Black History Month · October 2026

Black History

This month we’re going to meet some incredible people — people who changed the country we live in — and ask one question. What will I change?

Let’s begin
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Part 01

Black History is British History

It’s not a side story. It’s pages of our country’s story that for a long time weren’t told properly. This month, we put those pages back where they belong.

The big idea
It’s not extra. It’s the missing pages.
Every country’s story has chapters that get told loudly — and chapters that get missed. Black History Month is when we open the missing chapters of British history. The names you’ll meet this month should be as familiar to you as the kings and queens.
🧐 Hands up

Can anyone name a Black person from history they already know about? Doesn’t matter who.

Part 02

Black Britons Have Been Here for Almost 2,000 Years

A quick walk through time — long before this month, long before this century, before most of the names in your history textbook.

~200 AD
Roman Britain
Black soldiers in the Roman army stationed at Hadrian’s Wall.
1500s
Tudor Court
John Blanke — royal trumpeter to Henry VII and Henry VIII.
1700s
Olaudah Equiano
Writer whose memoir helped end the slave trade in Britain.
1948
Windrush
The ship that helped shape modern multicultural Britain.
🧠 Big idea

When we talk about Black history, we’re talking about most of British history.

Part 03 • Story 1

Mary Seacole
Built Her Own Door

Born Jamaica, 1805 · Crimean War nurse
When the army said no, she paid her own way to the war.
Mary was an experienced nurse from Jamaica. When the Crimean War broke out, she came to London and asked to join Florence Nightingale’s team. She was turned away. So Mary did something extraordinary — she funded the journey herself, sailed to the front line, and built her own “British Hotel” right next to the fighting. She nursed wounded soldiers under fire.
2004
Voted the Greatest Black Briton in history
1,000s
of soldiers nursed by Mary on the Crimean front
2016
First statue of a named Black woman in Britain
🧐 Lesson from Mary

If a door closes, you can build your own.

Part 04 • Story 2

Windrush
22 June 1948

Empire Windrush · Tilbury Docks
1,027 people arrived to help rebuild Britain. They built our NHS, our buses, our country.
After the Second World War, Britain asked people from the Caribbean to come and help rebuild. They worked in our hospitals, on our buses, on our trains, in our factories. The NHS, in many ways, was built on their shoulders. We call that group the Windrush generation. Modern multicultural Britain starts right here, on this dock, on this day.
1,027
passengers on the ship’s official list — most from the Caribbean
22 Jun
National Windrush Day every year
1948→
The start of modern multicultural Britain
🧐 Lesson from Windrush

The country we live in was built by people from everywhere.

Part 05 • Story 3

Rosa Parks
One Seat. One Moment.

Montgomery, Alabama · 1 December 1955
A tired woman finished her shift, got on the bus, and quietly said no.
The bus driver told Rosa to give up her seat. She quietly refused. She was arrested. But that small refusal sparked a 381-day bus boycott, a young pastor called Martin Luther King leading the marches, and a Civil Rights Movement that changed America. From a single seat. From a single quiet word.
381
days of the Montgomery bus boycott that followed
1
moment, sat still, that lit a movement
1965
the Voting Rights Act — what the movement won
🧐 Lesson from Rosa

A small action, in the right moment, can change history.

⚡ Happening Now

A Space Scientist Looking at the Stars

Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock · Space Scientist · BBC Sky at Night
She was put in the bottom set as a child. Now she helps build telescopes that look back to the start of time.
Dr Maggie is a real, working-on-real-rockets space scientist. She presents BBC’s Sky at Night. She writes children’s books about the universe. She’s helped design instruments that fly in space. As a child, she was told she wouldn’t make it — she’s dyslexic, she was put in the bottom set. She decided that wasn’t going to stop her. Now she’s one of the most famous scientists in this country.
🧐 Lesson from Maggie

Black history isn’t just about the past. It’s being made right now — by people who decide what they’re capable of, not the people around them.

Part 07 • Right Now

Black History is Being Made Now

Look around the country today. Tomorrow’s names are still being chosen. Some of them might be sitting in this hall.

Sir Lewis Hamilton
Sport
Most race wins in F1 history. Speaks out for kids in motorsport.
Stormzy
Music · Education
Funds scholarships sending Black British students to Cambridge University.
Dame Sharon White
Business
First Black woman to lead John Lewis — one of Britain’s biggest companies.
Marcus Rashford
Sport · Campaigning
Got the government to feed thousands of children in lockdown.
Diane Abbott
Politics
First Black female MP. Still in parliament after almost 40 years.
Steve McQueen
Film
Oscar-winning director. His “Small Axe” films told Black British stories on TV.
Part 08 • Your Mission This Month

5 Lives. 5 Lessons.

Each day this week we’ll meet one person and learn one lesson. By Friday, every one of you writes your own Changemaker Pledge.

Mon
Mary Seacole
Build your own door
Tue
Windrush
Built by people from everywhere
Wed
Rosa Parks
Small actions change history
Thu
Mary Jackson
Do the work, even unseen
Fri
Your pledge
Pick something to change
✨ Your changemaker pledge
"This month, I will change ____ in my school by ____."
🏆 Mission Complete

Mary. Windrush. Rosa.
Maggie. You.

Five names you didn’t walk in here knowing all of, and now you do. Black History Month is one month a year — but the people we’ve met don’t live in October. They live in the people you’ll become.

⚡ Pick one for today

Right now, before you go back to class, decide one small kind or brave thing you’ll do today. That’s how Black History Month starts. With one of you.

Want to walk through Windrush in VR?
Our “Black History” workshop brings VR headsets to your school. Every class meets Mary Seacole, walks through Windrush, stands on the Montgomery bus.
Book a Black History day