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Civil rights pioneer Paul Stephenson honoured with new plaque
A new plaque commemorating civil rights pioneer Paul Stephenson has been unveiled.
The plaque is outside a pub where in 1964, the year after he helped lead the Bristol Bus Boycott, Stephenson was denied a pint and asked to leave because of the colour of his skin.
Bristol civil rights organisation Curiosity UnLtd was behind the unveiling of the plaque outside the Bay Horse on Lewins Mead.
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During the event on Friday, Julian Davis, Curiosity UnLtd’s director, said the plaque was the “first public acknowledgement of Paul’s place in the city”.
He said: “I do struggle with the fact it’s taken us 60 years to do this.”
A plaque commemorating Paul Stephenson now sits outside the Bay Horse pub
On April 10 1964, Stephenson was refused service at the Bay Horse and asked to leave.
Stephenson refused, staged a one man sit-in and was ultimately arrested by eight police officers. He was later charged with failing to leave a licensed premises.
The subsequent court case was heavily publicised in part because of Stephenson’s involvement with the Bristol Bus Boycott.
In 1963, Stephenson, alongside Guy Bailey, Roy Hackett, Princess Campbell and many others, protested against the Bristol Omnibus Company’s refusal to hire Black or Asian people.
After four months, the company ultimately hired their first driver of colour, Raghbir Singh.
Julian Davis said the plaque was the “first public acknowledgement of Paul’s place in the city”
Although Stephenson’s 1964 charge for failing to leave a licensed premises was ultimately thrown out, the high-profile court case captured the attention of then prime minister Harold Wilson.
The Bus Boycott and Stephenson’s sit-in at the Bay Horse helped inspire the 1965 Race Relations Act, the first piece of legislation to ban racial discrimination in this country.
The act banned racial discrimination in public places.
A few years later, the 1968 Race Relations Act banned racial discrimination in employment.
Placards with racial justice messages were spread out across the Bay Horse during the event
Before the plaque unveiling, Mark Howe, business development manager at Greene King, gave a formal apology for what happened at the Bay Horse, now owned by Greene King, in 1964.
He said: “Everyone involved with the pub wants to whole-heartedly apologise both to Paul for the treatment he received that day and to his family.
“It feels strange being at the Bay Horse today to think that people could have been so discriminated against and that reflects how far we have all come as a society in the last 60 years.
“But we also know that we need to keep working across all parts of society to continue to stamp out discrimination wherever we see it.
“As a pub, we play an important role in the lives of people that live and work in Bristol as well as those who travel into the city every single day.
“We are and always should be a safe place for people to meet, socialise and enjoy themselves.”
Joyce Morris-Wisdom and her husband Tim at the event in the Bay Horse
Although Stephenson was not in attendance at the event, other Bristol civil rights pioneers were including Guy Bailey and Joyce Morris-Wisdom.
Alongside the apology and the plaque, an area of the Bay Horse is now designated as ‘Paul’s Corner’.
Paul’s Corner features a rapidly growing bookshelf
In Paul’s Corner, pub-goers can read a blackboard retelling the story of Stephenson’s 1964 sit-in as well as borrow a book from a new bookshelf filled with titles by Black authors.
Visitors to the pub can also treat themselves to a new 3.9 per cent real ale to commemorate the historic event called ‘The Sit In’.
All photos: Seun Matiluko
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