Olive Morris (1952-1979) was a community leader who rose to meet a dire moment in British history, a time rife with racial discrimination and economic despair.
Olive Morris (1952-1979) was a community leader who rose to meet a dire moment in British history, a time rife with racial discrimination and economic despair.
You’re probably familiar with rebels without a cause, but what about rebels with a cause? This month on Womanica, we’re talking about women who broke rules that were meant to be broken. From the “Godmother of Title IX” Bernice Sandler, to the most prominent figure of the People Power Revolution, Corazon Aquino, to the “Queen of Civil Rights” Ruby Hurley, these women took major risks to upend the status quo and create meaningful change.
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Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.
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Before we get started, just a warning that this episode contains discussion of racial discrimination and violence.
Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan. And this is Womanica.
This month, we’re talking about Rebels WITH a cause: women who broke rules that were meant to be broken. These women took major risks to upend the status quo and create meaningful change.
Today we’re talking about a community leader who rose to meet a dire moment in British history – a time rife with racial discrimination and economic despair.
Let’s talk about Olive Morris.
Olive Morris was born on June 26, 1952 in St. Catherine, Jamaica. Her parents moved to England when Olive was young, leaving her and her siblings in the care of Olive’s grandmother in Jamaica. When she was nine years old, Olive joined her parents in London. Her father was a forklift driver and her mother worked in a factory and as a cleaner.
In November of 1969, 17 year old Olive was hanging out with some friends at a record store in Brixton, an Afro-Caribbean neighborhood in south London. Outside, a Nigerian diplomat driving down the street was pulled over. At the time, under the so-called “sus law”, it was legal for the British police to stop and search anyone of suspected wrongdoing. Black people were often the targets of these stops.
When the diplomat resisted, the police got forceful. People on the street gathered and Olive stepped out of the crowd to intervene.
She was handcuffed, arrested on charges of assault, and taken to the police station.
They released her a few hours later, bruised and swollen.
This violent incident launched her life as an activist fighting against racial discrimination, especially on behalf of Black women. Soon after her arrest, she joined the Youth Collective of the British Black Panthers and founded the Brixton Black Women’s Group. She also helped create the Organization of Women of African and Asian Descent, one of the first networks for women of color to engage in politics and push back against inequalities in housing and education.
In 1970 Olive met Michael McColgan, a student and fellow political activist who would become her partner. Olive was very collaborative in her organizing efforts. Michael said, “she would work and talk with anybody as long as she thought they were genuine about what they were doing.” In fact, it would take them 30 minutes to walk a short distance home from their tube stop because so many people stopped her on the street to talk.
This connection to her community made Olive a strong organizer – at a time when it was especially necessary. The 1970s in England were like a pressure cooker beginning to let off steam. The mounting tension came from systemic racism rearing its head: in discriminatory laws, violent policing, and right-wing political speeches that stoked fear.
In 1972, two young Black children died in a public housing fire, started by an overturned space heater. In response, Olive organized a rally outside government offices to demand safer and more reliable heating in public housing buildings.
The demonstrators were threatened with arrest, so Olive had the crowd scatter but asked the children participating to run into the building. She knew they wouldn’t be arrested. Soon after, the head of the housing department came out and agreed to investigate the issue. Central heating was installed not long after that demonstration.
That same year, Olive was part of a big squatter’s rights campaign. It drew attention to the fact that while thousands of people in London were homeless, there were empty buildings all over the city. One of the buildings she and other organizers took over later became a bookstore, another building became a center for community organizing.
Olive was always looking to expand her perspective. She completed a social science degree from Manchester University, even though she hadn’t completed high school. And she traveled to China and Jamaica, to learn from their anti-imperial struggles.
Olive was in Spain in the summer of 1978 when, one day, she felt a sudden pain while biking. When she returned to London she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. She died on July 12, 1979. She was 27.
Olive’s legacy of activism is often characterized as “overlooked”. But that might be a bit simplistic. Her organizing in such a critical time in British history has inspired many memorials, archives, and resurgences of her efforts.
All month, we’re talking about rebels with a cause. For more information, check us out on Facebook and Instagram @womanicapodcast.
Special thanks to co-creators Jenny and Liz Kaplan, for having me as a guest host.
Talk to you tomorrow!