Dr. Beryl Agatha Gilroy (née Answick) was a novelist and teacher, and “one of Britain’s most significant post-war Caribbean migrants”. Born on August 30th, 1924 in Guyana (then British Guiana), she moved in the 1950s to the United Kingdom, where she became the first black head teacher to be appointed in the borough of Camden in London at Beckford Primary. Beryl was born in Skeldon, Berbice, Guyana. She grew up in a large, extended family,…
Women’s History
Shirley Chisholm is the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Congress and the first to campaign for the Presidency. She was an outspoken advocate for women and minorities during the seven terms she served in the House. Her legacy of political and social activism laid the foundation for the rise of women and Blacks in American politics. Born Shirley Anita St. Hill on November 30, 1924, she was the oldest of four girls of…
Lady Sara Lou Carter, nee Harris was an educator, fashion model, entertainer and humanitarian, born in Wilkesboro, North Carolina in 1926. She married Guyanese Sir John Carter in 1960, after meeting him in 1958 when she visited Guyana to participate in a fashion show. A graduate of Bennett College in North Carolina, Lady Sara taught third grade in her hometown of Wilkesboro, NC for a year. Sara went on to pursue her master’s degree…
In the south London town of Stockwell at the Stockwell Memorial Gardens is a 10-foot bronze sculpture of a woman holding a child. It was the brainchild of Guyanese Cécile Nobrega and is based on and named after her own poem: Bronze Woman. Cécile was a scholar, musician, artist, text-book writer, poetess and many more attributes. She was born Cécile Burgan – the daughter of the late Canon William Granville Burgan and Imelda Burgan. Cecile grew up in Buxton village, East…