Unsung Heroes Event – the hidden histories of Black footballers and sportspeople
On a blustery January day, Show Racism the Red Card – North West and the National Football Museum, teamed up to host a fantastic primary school event highlighting untold stories.
Two classes from local schools, Our Lady’s and St Malachy’s, braved the winds for an innovative fun-filled day. Excitement was high as the students entered the stunning ‘Pitch-Side Gallery’ and found seats ready for a day of varied and interesting activities.
Throughout the morning, the students worked with staff from both organisations to explore the role of museums and why certain stories may be more well known, whilst others become lost in history. These questions highlighted historical racism and its wider impact, such as the story of Len Johnson, an incredible Black British boxer who was denied his medals because of the colour bar. The children showcased drama ‘freeze frames’ of key moments in his story before exploring and critiquing the galleries, ready for the main task of the day…they would become museum workers and design an exhibition panel!
The afternoon was now their opportunity to learn about 8 untold stories in football history and create a display panel about them – not just as a fun exercise, but for the public to vote on so that the winners are actually made and put on display!
They were given a short biography, objects, images and quotes to make their creative responses. However, museums have hundreds, often thousands of collections, there’s only so much space that can be allocated – how do they select which stories and artefacts make it onto display? What would our students chose to display about their person and why?
Once their panels were designed, each group bravely stood on the stage to tell us about their person, why they were inspiring and their ideas behind their design. These wonderful creations are now adorning the walls of NFM and are being viewed and voted on right now – please go and visit to see the work in progress, and if you can consider sponsoring a panel (so we can physcially make it) please get in touch to discuss this with Keziah Major, NW Manager (nwadmin@theredcard.org).
SRTRC is immensely proud of being able to highlight our work within such a wonderful museum and public space. We’d like to kindly thank visitors to the event who braved the storm; Andy Burnham, Mayor of GMCA, RT.Hon Lucy Powell, Bryan Robson, Iffy Onoura, Sam Ghataora, Jayne Bekoe, Ericka Williams, Jenny Brown, Chelsea Halsall and Terry Angus. Also thanks to Bill Hern for sharing some of the inspirational histories behind the people with us.
