in Britain.
Born in Jamaica, he migrated to England to further
his schooling and pursue an academic career, graduating
from Sussex University in African and Caribbean History.
He also went to Ruskin College, Oxford, where he
gained a diploma in Development Studies and Leicester
University where he acquired an MA in Local History.
Len Garrison’s achievements were many; they
included being a founder member in the mid sixties
of the International Social Group whose work led
to the establishment of the Wandsworth Council for
Community Relations. In 1977 he founded The Afro-Caribbean
Resource Project (ACRP) to publish and produce learning
materials drawn from the black British experience
for use in the school curriculum. This project was
the cornerstone for ILEA’s multi-ethnic and
anti-racist policy in practice. Through this work
he also established the Black Young Writers Award
scheme, which encouraged and exposed the talents
of hundreds of young black writers in the 1970s and
80s.
Len Garrison represented Britain at the 1977 Festival
of Arts and Culture in Nigeria. He also lectured
extensively on his work, in this country and abroad.
Later as Director, he set up the ACFF Education and
Culture Centre in Nottingham in the East Midlands,
also establishing a number of community initiatives
during his ten years’ tenureship.
Len Garrison also co-founded the Black Cultural
Archives (BCA) in 1981. It houses documentary evidence
of the black presence and struggle, paying homage
to the thousands who fought or those who lost their
lives in the First and Second World Wars. BCA also
works in partnership with Middlesex University and
created the charitable organisation the Archives
and Museum of Black Heritage (AMBH).
More recently he had been selected to take part
in a remarkable project tracing Black people’s
DNA, which was carried out by Dr Mark Jobling of
Leicester University shown on the BBC2 documentary
Motherland. The Observer newspaper also took the
opportunity to interview him on his personal perspective
of the project.
His achievements will also be published, in a book
celebrating the successes and achievements of people
of African heritage called Black Success Stories. Len’s
challenge was to continue to create an ever-expanding
awareness, perhaps daunting to some,
but an exciting challenge for Len, as he believed
with certainty that a positive, sustainable future
could be achieved by African Diaspora people in Britain.
“Remember what we inherit today has been
won with bloodshed and sacrifice by others yesterday” Len
Garrison
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