Dame Jocelyn Barrow (1929 - 2020)
Image description: Drawing of Dame Jocelyn by Grenadian artist Gordon de la Mothe, 29th March 1995. Over the course of his career in the UK, Gordon de la Mothe drew portraits of many Black personalities. His archive is housed at BCA, and a number of his works are exhibited on the Google Arts and Culture platform.
It is poignant that we remember Dame Jocelyn Barrow today. The world has spent the last week actively campaigning against the injustices that happen against Black people all over the world in the wake of the murder of African American George Floyd in Minneapolis. As family, friends and associates gather online for Dame Jocelyn’s Memorial Service, we remember a woman who was and is regarded as an elder stateswoman of the Black community, Dame Jocelyn Barrow dedicated her life to fighting for racial equality in the UK. We are proud to have had her as our Patron and will continue in the values we all share, to champion our history and achievements.
Dame Jocelyn was a founding member and later general secretary of the Campaign against Racial Discrimination, known as CARD. A meeting with Martin Luther King during his visit to London in 1964 helped formulate CARD’s main campaign objective – the outlawing of the colour bar.
The Race Relations Act of 1965 was a significant step forward but it had no real teeth as the two biggest areas of discrimination – employment and housing – were outside of its remit. CARD lobbied for more robust legislation and this led to the Race Relations Act of 1968 entering the statute book.
During its passage through parliament, Dame Jocelyn recalls being asked to join a discussion group about the Act on a BBC magazine programme, Enoch Powell, one of the panellists, refused to be interviewed in the same studio as her. The MP had just made his infamous ‘rivers of blood’ speech and his attitude ‘clearly showed him to be a racist coward and he knew that he would lose any argument on why he was wrong regarding the Bill and his speech’, she said.
Dame Jocelyn went on to be appointed to a number of key roles, becoming the first Black person to serve as a governor of the BBC. She was also founder and deputy chair of the Broadcasting Standards Council, a governor of the Commonwealth Institute and of the British Film Institute. She was the first patron of Black Cultural Archives and contributed to the establishment in 2007 of the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool.
For her outstanding service to education and community relations, she was awarded an OBE in 1972. In 1992, she received the DBE, Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Biographical text derived from 70 Windrush Pioneers & Champions courtesy of the Windrush Foundation www.windrushfoundation.com