Thu 27 Oct 2016 10:00 - Fri 28 Oct 2016 15:00
Frenchay SU Patio
To celebrate the end of Black History Month we will be commemorating The Bristol Bus Boycott.
On October 27th and 28th we will have an orginal Bristol double-decker on Frenchay Campus which was in use at the time of the boycott and has been very generously loaned to us by the 'Bristol Omnibus Vehicle Collection'.
The Bristol Bus Boycott of 1963 arose from the refusal of the Bristol Omnibus Company to employ black or Asian bus crews in Bristol.
In common with other British cities, there was widespread racial discrimination in housing and employment at that time against “coloureds”. Led by youth worker Paul 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.
The boycott drew national attention to racial discrimination in Britain, and the campaign was supported by national politicians, with interventions being made by church groups and the High Commissioner for Trinidad and Tobago. The Bristol Bus Boycott was considered by some to have been influential in the passing of the Race Relations Act 1965 which made “racial discrimination unlawful in public places” and the Race Relations Act 1968, which extended the provisions to employment and housing.