Betty Campbell MBE
Betty Campbell MBE was a Welsh community activist, she is mostly known for being the first black female head teacher in Wales. Campbell was born into a working class household in Butetown, then known as Tiger Bay and one of the UK’s first multi-cultural communities. She won a scholarship to the Lady Margaret High School for Girls in Cardiff. She later trained a s a teacher and became the head teacher of Mount Stuart Primary school. In 1960 she became one of the first six 6 women to enrol at the Cardiff Teacher Training College, she was also a mother of 3 at the time. When she became Wales’ first black head teacher she began teaching about slavery, black history and apartheid after being inspired on a trip to the US. Campbell helped form Black History Month, Campbell became a member of the Home Office’s race advisory committee and a member of the Commission for Racial Equality. In her own words she “was determined that I was going to become one of those people and enhance the black spirit, black culture as much as I could”. Under Campbell’s guidance, Mount Stuart School became a template for multicultural education. On 18th of January 2019, there was a vote for Campbell to be commemorated with a statue in Cardiff. With some delays caused by COVID-19, her statue was finally unveiled on the 29th of September 2021