Birthday of Olive Morris

Olive Morris was a Jamaican-born, British political activist, and feminist leader who was active in the British Civil Rights Movement and the feminist and squatters' movements. As a teenager she left secondary school at age 16 and was recruited by the Black Panther Youth League the next year. In 1973, after some time in the British Black Panther Movement (BPP), Morris created the Brixton Black Women’s Group (BBWG) as a forum to discuss Black women’s experiences in the BPP. In this same year, Morris became a leading figure in the squatters’ rights movement. She helped establish the squat at 121 Railton Road, which served as a community center, hosting community groups such as Black People against State Harassment and the Brixton Black Women's Group. Sabarr Bookshop was set up by a group of local black people which activists used to work with schools to provide black history reading materials. The 121 Centre later became an anarchist self-managed social centre and lasted to 1999. Olive also helped create the Manchester Black Women's Co-operative and the Black Women's Mutual Aid Group. After returning to college in 1975, she co-founded the Organization for Women of African and Asian Descent (OWAAD), where she became editor of their magazine entitled FOWAD!. She also contributed to the BBWG’s newsletter, entitled Speak Out!
She died tragically of cancer in 1979 at the age of 27 after being sent away from the hospital the first time she went.