Black Heroes Foundation

Promoting Black Heritage

It is quite a tall order for someone without a background in theatre or charities to take on a project like The Black Heroes® Foundation– but that is exactly what Joyce Fraser did after her husband Flip Fraser died.

Flip, who was the first

editor of The Voice newspaper, passed away in 2014 after a long illness. Flip had for a long time been involved in theatre and music projects to celebrate and highlight the achievements of black people. His show, Black Heroes in the Hall of Fame, had run for decades and had been staged not just in the UK but in the US.

Joyce takes up the story: “At Flip’s funeral a lot of people were saying to me ‘we need to preserve his legacy’. I agreed but wasn’t exactly sure how to as my background was not in the arts or media but in teaching”. But Joyce soon realised that Flip’s Facebook page for Black Heroes still had thousands of followers so there was still a connection and something to work with. She decided to set up the Black Heroes® Foundation charity. She admits at first she was terrified and had no idea about how to raise funds but with an enthusiastic team behind her, the charity was up and running in 2016. While fundraising was and remains a significant challenge, particularly for black organisations, Joyce is proud of what the team have achieved so far and hopes more money can be raised to spread awareness of black history and culture.

A history to be proud of

So why is black history so important and why the need for halls of fame? “When I was at school black history was simply: ‘you came from slaves’. The impact on your self-esteem is great,” Joyce explains. “The reality is that black kids should go into school with great pride in their history and understand the huge contribution the black community has made to the UK”. Despite never having written a play before, Joyce decide to write about black heroes and the hugely beneficial impact they had on their communities. She has written and toured a play about John Archer, the first black mayor in London. The son of an Irish mother and a ship steward father from Barbados – Archer held the role of mayor for the borough of Battersea in 1913. Hugely respected and admired, he made a huge contribution to black rights.

World-famous carnival

More recently she produced a play about Claudia Jones, who held the first West Indian Carnival in London at St Pancras Town Hall - her carnivals were the pre-cursor to the Notting Hill Carnival. An amazing life story of a woman from Trinidad, who emigrated to the US only to be deported in the 1950s during the McCarthy witch hunt due to her political activism and support for African American liberation. Settled in London, she set up the West Indian Gazette and in 1959 as a community response to the 1958 August Bank Holiday riots in Notting Hill, she organised the precursor to the now world-famous annual carnival. That is some legacy! In addition to these plays being performed in Wandsworth and Battersea, the Canada Water Theatre is also showcasing Joyce’s work in October. “One of the differences between what we are doing now and the ‘black heroes show’ that Flip focused on – who were largely from the US – is that we have highlighted the achievements of local people which when you visit schools and community groups certainly has a significant resonance.” So, what does the future hold for Joyce and the foundation? The aim to develop cultural awareness and celebrate black heroes will not change but new efforts will be made to increase funding and for the charity to be self-sufficient. “We need to look at how we can increase merchandising – at the same time as attracting new donations,” Joyce says.

The reality is that black kids should go into school with great pride in their history and understand the huge contribution the black community has made to the UK.

Black Heroes® Foundation

To be Culturally aware gives you pride and motivation to achieve.