Celebrating the life and legacy of Gertrude Paul

My PhD is titled “The legacy of Gertrude Paul”.

My mother, the subject of my investigation, was one of the first Black women head teachers in the United Kingdom and the first one in the North of England. This makes the research pertinent to the North of England but also to the rest of the UK.

Gertrude Paul was a first-generation Black antiracist, feminist activist. She was one of the most important Black women visionary activists in the UK between the years of 1957 – 1992.

She had a lifelong career of rallying Black parents’ activism on their children’s behalf in schools and in the communities across West Yorkshire and nationally - challenging legislation, the hidden curriculum,  ESN campaigns, the rights of young people throughout the decades she spent as a head-teacher, commissioner for the CRE, community member, wife, mother, granddaughter, daughter, sister, friend and extended family member.

My research locates Gertrude Paul and Black women in general in the UK during 1957-1992, highlighting historical issues of discrimination which continue to impact us generationally.

History continues to impact on the contemporary representation of Black, Asian and people of mixed heritages in cultural and social life.  We are often racialized as inferior by our skin colour - a “racial schema” (Fanon, 2008). 

Many young and qualified teachers were recruited from across all of the commonwealth countries to come to the UK in the 1950s and 1960s, but when they arrived found that they were not allowed to teach unless they repeated their teacher training. 

It made life impossible, for most, to fulfil their dreams.  Gertrude Paul pushed through working but also attended James Graham Teacher Training College here in Leeds to repeat a qualification that she had already gained at the Teacher Training College in Antigua. 

I am proud of how she shared with many her vast talents, helping to develop theirs. She was devoted to children and families when she taught across many schools from the south of the city to the north.  Her impact in the community in Chapeltown is recognised generationally in Leeds.

This monument is another reminder of her refusal to give up when faced with obstacles and rejection, her message which I now pass on to all students here is to always remember that you are a valuable human with potential to do your best.  Be proud of your individual identity and ensure that the young people you go on to work with in the future and adults know that they are valued too.