November 6, 2024
Dr. Paul Stephenson, British Civil Rights Leader, Dies At 87
Stephenson's story needs to be told more widely because of the transformative nature of what he helped make possible.
Dr. Paul Stephenson, a civil rights activist and a British contemporary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., died on Nov. 2 at the age of 87 after a battle against Parkinson’s Disease.
According to the BBC, Stephenson organized a 1963 bus boycott in Bristol, which convinced the city to overturn an edict banning Black people and other ethnic minorities from working in Bristol’s transportation department.
That boycott was a key event during the country’s Civil Rights struggle, whose capstone moment was the passing of the country’s first Race Relations Act in 1965.
In their statement regarding his death, his family described Stephenson as a pioneer in the civil rights movement.
“It is with a heavy heart that the Stephenson family share the passing of our beloved father, Dr Paul Stephenson, a true pioneer in the civil rights movement,” the family’s statement read.
The family continued, “He left this world on the evening of Nov. 2, 2024, after a courageous battle with Parkinson’s disease and dementia, which he faced with the same unwavering determination that defined his life. We have been immensely fortunate to witness first-hand the profound impact Dr. Paul Stephenson had on our community and our nation.”
Stephenson started on his path of fighting for equality when he became the first Black social worker employed by the City of Bristol. In that role, he rallied thousands of Black people in Bristol to stand up against the Bristol Omnibus Company’s rule against hiring Black and Asian drivers.
“Paul lived an incredible life. Not just for his friends and his family, but contributed to Bristol, the country and the world,” Bristol’s former mayor, Marvin Rees, told the BBC. “Most famously, Paul will be known for the leadership of the Bristol Bus Boycott. Less well known but incredibly significant is that that turned into legislation to protect people from racial discrimination.”
Rees continued, “His impact was not just around the buses. It was about what it led to in terms of creating a legal framework to protect black and brown people —and other people—from being discriminated against in everyday life.”
According to writer and historian Edson Burton, Stephenson’s story needs to be told more widely because of the transformative nature of what he helped make possible.
“By being able to put that stake in the ground. Our social attitudes have fallen in behind. No longer is it legal, but it’s also not part of British values and our legal framework to discriminate,” Burton told the BBC.
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