2013 marked the 50th anniversary of the Bristol Bus Boycott and Paul Stephenson OBE was in high demand. Local Learning organised for Paul to talk in a number of venues about events leading up to the boycott and what inspired him to take this action. Paul shared his experience with the general public at St Pauls Learning Centre, and together with Lilleith Morrison, co-writer of Paul’s story, Memoirs of a Black Englishman they addressed Level 3 media students at City of Bristol College and Year 6 students at St Barnabas CEVC.
Paul and Lilleith were an inspiration to Year 6, St Barnabas CEVC who learned about all the people involved in this historical event that led to the first Act of Parliament ever to address racial discrimination.
Local Learning was very fortunate to have the involvement of Bristol artists, Carmen Garaghon and Josh Myers for this part of the project.
Carmen produced an enormous collage of a green bus for the students to populate with the people Paul had identified as playing a significant role in the Bristol Bus Boycott. Year 6 drew the people and added speech bubbles to tell their part of the story.
Josh produced a bus stop as a metaphor for the bus boycott. He represented the initial Race Relations Act of 1963 and subsequent Acts of Parliament as a bus timetable.