Betty Campbell MBE (6 November 1934 – 13 October 2017,[1] born Rachel Elizabeth Johnson) was a Welsh community activist, who was Wales' first black head teacher.
Born into a poor household in Butetown, she won a scholarship to the Lady Margaret High School for Girls in Cardiff.
Her father, Simon Vickers Johnson, who had come to the UK from Jamaica when he was 15, was killed in World War II when his ship the Ocean Vanguard was torpedoed in 1942.
[6] She won a scholarship to the Lady Margaret High School for Girls in Cardiff and wanted to be a teacher from a young age.
"[5] Campbell was inspired by a trip to the US where she learned about anti-slavery activists like Harriet Tubman and the civil rights movement.
"[6] Campbell helped to create Black History Month and taught a series of workshops on the role of Butetown's citizens and their countries of origin in the Second World War.
[11] Under Campbell's leadership, Mount Stuart School raised its profile across the United Kingdom, and became a template for multicultural education.
[8] On her death, First Minister of Wales Carwyn Jones described Campbell as "a true pioneer" and an "inspiration to other black and ethnic minority people.
This contrasted with the number of statues of famous men, including Aneurin Bevan, Ivor Novello and Lloyd George.
[16][17] On 18 January 2019, it was announced that Campbell had won a vote, to have a statue erected in Cardiff, from a shortlist of the poet and teacher Cranogwen (Sarah Jane Rees), the suffragette Lady Rhondda (Margaret Haig Thomas), the political organiser Elizabeth Andrews, the writer and anthropologist Elaine Morgan, and Betty Campbell.