Grant, Bernie (Bernard Alexander Montgomery), 1944-2000

The senior of the first Black politicians elected to British Parliament (as Member of Parliament for Tottenham); first Black Leader of a local authority in Europe (Leader of Haringey Council); Anti-Racist campaigner; Freedom Fighter; Pan-Africanist; humanitarian and pioneering activist for racial equality.

Bernie Grant was born on 17th February 1944 in Georgetown, Guyana, to Eric and Lily Grant, both schoolteachers. He was educated at St Joseph's RC, Sacred Heart and Ituni Government Schools, and later at St Stanislaus College, and worked then as an analyst in the Demerara Bauxite Company, Guyana. He came to Britain in 1963 with his family, working first as a railway clerk, before studying at Tottenham Technical college in 1965-67, and going on to study Mining Engineering at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh 1967-1969. He left the University in 1969 in protest against discrimination against black students.

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