Remembering the Bristol Bus Boycott 60 years on

“They didn’t know that I was black but it was on my arrival that things changed, and I became a black person, not a person.”

When 18 year old Guy Reid-Bailey was turned away from a job interview at the Bristol Omnibus Company in 1963 because he was black, he couldn’t have known that many months later he would have helped to change the lives of the Black community in Bristol and beyond.

60 years later, Guy’s story, and that of other brave men and women who took part in the Bristol Bus Boycott, is remembered in the MShed museum, commemorated on murals across the city, and enshrined in legal documents that protect the rights of Black people living in the UK.

The Bristol Bus Boycott began on April 30, 1963, and saw the “colour bar” lifted from public transport after many months of peaceful action.

A bus similar to the one Guy Reid-Bailey would have driven is on display at the MShed museum – photo: The mayor’s office

Led by Paul Stephenson OBE, the bus boycott lasted for four months and received national support from figures like Sir Learie Constantine, Harold Wilson and Tony Benn.

The boycott is a huge part of Bristol’s history and the UK’s more broadly, helping pave the way for the Race Relations Act of 1965 and 1968.

Discussing his legacy, mayor Marvin Rees said the boycott had opened the doors so he could walk through them.

“The men and women who led the Bristol Bus Boycott brought protest to our streets and legislation to the statute book.

“People like Asher (Craig) and I have been able to walk through the doors that they opened for people of colour.

“We are truly standing on the shoulders of giants.”

Marvin Rees met with members of the boycott at a special event on Friday, joining Barbara Dettering, Joyce Morris Wisdom, councillor Asher Craig, Roger Griffith MBE, Gamba Cole, Doug Claringbold, Vernon Samuels, Jacqui Wilson, and Miles Chambers in an evening commemorating the boycott.

“People like Barbara Dettering are both personal and political role models across Bristol,” said Rees.

“That was true for me when I was a kid playing at Bristol West Indies, the cricket club that Guy Reid-Bailey OBE co-founded, and both before and after the 2012 mayoral elections, when Paul Stephenson was a real support for me.

Bristol City Council issued an apology to Guy Reiod-Bailey last year for his treatment by Bristol Omnibus Company, alongside conferring Freedom of the City upon him and Barbara.

The highest civic honour, Freedom of the City recognises the outstanding contributions to life in Bristol. It was also posthumously given to Roy Hackett MBE.

“Rosa Parks, who started an earlier bus boycott over 4,000 miles away, is deservedly widely known,” said Rees.

“But we need to do more, locally and nationally, together to ensure that the names of Bristol’s own civil rights leaders are not forgotten.”

You can view the archival collection of those involved at Bristol Archives.

Main photo: Barbara Evripidou

Read more:

• Bristol Bus Boycott leaders granted Freedom of the City
• Roy Hackett gave me and many others the strength and inspiration to tackle racism’
• Road names changed to pay homage to Bus Boycott and other pioneers of colour

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