Happy Birthday OBV: Help us fulfil our vision

Eighteen years ago today, 16th July 1996, the sun shone on the Houses of Westminster as a small, but dedicated, group of campaigners launched Operation Black Vote.

Without any money and little resources, Rita Patel, Derek Hinds, Ashok Viswanathan, Dave Weaver, Lee Jasper and myself launched an audacious plan to change our world. Great anti-racist campaigners Andrew Puddephatt and Stephen Pittam both helped incubate the vision. At its core we sought to follow in the footsteps of Dr Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and use the democratic process and our potential political muscle to demand greater race equality. Long time community activist Derek Hinds echoed the mantra of Malcolm X: ‘The ballot box, not the bullet’.

Using the leverage of the BME vote back then quickly gained advantage: Prime Minister John Major’s Government had a wafer thin majority of just 27 seats - we had calculated the BME vote could decide over 100. The power of the Black vote was a sleeping giant.

I remember vividly the day Shadow Home Secretary Jack Straw called our office to ask if he could make an announcement at an OBV meeting. We agreed. At a hurriedly arranged meeting, he stated if BME communities vote Labour he would promise a public inquiry in Stephen Lawrence’s murder. That inquiry changed British history.

We’re proud of that, but also proud of the fact that despite relatively small amounts of funding, we were able to engage in comprehensive programmes that nurtured BME Leaders. As a result of those schemes and projects, Helen Grant became the first female Conservative Minister of African heritage and Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, the first female Muslim Cabinet Minister.

Through our schemes, more than 30 BME individuals have become local councillors. Cllrs Anna Rothery and Nathalie Nicholas have helped treble BME representation in Liverpool, whilst in Newport, Councillor Omar, became the first British Somali councillor in Wales.

More than 100 BME individuals now sit as Magistrates dispensing justice. When Nicholas Boachie was chosen for the Magistrates Shadowing Scheme, he told me with tears in his eyes: “No one chooses a young Black man like me from this council estate in Leicester. “ I told him the courts need young brilliant men such as you. And by the way I was brought up on this estate too. Boachie was sworn in as one of Her Majesty's JPs, 8 years ago.

We are particularly proud, that we not only forced the then Secretary of State Michael Gove to keep Mary Seacole on the National Curriculum with our ground breaking petition, but we also persuaded him to ensure ancient African and Asian cultures be taught in all our schools.

For all the success we’ve achieved in the last few years, we have seen race equality almost fall off the agenda. So whilst we celebrate our successes, please help us re-double our efforts and put tackling race equality firmly back on the agenda.

In the next general election the BME vote can decide 168 marginal seats. That’s real power. Help us use that power to put tackling race inequality high on the political agenda.

Please donate £10 or more to help us help our communities be politically strong and demand race equality and opportunity.

So, on our Birthday we'd like to say a big thank you for supporting us for nearly two decades. Please continue to so.

Simon Woolley, Francine Fernandes, Rafiq Maricar and the OBV team