Black History Month Coffee Morning

Black History Month is celebrated across October; it is an opportunity to come together to learn about and champion black culture. It was first celebrated in the UK in October 1987, on the 150th Anniversary of Caribbean emancipation. Akyaaba Addai-Sebo was the founder of the event and it soon spread outside of London, to the whole of the UK. 

The theme for this year is “Time for Change: Action, Not Words”. It focuses on bringing the black community together, as well as allies, to encourage more direct action against racism.  

In order to commemorate Black History Month at Age UK Wandsworth, we held a coffee morning at our Day Centre. Members of Wandsworth community and our service users were invited to join us for food and music. To start off we had a presentation on important black figures throughout history, including Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglas. We discussed their achievements and everyone was able to contribute their thoughts. After the discussion we had a quiz including topics of black firsts, who am I, and a picture round.  

The morning was a lovely coming together, to share conversation and gain a deeper understanding of black British History.