Betty Campbell MBE’s has been in place for over three years now and depicts one of Wales’ most inspiring women. She was the first black head teacher in Wales and when this statue was erected, it became the first anywhere in Wales to memorialise a woman. We’ll be taking a look at the statue and her story.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Betty Campbell might not be the most well-known name through the last few decades, but her
00:05lasting legacy is clear to see. She was a massive part of racial equality and education
00:10in the UK, and has had an impact on people's lives not just in Wales, but the rest of the
00:15United Kingdom, and has been recognised as part of the monumental Welsh Women's Statue
00:19series. She was born in 1934 in Bute Town near Tiger Bay, one of the first truly multicultural
00:25parts of Wales or the rest of the United Kingdom. She was born to Nora and Simon, both of Caribbean
00:30descent, but lost her father in World War II when his ship was sunk by a torpedo. She
00:35fell pregnant at a young age, and given the time period, around the 1950s, many would
00:39have thought her life would have been at home. But Betty Campbell decided to enrol in teaching
00:43college when she found out they'd started accepting women for the first time, and became
00:48one of the first to graduate. She taught for a number of years, and eventually became head
00:52teacher at her school, kick-starting her career onto much bigger things. When she became
00:58a head teacher at Mount Stewart School, her efforts in education were recognised across
01:02the UK as a template for multicultural education, and earned her a seat at the UK Government's
01:08Home Office's Race Advisory Committee. She was also a member of the Commission for Racial
01:12Equality, and gave her insight into a number of different laws and other government plans.
01:18The school was visited by the future king, Charles III, when he was the Prince of Wales
01:22back in 1994, for the Eisteddfod celebrations, and later was given the opportunity to meet
01:27Nelson Mandela on his only ever trip to Wales. She eventually became a councillor in her
01:33later years, after decades of fighting for racial equality, and was awarded an MBE in
01:372003. She was later awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from Unison for her efforts in social
01:43justice a few years before her death in 2017. Her influence has been monumental for her
01:48community in Bute Town, for Wales and the rest of the UK, and led the way for young
01:52people across the country to be inspired and empowered, paving the way for ethnic minorities
01:58to follow on from her.