Betty Campbell

FIRST BLACK HEAD TEACHER IN WALES, ACTIVIST

Born in Butetown, Betty Campbell dreamt about being a teacher from childhood and she won a scholarship to Cardiff’s Lady Margaret High School for Girls. Her studies were postponed after she became pregnant at 17, but she enrolled in the teacher training programme at Cardiff Training College after having three children. She faced prejudice when she became Wales’ first black head teacher at Mount Stuart in the 1970s, but her inspirational teaching about slavery, black history and apartheid in South Africa made her school’s reputation grow exponentially. Later becoming a member of the Commission for Racial Equality, Campbell was invited to meet Nelson Mandela on his only visit to Wales in 1998. In 2003, she was awarded an MBE for services to education and community life.