Contributor(s): Patrick Vernon, Dr Angelina Osborne | Join us in Black History Month for this event with Angelina Osborne and Patrick Vernon, the authors of 100 Great Black Britons, to celebrate the publication of their new book.

The arrival of the SS Empire Windrush in Britain from the Caribbean has been mythologised as the defining moment that changed Britain from an exclusively white country into a racially diverse one. Yet Africans have been present in Britain since Roman times and there has been a constant Black presence in Britain since the sixteenth century.

In 2003, Vernon and Osborne, frustrated by the almost complete exclusion of the Black British community from mainstream notions of Britishness in education and popular media, launched their ground-breaking 100 Great Black Britons campaign, which invited the public to vote for the Black Briton they most admired. The campaign was a huge success across Britain.

In 2019, in the wake of Brexit and the 2018 Windrush Scandal, Vernon and Osborne decided it was time to relaunch the campaign to ensure recognition of the continued legacy and achievement of Black people in Britain. Their book 100 Great Black Britons compiles the updated list.

You can order the book, 100 Great Black Britons, (UK delivery only) from our official LSE Events independent book shop, Pages of Hackney.

Angelina Osborne (@angburger27) is an independent researcher and heritage consultant. She received her PhD in History from the Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation, University of Hull in 2014. Her interests focus on Caribbean enslavement and proslavery discourses, and the history of community and education activism.

Patrick Vernon OBE (@ppvernon) is a Clore and Winston Churchill Fellow, a fellow at the Imperial War Museum, a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a former associate fellow for the Department of the History of Medicine at Warwick University. Patrick was awarded an OBE in 2012 for his work in tackling health inequalities for ethnic minority communities in Britain. Since 2010 he has been leading the campaign for Windrush Day and in 2018 kick-started the campaign for an amnesty for the Windrush Generation as part of the Windrush Scandal which led to a government U-turn in immigration policy.

Jeffrey Thomas is Assistant Professor of Management in the Department of Management at LSE.

EmbRace (@lseembrace) is LSE's BME staff network. EmbRace exists to raise awareness of and influence change around culture and diversity issues which affect LSE staff. It seeks to promote mutual understanding through equality, transparency, respect and recognition. The aim of the network is to provide support as well as development and networking opportunities for all members.

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEBlackHistoryMonth