Black History Month - Wilfred Wood

Black History Month: 23 October 2020

 

Wilfred Denniston Wood, born in Barbados in 1936, became the Bishop of Croydon in 1985 and the first black bishop in the Church of England. Being struck by the harsh conditions that black immigrants had to undergo and by the problems of the inner city, Wood maintained an active interest in race relations and social justice in London. He noticed black youths being treated poorly and at times criminally by law enforcement. He condemned how young black people were systematically prevented from mounting the first rung of the career ladder due to severe racial bias. He witnessed the multiple barriers to housing for black families as they put up with abysmal living conditions and had little support from officials to fight their corner.

 

Thus, he used his authority to set up a fund to support black families in need, established a credit union to create sustainable ongoing income, opened Saturday schools to supplement education, formed a successful job club, and established a housing agency. He was a founder member of the Paddington Churches Housing Association and was appointed the Bishop of London's race relations office in 1966. He dedicated his life to not only faith but improving the lives within unfairly neglected black communities.

 

Want to learn more about Bishop Wilfred Wood? Click here for more information.

Boris Johnson on the Croydon riots

I was delighted to be invited to a Conservative party event last Tuesday evening. The special guest of the night was the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, who gave a speech about the riots that occurred last month.

Although he spoke about the riots as a whole, he predominantly focused on repairing Croydon and restoring faith into the citizens that reside there. His aim now is to recreate Croydon to be even better than it was before, by including new tram links and generating business incentives to stimulate the town’s economy.

At the moment, there seems to be a lot of disillusionment with the police. During the first days of the riots, the police took a laid-back approach and looters were free to ransack stores. This seems to be a huge concern for Johnson, therefore he emphasised that the police force is robust and resilient to bounce back from the criticisms.

He then opened the panel to the residents, including the owner of Reeve’s Corner (the biggest building that was set alight in Croydon). The store owner was reassured that he would have support as he reconstructed his business building.

I happily met Johnson afterwards. It was a great speech and a good night. He definitely left the event having a lot of support from the Conservative members of Croydon.

Many thanks to VD for this report.