News / Bristol Bus Boycott
Bristol Bus Boycott leaders to be granted Freedom of the City
Bristol’s highest civic honour is being given to the leaders of the Bristol Bus Boycott.
Freedom of the City status will be bestowed upon Roy Hackett, Guy Reid-Bailey, Barbara Dettering, Owen Henry, Audley Evans and Prince Brown for their role in the events of 1963 whose impact was felt across the world.
With the exception of Reid-Bailey and Dettering, all of the honours will be awarded posthumously at an extraordinary full council meeting in December. Bus boycott leader, Paul Stephenson, received the Freedom of the City in 2007.
is needed now More than ever
Lord mayor Paula O’Rourke has also written a letter of apology to Reid-Bailey for the racist treatment he received from the Bristol Omnibus Company.
The Bristol Bus Boycott arose from the refusal of the bus company – a nationalised business at the time so run by the local authority – to employ Black or Asian bus crews.
Led by youth worker Stephenson and the West Indian Development Council, the boycott of the company’s buses by Bristolians lasted for four months until the company backed down and overturned the colour bar.
Deputy mayor Asher Craig said that she was “delighted” to announce the plans to award the leaders of the Bristol Bus Boycott Freedom of the City status.
She said: “Leading the boycott took tremendous courage. While the boycott is now rightly seen as what it was – a peaceful protest aiming to end racist employment practices – we shouldn’t forget the level of opposition they faced at the time.
“Bristol has a proud history of peaceful protects such as the Chartists, the suffragettes and the Bristol Bus Boycott.
“All these protests have led to sorely-needed, positive change and changed Bristol for the better. I’m very proud to put forward plans to recognise this.
“Awarding the leading members of the boycott will hopefully reiterate how proud Bristol is of them for standing up to injustice.”
Main photo: Barbara Evripidou
Read next:
- Jesus joins Bristol Bus Boycott in new stained glass window
- ‘Roy Hackett gave me and many others the strength and inspiration to tackle racism’
- Telling the story of the Bristol Bus Boycott
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