Elizabeth Obi and Olive Morris

Elizabeth Obi and Olive Morris were two of the many women who pioneered the British Black Power Movement in the 1960s and 1970s.

In the early years of their activism as teenagers, they both joined the British Black Panthers, the first independent chapter of the Black Panther Party outside of the United States. Despite men dominating both the agenda and leadership of the group, Obi and Morris took on leadership roles at the grassroots, successfully campaigning against police brutality and inadequate housing for Black families in Brixton.

However, the misogynistic environment and lack of attention paid to female issues led Obi and Morris to leave the Panthers in 1973 and establish their own autonomous group, the Brixton Black Women’s Group (BBWG), the first of its kind in Britain. This organisation sought to place the issues affecting Black women to the forefront of the Black Power Movement in Britain.

'It is only by coming together and analysing our situation as black women in this society that we can make an effective contribution to the struggle’.

The BBWG helped to connect, educate and empower local Black women in South London. The group produced the ‘Speak Out’ periodical, set up the Black Women’s Centre and founded the Sabarr bookshop selling Black and women’s literature. Morris also played a crucial role in taking this local activism to the national stage, co-founding the Organisation of Women of African and Asian Descent, the first nation-wide network of Black feminist groups.

Obi and Morris redefined what Black Power meant and looked like in Britain, moulding it into a movement which spoke to local British women as well as men. These two women made a deep impact on the communities in which they lived whilst creating a long-lasting legacy of Black female radicalism in the UK. 

by Emma Baker