The 100th anniversary of the first black councillor will be celebrated on the 1st November 2006 (31/10/2006)

The 100th anniversary of the first black councillor will be celebrated on the 1st November 2006.

Henry Sylvester Williams was one of the first two people of African descent to be elected to public office in Britain, and Westminster’s first black councillor when he was elected for Church Street Ward, Marylebone, in 1906. Williams was appointed to the Committee for Improvements and Housing, as well as the Legal and Parliamentary Committee.

His main aim was to represent the workers of the district and to force action out of the council to improve the area.

His election was such a significant event that the Marylebone Mercury for Saturday 17 November 1906 ran an article about him. During this period his house at 50 Hamilton Gardens, St John’s Wood, saw an almost endless procession of guests and visitor ranging from Basuto royalty to destitute Jamaican seamen.

Cllr Astaire, Cabinet Member for Community and Customer Services, said: "Henry Sylvester Williams was a very cultured man who, by founding the African Association, gave the African community an avenue to express themselves.

"This concludes our fantastic celebration of Black History Month very appropriately."

Adama Mboge, Chairman for the Westminster Partnership for Racial Equality, said: "His election helped sow the first seeds of race equality, culminating in the in full blown anti-discrimination and anti-racism legislation from the 1960s. In that sense it is fitting that we celebrate this and acknowledge Westminster for providing that sea-changing opportunity."

--ENDS--

Notes to editors:

For a picture of Henry Sylvester Williams please contact Lawrence Luketa at Westminster Council press office on 020 7641 2423.

Short Biography

Williams, Henry Sylvester (1869–1911), pan-Africanist, was born on 19 February 1869 in Arouca, Trinidad, the eldest son of Henry Bishop Williams, wheelwright, and his wife, Elizabeth, who were immigrants from Barbados. He attended the Arouca government school and qualified as a teacher at Tranquillity normal school. He taught in country schools until 1890, when he left for the USA to gain qualifications unobtainable in Trinidad. His activities in North America are unknown except for 1893–4, when he attended Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada.

On arriving in London in 1896, Williams enrolled at King's College to study Latin and was admitted to Gray's Inn in December 1897. He earned his living as an official lecturer for the Temperance Society. In 1898 he married Agnes, a shorthand typist, daughter of Captain Francis Powell of Gillingham, Kent, despite the captain's objections to his colour.

Williams lectured on colonial issues on many platforms, including a meeting at the House of Commons in 1899 when he appealed for representative government for Trinidad. After reconnoitring throughout the UK he founded the African Association, which called a pan-African conference in July 1900. The aims were to bring into closer touch with each other the Peoples of African descent throughout the world; to inaugurate plans to bring about more friendly relations between Caucasian and African races; to start a movement to secure to all African races living in civilised countries their full rights and to promote their business interests. (Esedebe, 49)

Attended by representatives from Africa, the Caribbean, the USA, and by black people residing in Britain, the conference set up a new organisation, the Pan-African Association. To the initial aims were added to secure civil and political rights for Africans and their descendants throughout the world; to encourage African peoples everywhere in educational, industrial and commercial enterprise; to ameliorate the condition of the oppressed Negro in Africa, America, the British Empire, and other parts of the world.

Having qualified as a barrister, in 1902 Williams decided to leave his wife and children in London and go to Cape Town, becoming the first black man to practice in South Africa. Returning to London in 1904, he had hopes of pursuing his political activities as a Liberal MP, but was too late to secure a nomination. Instead he turned his attention to local government, and in 1906 stood as the Labour candidate for Church Street Ward of the Borough of St Marylebone. On being elected as the first black councillor for the Borough of Marylebone (and the present City of Westminster) he was appointed to the Committee for Improvements and Housing, as well as the Legal and Parliamentary Committee.