Black History Month, Ysgol Harri Tudur/ Henry Tudor School Honours Dame Elizabeth Anionwu

Today, we honour Dame Elizabeth Anionwu.

In a world where heroes often wear capes, Professor Dame Elizabeth Nneka Anionwu chose a nurse’s uniform as her symbol of compassion, resilience, and change. Born on the 2nd of July, 1947, in Birmingham, England, her journey began as Elizabeth Mary Furlong, the child of an Irish mother, Mary Maureen Furlong, and a Nigerian father, Lawrence Odiatu Victor Anionwu, a law student at Cambridge University at the time.

Anionwu’s early years were marked by constant shifts between institutions and family members. For a brief period, she resided with her mother, an experience cut short by an abusive stepfather. Subsequently, she found herself under the care of nuns in a Catholic children’s home, including several years spent in the Nazareth House convent in Birmingham.

Her childhood was scarred by severe punishment and humiliation, including being made to wear a urine-soaked sheet over her head as a penalty for bedwetting. Later in life, as a health visitor, she resolved to advocate for more humane treatments for bedwetting.

Despite her turbulent upbringing, Anionwu’s determination shone through. She embarked on a nursing career, starting as a school nurse assistant in Wolverhampton at the tender age of 16. Over time, she achieved seven O-levels and eventually became a nurse, health visitor, and tutor.

In pursuit of knowledge and expertise not available in the UK at the time, Anionwu ventured to the United States to study counselling for sickle-cell and thalassemia centres. In 1979, she collaborated with Dr. Milica Brozovic to establish the UK’s inaugural sickle-cell and thalassemia counselling centre in the London Borough of Brent, a pioneering initiative that would serve as a model for over 30 such centres across the UK.

­­­­­Black History Month, Ysgol Harri Tudur/ Henry Tudor School celebrates Patricia Bath today, 10th October 2023.

Today we recognise and celebrate the achievements of Patricia Bath. Born in 1942, Patricia Bath was an American ophthalmologist and humanitarian. She became the first female member of the Jules Stein Eye Institute, the first woman to lead a post-graduate training program in ophthalmology, and the first woman elected to the honorary staff of the UCLA Medical Center.

In an interview with the National Institutes of Health, Bath explained that her greatest passion was to fight blindness. She explained that her “personal best moment” occurred on a humanitarian mission to North Africa, where she restored the sight of a woman who had been blind for 30 years.

“The ability to restore sight is the ultimate reward,” Bath said.

Ysgol Harri Tudur/ Henry Tudor School celebrates Olive Morris today, 06 October 2023.

Today, Ysgol Harri Tudur/ Henry Tudor School celebrates Olive Morris who fought for Black Women’s Rights in Britain. In the 27 years, she was alive, Morris raised awareness of inequalities by travelling, writing, organizing protests and setting up support groups.… Olive Morris learned early in life the consequences of fighting injustice.

The late 1960s and 1970s were a particularly challenging time for Britain’s post-war African, African-Caribbean, and Asian communities: there was increased tension between police and the black community and attacks by fascist groups such as the National Front, as well as discrimination in housing and employment.

Olive Morris became a tireless organizer and fighter against racism, and also sexism and other forms of oppression. Morris became ill during a trip to Spain in 1978. On her return to London, she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and underwent treatment which was unsuccessful. She died on 12 July 1979 at St Thomas’s Hospital, Lambeth.

Ysgol Harri Tudur / Henry Tudor School celebrates Harriet Tubman today 5th October 2023.

Harriet Tubman was born Araminta Ross in 1822 in Dorchester County, Maryland, into a family of enslaved African Americans. She grew up working on a plantation and endured brutal treatment, including being whipped and beaten. When she was around 27 years old, Tubman escaped from slavery with the help of the Underground Railroad, a network of anti-slavery activists and safe houses that helped slaves escape to freedom.

After her escape, Tubman became a “conductor” on the Underground Railroad, leading around 13 missions to rescue over 70 enslaved people. She made dangerous journeys back to Maryland to rescue family members and friends, as well as strangers who were seeking freedom. Tubman became known as “Moses” to those she helped, because of her leadership and the way she led people to safety.

During the Civil War, Tubman worked as a nurse, cook, and spy for the Union Army. She also led a raid on plantations in South Carolina, freeing over 700 slaves. She was the first woman to lead an armed expedition during the war.

After the war, Tubman settled in Auburn, New York, where she continued to advocate for women’s suffrage and civil rights. She also established the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged, a home for elderly African Americans who were poor and/or disabled. Tubman lived there herself until her death in 1913.