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Olive Morris

(1952-1979), Political activist

Olive Elaine Morris

Sitter in 2 portraits
Political activist, and community leader. Jamaican-born Morris arrived in London aged nine. She became politicised in the 1960s and 1970s when discrimination in housing and employment made life extremely difficult for the African-Caribbean community. She became a key figure in the campaign against oppression, racial injustice and sexism in Britain. Morris joined the revolutionary socialist Black Panther movement and became a founding-member of the Brixton Black Women's Group. In 1978 she co-founded the Organisation of Women of African and Asian Descent and was instrumental in the campaign to end police stop-and-search 'sus' laws. Morris read economics and social science at Manchester University where she campaigned against high overseas-student's fees. Morris died, aged 27, from an uncommon cancer. In 2011 the Olive Morris memorial award was launched giving bursaries to young black women.

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Olive Morris, by Neil Kenlock - NPG x199645

Olive Morris

by Neil Kenlock
modern bromide print from original negative, January 1973
NPG x199645

Olive Morris, by Rob Adderley, and Ceri Buckmaster, and Staffan Gnosspelius - NPG D48057

Olive Morris

by Rob Adderley, and Ceri Buckmaster, and Staffan Gnosspelius
currency note, 2009
On display in Room 16 at the National Portrait Gallery
NPG D48057

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