THANKS

TO ALL WHO ATTENDED THE REMEMBERING OLIVE MORRIS AWARDS & FRAMEWORKS: BLACK ACTIVIST LEGACIES & MOVEMENTS LUNCHEON 2023

THE OLIVE MORRIS MEMORIAL AWARD PROGRAM

DTA is happy to announce that we are now managing the Olive Morris Memorial Award program that was initially founded and managed by the Remembering Olive Collective. We acknowledge the great work previously done by the collective in keeping the legacy of her work alive and are honoured that we are able to support the continued vision and mission to share Olive Morris's legacy and work with the community in a way that they may engage and incorporate vital lessons in their current life should they require to.

THE AIM OF THE OLIVE MORRIS AWARD PROGRAM

The Olive Morris Memorial Awards Program was originally organised by the Remembering Olive Collective (ROC) to celebrate the legacy and principles of Olive Morris. The Awards were created as an opportunity to celebrate her spirit as it lives on in the work of a new generation of young women activists. Women aged between 16 and 27 years of age, of African or Asian descent and involved in grassroots political work of any nature were nominated for the awards by their friends, colleagues or mentors. Of the nominees chosen to receive an award.

SUBMIT YOUR ENTRIES FOR THE 2024 AWARDS HERE

By entering a Black female who you think is doing positive communal work, enter your submission for the 2024 awards. Email us a one page bio on the person to tell us what contributions she has made to the Black community, how many years, why you think it is important for her to be given an award and a social media profile on the person (if they have one). Encourage others to write in and vote for the person. If they are successful we will be in touch, so remember to leave all contact details of a number and email address.

FRAMEWORKS: THE FIRST ANNUAL BLACK ACTIVISTS LUNCHEON + OLIVE MORRIS AWARDS - 7TH OCTOBER 2023

FRAMEWORKS is a conference and award ceremony exploring and inspired by the legacy of activist and organiser Olive Morris. DTA is proud to have had Professor Carole Boyce Davies as the Keynote speaker at the 1st Annual Black Activists Luncheon and Olive Morris Awards Ceremony. The speakers and attendees helped create a space that explored and celebrated African heritage women’s organising (and nyam some good food!)

Our Speakers on the Day:

Specialising in the field of Black British Women’s Movements, Black feminist thought, liberative actions and reparations, these women have years of experience in academia, organising and activism.

Keynote Speaker:

Dr. Carole Boyce Davies - Professor of Africana Studies and English & author of the prize-winning Left of Karl Marx: The Political Life of Claudia Jones (2008).

Guest Speakers:

Dr. Rita Gayle - From the Global Black Geographies Network, Dr Gayle has charted the emergence of the millennial generation of Black feminist-led creative collectives.

Dr. Aleema Gray - Based in London, this Jamaican-born curator, researcher and public historian was awarded the Yesu Persaud Scholarship for her PhD entitled Bun Babylon: Rastafari Movement in Britain.

Our 2023 Award Winners

• Joyclen Buffong – Founder of Rise 365

• Althea-Maria Rivas – Founder of the Ebony Initiative

• Tanita J. Lewis – Coordinator-general of Aya Afrikan Learning

• Elaine Holness (MBE) – Winner of the special Long Standing Community Award

REGISTER FOR THE 2024 AWARDS HERE

Our 2022 Award Winners

• Lola Olufemi

• Barbara Edem Ntumy

• Yasmin Begum

• Shanelle Webb

• Scarlett Westbrook

• Afruika Bantu Saturday School (Special Award)

OLIVE MORRIS RESOURCE GUIDE

This page shares contemporary reflections on Olive Morris’ life and legacy as well as a collection of archives gathered together from the Remembering Olive Collective , Lambeth Archives, Freedom Bookshop, artists and community members. In doing this, we want to show how robust Olive’s activist legacy is while also and also presenting a more personal human side to Olive so that those who engage with her work may feel more connected.

VOICING OLIVE’S LEGACY: PODCAST

Voicing the Legacy of Olive Morris is a new DTA Radio Podcast series with host Chloe Tayali which communicates Olive Morris's legacy through the lens of contemporary activists who are working tirelessly to empower Black communities in Britain and taking matters into their own hands when failed by the governing system. Episode 1 looks at Yasmin Begum's trailblazing work.

Remembering Olive: Time to Pass the Memories On - by Liz Obi

Voice-Over by Connie Bell

BLACK HISTORY MONTH: THE POWER OF OLIVE MORRIS

By DR ANGELINA OSBORNE, HISTORICAL RESEARCHER AND HERITAGE CONSULTANT

Olive Morris was a community activist in South London in the 1970s, who died of cancer aged 27 in 1979. Through her activities organising the black community and feminist activism, she left behind an extraordinary legacy of local activism.

In 1986 the Brixton Black Women’s group, of which she was a co-founder, campaigned to have 18 Brixton Hill renamed Olive Morris House in her memory. In 2006 the Remembering Olive Collective set up an online resource to collect information and material relating to her life and the organisations she worked with, and conduct interviews with people who knew her, to keep her memory and legacy alive.

For many years I was unaware of her existence, or the contributions she had made to the communities in London and Manchester. I was curious why this black woman had not been recognised for her accomplishments beyond South London and was absent in the discourse on black radical feminist and community activism. I wanted to learn more about her, to get a sense of her personality and politics, and why she had committed herself to radical activism. There was nothing I could find that explained Olive’s choice to immerse herself in Marxist Leninist thought, or what single event politicised her. These things, I suppose, are gradual; not one event but a series of events that makes one choose their life’s calling. Looking through her papers held at Lambeth Archives, I came across a photograph taken of her in 1969, when she would have been around 17 or 18. Her face was swollen, her clothes torn and dirty. On the back of the photograph was written, ‘Leaving Kings College Hospital after police assault. 15th November 1969’.

Earlier that day a Nigerian diplomat had parked his Mercedes on Atlantic Road in Brixton, leaving his wife and children in the car while he bought some records. Police officers, thinking the diplomat had stolen the car began to, according to witnesses, arrest him and beat him. Olive came forward and physically tried to stop the police from attacking the diplomat, causing the police to turn on her, arrest her and assault her, kicking her in the chest. This young girl, barely five feet two inches, took on racist police officers, without thinking about her own safety, because she couldn’t stand by and allow the injustice of an African man being arrested for driving a nice car. This was one early incident of Olive’s commitment to challenging oppression.

Olive dedicated her life to the struggle for liberation, democracy and socialism.

She became part of the British Black Panther Movement in 1968, of which she became a core member, along with Linton Kwesi Johnson, Althea Johnson, Neil Kenlock and Clovis Reid. She was central to the squatters’ campaign of the 1970s, opening the 121 Railton Road squat in 1973 with Liz Obi. According to Darcus Howe’s biographers, Robin Bunce and Paul Field, Olive was a woman who turned squatting into an art form.  In honour of that skill set, Olive is photographed scaling the wall of a house on the front cover of the Squatters’ Handbook.

She took a degree in social sciences at Manchester University and became involved in community groups in Moss Side, and was an active member of the Manchester Black Women’s Cooperative. The struggle of black women was at the heart of her activism; she was the co-founder of the Brixton Black Women’s Group in 1974, and the Organisation of Women of Asian and African Descent (OWAAD). She travelled extensively, visiting China on a student delegation organised by the Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding, to see how Chinese people were building a socialist society. She seemed impressed with what China had accomplished, which was due, in her view, to the role of the people in nation building. She also travelled to Morocco, Algeria, Spain, France, and Hong Kong. 

Olive packed so much into her 27 years. She was a radical black feminist, committed to the struggle against racial, sexual and class oppression. She was a communist, who believed that the implementation of Marxism Leninism was a practical possibility, that the resources of the world could and should be evenly distributed.

Listening to the recollections of the people who knew her and reading through the newspaper clippings, essays written by her at Manchester University, photographs of her at family gatherings, protests, travelling through China, on cycling holidays with her boyfriend produced details that fleshed out her human dimensions. She was funny and charismatic. She was nice. She loved dancing. She liked looking good, and having a good time. She was very serious about her activism, about creating a better world for working class people.

It seems to me that Olive came into the world fully formed in terms of her politics and ideas; that she knew what she wanted to do with her life. If she had lived, I am convinced that she would be campaigning against the current housing crisis, prison reform and white supremacy. She would have refined her ideas and found a space in the intellectual homes of the radical black tradition, Black British history and politics, African diaspora history, intersectionality, and Pan Africanist politics.

When I think of her, I see her in an undated photograph, smiling and holding up a placard which read, ‘Black Women, fight now for the future of your kids’. I see her in a photograph leading a march for the Black Workers Movement. There is so much more to be said about this remarkable woman who led such a remarkable life.”

Source: https://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/blog/black-history-month-power-olive-morris

For more of Morris’ letters, click on the button below.

Tomorrow I shall be here still,

wiser and sturdier than before

for I have withstood the fury of thunder

the rage of forest fires

I know

my life-force

will prevail

And if by chance

an ax should fell me

should I succumb

to the vengeance of the hurricane

or the slow, creeping stealth

of nature’s wrath

I shall sink gratefully into the earth

that has sustained me

through the centuries

returning my gifts

so that others

may grow to touch

the sky

Extract taken from Stella Abasa Dadzie’s poem Ancient Roots