Former Coronation Street star Shobna Gulati is part of the “first ever company of women of colour” performing Shakespeare on a major UK stage.
The Globe Theatre in London described their staging of Richard II as “historic”.
Stage, TV and film star Adjoa Andoh is playing the lead role of king while Gulati will play the Duke of York.
The play will explore a post-Empire and pre-Brexit Britain and will reflect on identity and ownership. More
A plaque to honour the first black player to feature in an FA Cup final is to be unveiled at Leeds United’s ground.
Albert Johanneson played 200 times for Leeds from 1961 to 1969 and appeared in the 1965 Wembley final.
The plaque will be unveiled at Elland Road ahead of Friday evening’s game.
Angus Kinnear, the club’s chief executive, said he “was a trailblazer and paved the way for other black players to make their mark”.
South African winger Johanneson scored 67 goals for Leeds and helped the team win promotion to the then First Division in 1964. More
The Football Association has backed a call to honour Emma Clarke, Britain’s first black female footballer.
The Bootle-born player first featured for the British Ladies’ team in 1895 and went on to appear at stadiums such as St James’ Park and Portman Road.
Now Anna Kessel, sports writer and co-founder of Women in Football, wants Clarke to receive wider recognition: “A blue plaque on her childhood home would be brilliant.
“It would also be lovely to see the ground on which she made her debut recognised. I know English Heritage have rules about where a plaque can be attached – on an existing original building – however there are no existing buildings left on the pitch in north London where Clarke played. Maybe English Heritage could rethink their criteria. More
A football manager from Gravesend has won an award from a governing body for her work encouraging Sikh women to take up the game.
Parm Gill was given the Uefa Grassroots Gold Award after she set up Guru Nanak Ladies.
At least 75 women and girls now play for Guru Nanak FC.
It is hoped the club’s success will encourage more women from Asian communities to get into football. More
Companies may be forced to reveal their ethnicity pay gap under plans unveiled by the prime minister to help minorities at work.
Theresa May has launched a consultation on whether mandatory reporting will help address disparities between the pay and career prospects of minorities.
She acknowledged that minorities often “feel like they are hitting a brick wall” at work.
The move follows the decision to make firms reveal their gender pay gaps.
Downing Street said the consultation would allow businesses to share views on what information should be published “to allow for decisive action to be taken” while at the same time avoiding “undue burdens on businesses”. It will run until January.
The government’s Race Disparity Audit last year showed widely varying outcomes in areas including education, employment, health and criminal justice between Britain’s white and ethnic minority populations. More
October is Black History Month and with that in mind we have chosen Lenny Henry as our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month.
Lenny is one of Britain’s best known and best loved personalities. He’s an actor, writer, comedian and television presenter who co-founded Comic Relief in 1985.
He shot to fame in 1975 aged just 17. After doing impressions to amuse his classmates as a child, Lenny won a place on the TV talent show ‘New Faces’, doing a Frank Spencer impersonation. He won, and was subsequently offered numerous contracts including The Fosters and Tiswas. From there he joined the touring ‘Black and White Minstrel Show’ alongside ‘blacked up’ whites. After 5 years he left, admitting “I’d like to do anything else rather than that” and went on to star and write alongside Tracey Ullman in ‘Three of a Kind’ (1981), through which Lenny first met TV producer Paul Jackson who introduced him to the Comic Strip team.
Lenny hosted the pilot ‘Saturday Night Live’ in 1985 which starred French and Saunders as well as Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmonson. Later that year he performed at the Edinburgh Festival and starred in the second series of ‘The Lenny Henry Show’.
Following numerous TV appearances and shows Lenny was the winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award at the British Comedy Awards in 2003 and went on to win Outstanding Newcomer at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards for his portrayal of Othello (2009). He has subsequently appeared in A Comedy of Errors, and FENCES, to critical acclaim.
Lenny is also an energetic campaigner for the greater representation of Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) people in the entertainment industry.
He has also been one of the driving forces behind Comic Relief’s growth right from the very beginning and was a trustees for over 27 years. In 2017, Lenny resigned as a Trustee and was appointed by trustee as an Honorary Life President of Comic Relief.
One of the most famous black players in the Premiership says rugby union isn’t doing enough to get ethnic minority children from state schools into the game.
England and Wasps wing Christian Wade says the sport still suffers from a “white, public school” image.
He believes that big clubs are ignoring a large pool of untapped talent. More
Black and minority ethnic coaches (BAME) will be offered work placements with senior England teams to help increase diversity in football.
It is one of the measures outlined by the Football Association in a new equality action plan.
The FA said in January it was working on plans to increase equality in the organisation and the wider sport.
“We want the FA to reflect modern society in this country,” FA chairman Greg Clarke said.
“It will not happen overnight, but this is a significant step in the right direction to make football more equal, more diverse and more inclusive for all.”
The three-year action plan, called In Pursuit of Progress, puts forward a range of measures and targets it wants to hit by 2021. More
It is 50 years since the first wave of black head teachers took up their roles in English schools, yet ethnic minorities remain under-represented in senior roles.
BBC News Online examines the impact of these pioneers of the profession as they overcame prejudice and multiple rejections on their rise to the top of their field. More
The England and Wales Cricket Board is to implement a ‘Rooney Rule’ for all coaching roles in the national men’s, women’s and disabled teams.
It means that at least one applicant from black, Asian or minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds will be interviewed for future jobs.
That follows the biggest study the ECB has ever conducted into cricket in South Asian communities.
The Rooney Rule was implemented in the USA’s NFL in 2003.
Named after NFL diversity committee chairman Dan Rooney, it requires clubs in American football to interview at least one BAME candidate for each head coach or senior football operation vacancy.
The Football Association adopted a similar stance for positions in the England football set-up in January. More