User:Lagosman/Len Garrison

Lenford (Kwesi) Garrison born 13 June 1943 and died 18 February 2003, an educationalist and historian whose life's work was to catalogue the development of the black  British identity and its history and  promote the works of young black writers. Garrison's contribution to Black British society and culture is acknowledged as he is one of the 100 Great Black Britons.

Education
Garrison's early training was as a photographer, a passion from his childhood, which he studied at King's College. He went on to become the specialist medical photographer at Guy's Hospital as well as an active freelance photographer for the West Indian Gazette. His educationalist training began in 1971 when he attended Ruskin College where he gained a diploma in Development Studies. He later gained a B.A. at the University of Sussex in African History and Caribbean History then went on to acquire an MA in local history from Leicester University. .

Publications
Following his degree from Sussex, Garrison was invited to represent Britain at the FESTAC - Festival of Arts and Culture in Nigeria in 1977 ( Festac Town) where his presentation was based on his dissertation on the Rastafarian movement which he had  written when he was at Ruskin College. Ansel Wong's brief biography of Garrison in the opening of Garrison's book of poetry Beyond Babylon reveals the dissertation was subsequently developed into a book, now in its second reprint - Black Youth Rastafarianisim and Identity Crisis in Britain.

Legacy
In his work on Rastarfarisim and identity Garrison came to realise that the British education system was failing Black children as it denied the reality or existence of Black history or culture. This denial caused Black children to fail or under achieve within the British education system at the time. He believed " Given the right opportunity [Black children] can become an asset to [British] society." He argued what was required, was an educational resource which was multi-cultural - one that recognised and acknowledged Black history. That resource was to become ACER - Afro-Caribbean Education Resource. Its aim would be to give Black children a sense of identity and belonging to be proud of, and one which could be traced back to their African roots. It would make them Black British citizens, with a part to play in multi cultural Britain.

Garrison saw ACER as an archive of Black history from which educational material could be developed for school children of all ages and abilities. He campaigned for two years with the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) and others for the funding and resources untill 1977 when the ACER project was launched with Garrison as Director. .ACER's pioneering Black history educational packs first introduced at Dick Sheppard School in Brixton went on to be used all over the country. Amongst the many schemes ACER organised the most successful was the Young Penmanship awards for creative writing about their reality and experience as Black young people in Britain. The award has helped launch the careers of many black professionals including the playwright Michael McMillan, novelist and barrister Nicola Williams and the music critic Clive Davis. When ILEA was dismantled in 1988 ACER closed due to lack of funding however, ACER's legacy can be seen today in Black history being part of the mainstream British educational curriculum and its work has inspired the Dutch to develop similar multi cultural learning.

He took the ACER idea to Nottingham in the late 1980s where he became the Director of ACFF - African Caribbean Family and Friends - Centre. There he was instrumental in establishing EMACA - East Midlands African Caribbean Arts - an organisation which promotes positive cultural practice in the arts, particularly the Black Visual Arts. He also developed local history work around George Africanus Nottingham's first black entrepreneur. .

Garrison believed that “collecting and structuring the fragmented evidence  of the Black past in Britain as well as in the Caribbean and Africa is a monumental task, but it is a major agenda item in [the] last decade of the 20th Century [to create a] better basis for achieving a fully multicultural British society” As a tireless man of action that ‘major agenda item’ was to bring Black fragmented history together into the BCA - Black Cultural Archives- which he co-founded in 1981 and became a trustee.

The BCA’s mission was to ensure that Black history is properly recorded and available to all. A place where “the historical omission” of Black people of African descent from Britain’s official history can be corrected and where their true contributions can be documented and celebrated. In doing so become the basis for achieving the fully multicultural British society that was Garrison’s vision - the BCA’s work continues to this day, with plans for a move from its current home in Kennington back to Brixton to the UK's first national Black heritage centre, opening in 2011.