Join Lord Simon Woolley, co-founder of Operation Black Vote, as he presents the Olaudah Equiano Annual Lecture on Race Justic
During this exclusive event, Lord Woolley will discuss the fight for racial equality, drawing on his pivotal experiences in tackling racial inequalities in politics, health, education, and employment. Drawing on his impactful career, he will also examine ways of improving political participation and representation, with a view to addressing the social injustices affecting under-represented communities. Lord Woolley will also consider efforts to widen access to higher education and the role of universities in promoting race justice.
About our speaker
Lord Simon Woolley is the Leicester-born founder and director of Operation Black Vote. He is a leading equalities activist and politician who is also the first Black man to head an Oxbridge College, becoming head of Cambridge University’s Homerton College in 2021. He is the trustee of the charity Police Now and the founder and director of Operation Black Vote. Lord Woolley was nominated for Life Peerage as a Crossbencher in the House of Lords in 2019 and, in the same year, received his knighthood for his services to race equality.
About the Olaudah Equiano Annual Race Justice lecture series
The Olaudah Equiano Annual Lecture on Race Justice is hosted by the Race Equality Committee at Anglia Ruskin University’s Faculty of Science and Technology. The lecture series is named after Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797), an enslaved man who bought his freedom and wrote compellingly about his experiences, later becoming a prominent figure in the movement to abolish the slave trade. His legacy is particularly celebrated in Cambridgeshire and the East of England, where he set up home in his later life. In honouring Olaudah Equiano and his legacy, each lecture in the series is focused on a specific topic related to race equality and justice, and features carefully selected speakers who are recognised as having made substantive contributions to recognising, understanding, and promoting race justice equality.