Paul Stephenson Lecture
About the Paul Stephenson Lecture
The annual Diversity UK Paul Stephenson Lecture on equality and inclusion, is named in honour of Dr Paul Stephenson OBE (pictured above), the social worker who, in 1963, led the boycott of the Bristol Omnibus Company for discrimination that eventually paved the way for the Race Relations Act of 1965. Dr Stephenson attended the inaugural lecture and was recognised with the Diversity UK Chairman’s Lifetime Achievement Award for his work on diversity and inclusion in Britain.
He spoke about his own upbringing and the boycott of the Bristol Omnibus Company that he led in 1963, protesting against its refusal to employ Black or Asian drivers or conductors. After a 60-day boycott supported by thousands of Bristolians, the company revoked its colour bar in August and later employed its first non-white bus conductor, an Asian, Raghbir Singh. Guests were delighted the Paul took the time to sign copies of his ‘Memoirs of a Black Englishman’ for the 100 attendees.
Paul Stephenson Lecture Keynote Speakers
Leading geoscientist exposes institutional racism in science
Leading geoscientist, Chris Jackson, yesterday exposed the issues of institutional discrimination in higher education and explored the steps he thinks everyone needs to take to end racism in science. Chris Jackson is Director of Sustainable Geoscience at the engineering consultancy Jacobs and Visiting Professor of Basin Analysis at Imperial College London. Read More >>
Leading academic gives the Paul Stephenson Lecture 2021
Leading academic Professor Marcia Wilson gave the Diversity UK Paul Stephenson Lecture on 25th November 2021 via Zoom, sharing her expertise on ‘How to Build an Anti-Racist Organisation’. Professor Wilson said that being a non-racist organisation was now no longer enough, stating that organisations had to strive to actively become anti-racist. Read More >>
Campaigner Patrick Vernon gives the Paul Stephenson Lecture 2020
Campaigner and cultural historian, Patrick Vernon OBE gave the Diversity UK Paul Stephenson Lecture on 25th November 2020 via a live Cisco Webex event. He spoke about race equality, drawing on his experiences of heritage and history. He highlighted the unequal way in which COVID-19 has impacted BAME communities. Read More >>
Tech entrepreneur Tom Ilube gives annual diversity lecture 2019
Tech entrepreneur and education philanthropist Tom Ilube CBE gave the annual diversity lecture on Monday 25th November 2019. The year 2019 marked the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, so Tom Ilube spoke about the impact of emerging technologies on society and how these new innovations can raise aspirations among the disadvantaged...Read More >>
Diversity lecture given by two women pioneers in 2018
The Diversity UK Paul Stephenson lecture on equality and inclusion was given by two women equality pioneers, Tangy Morgan and Elaine Sihera, on Wednesday 14th November 2018. Hosted by Eversheds Sutherland (International) LLP at their City of London offices, guests heard from Tangy Morgan, Senior Advisor to the Bank of England Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), who spoke about… Read More »
Race equality pioneers give Diversity lecture 2017
Diversity UK honours Paul Stephenson OBE
Diversity UK inaugurated the first Paul Stephenson lecture, given by Helen Grant MP, on Wednesday 23rd November 2016 at the Speaker’s House, House of Commons, in London. Helen Grant MP was elected to represent the Parliamentary Constituency of Maidstone & the Weald on 5th May 2010, becoming the first black female Conservative Member of Parliament. She spoke about race and diversity in Britain...Read More »