This year marks the 36th anniversary of celebrating Black History Month in the UK. October is dedicated to celebrating the enduring accomplishments and contributions of both historical and contemporary Black individuals in shaping UK society and across the world.
At Optio, we honoured this year’s theme ‘before Windrush’ by acknowledging and remembering the lives and stories of the African, Caribbean and Black Britons who were living in the UK before the arrival of the Empire Windrush in 1948.
Throughout the month, we highlighted notable Windrush heroes. Among those featured on our digital hub was Kofoworola Abeni Pratt, who arrived in the UK in 1946 and was the first Black student to attend the Nightingale Training School for Nurses at St Thomas’ Hospital. She qualified as a State Registered Nurse in 1949, a year after the inception of the NHS. Despite encountering racial discrimination, she worked for the NHS from 1950 to 1954 and is acknowledged as one of the first black women to work in the NHS.
She is also recognised as a pioneer of nursing in post-independence Nigeria, where in 1965 she was appointed Chief Nursing Officer for Nigeria and was the vice-president of the International Council of Nurses and later became Commissioner of Health for Lagos. Her exceptional contributions to nursing led to her receive the Florence Nightingale Medal (the highest international distinction a nurse can achieve) and becoming a fellow of the Royal College of Nursing. In 2021. Guy’s and St Thomas’ launched the Kofoworola Abeni Pratt Fellowship to address the gap in senior leaders who identify as Black, Asian or minority ethnic.
We also presented a series of book recommendations on our digital hub, including ‘Britons through Negro Spectacles’ by Sierra-Leone born barrister and writer Augustus Boyle Chamberlayne Merriman-Labor. This insightful book offers a courageous social commentary on his experiences in Britain and provides a unique perspective on the intersection of empire, race and community in the early 1900s.
One of the highlights of our celebration of Black History month was the African inspired lunch at our London offices courtesy of 2nigerianboys who returned for the second year, serving delicious and flavourful dishes.