Join us for the exciting unveiling of the Dr Beryl Gilroy plaque to honour her pioneering work in education and psychotherapy.
Come join us for the exciting unveiling of a blue plaque in honour of the remarkable Dr Beryl Gilroy. Witness history as we commemorate her extraordinary contributions in alongside veteran education activists. Let’s celebrate her legacy together!
Dr Gilroy was the author of Black Teacher (1976)she was one of Britain’s first Black Head Teachers and in 1953 wasthe first Black female teacher employed by the Inner London Education Authority.Her book has just been updated and reprinted by Faber. Her memoir is a vital story of survival doused in fury, humour and love.
Gilroy was born in Guyana in 1924, and arrived in England in 1952 as an experienced and highly qualified teacher. However, because of aggressive anti-Blackness she was unable to secure a post for many years. Gilroy’s first job in education was in a Catholic school, teaching a class of seven-year-olds who whimpered and hid under the table when she arrived. Most of the white pupils she taught throughout her career parroted remarks made by their bigoted parents. “Black people live in trees. Me dad saw them isself. He was in the war. Black people roast people and eat them,” one child says. But with strength, wit and incredibly imaginative teaching, Gilroy turned the most troublesome of classes into engaged learners.
By the 1960s, schools had grown more ethnically diverse, and Gilroy’s challenge was now to consider the different cultural expectations of teaching. Still, she was a sensitive and experimental educator who cared deeply for expanding young minds through child-centred learning. “The pace, the temperature and the pulse of the classroom had to suit each child,” she wrote. “I turned to art and drama to help them towards an awareness of alternatives and to set new boundaries of their thinking.”
Like ER Braithwaite’s To Sir With Love and Sam Selvon’s The Lonely Londoners, Black Teacher is a rare document of Black British survival.
Above text extracted from June 2021 book review in the Guardian by Kadish Morris.
Dr Beryl Gilroy is survived by her two children
- Professor Paul Gilroy Emeritus Professor of Humanities, the Founding Director of the Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism and Racialisation from 2019 to 2024.
- Professor Darla Gilroy. Associate Dean of Knowledge Exchange at Central Saint Martin’s, UAL the world renowned Art & Design University leading creative practice
and several grandchildren
Exact unveiling agenda to be announced two weeks in advance. This plaque will add to her legacy. There is also a mural in her honour outside West Hampstead primary school
This is a Nubian Jak blue plaque !
Founded in 2006, the Nubian Jak Community Trust (NJCT), is the only commemorative plaque and sculpture scheme focused on memorialising the historic contributions of Black and minority ethnic people in Britain and beyond.
NJCT has since installed more than 90 commemorative blue and black plaques. Since 2017, NJCT has organised a Remembrance Day for veterans after installing the African and Caribbean War memorial in Windrush Square in Brixton, London. Locally known as the Brixton Cenotaph, it was the UK’s first tribute to every regiment from Africa and the Caribbean that served alongside British and Commonwealth Forces in World Wars One and Two. It was accompanied by the anthology REMEMBERED -In Memoriam. In 2021, the NJCT installed another memorial: The Windrush and Commonwealth NHS Nurses and Midwives Statue at the Whittington Hospital, London, to honour stories of nurses and medics integral to the foundation of Britain’s National Health Service in 1948.
This plaque is organised by Black History Walks
Look out for our new book ‘Black History Walks in London Volume 1’. This is part of Jacaranda Books revolutionary Twenty in 2020 initiative to publish 20 books by 20 Black British authors in 2020. An unprecedented feat. ‘Black History Walks in London Volume 1’ is the 20th of that series
More Harrow Listings MORE
Dr Beryl Gilroy Blue Plaque unveiling
Join us for the exciting unveiling of the Dr Beryl Gilroy plaque to honour her pioneering work in…