An organisation founded by Roy Hackett and led by youth worker Paul Stephenson as the spokesperson of the group which included Owen Henry, Audley Evans, Prince Brown and Guy Reid-Bailey and the West Indian Development Council, the boycott of the company's buses by Bristolians lasted for four months until the company backed down and overturned their discriminative colour bar policy.

Bristol in the early 1960s had an estimated 3,000 residents of West Indian origin, some of whom had served in the British military during the Second World War and some who had emigrated to the UK more recently.

A large number of West Indians lived in the area around City Road in St Pauls, suffered discrimination in housing and employment and some encountered violence from Teddy Boy gangs of white youths.

Andrew Hake, curator of the Bristol Industrial Mission, recalled that "The TGWU in the city had said that if one black man steps on the platform as a conductor, every wheel will stop".

[6] Stephenson set up a test case to prove the colour bar existed by arranging an interview with the bus company for Guy Bailey, a young warehouseman and Boys' Brigade officer.

[9] In an editorial, the Bristol Evening Post pointed out that the TGWU opposed the apartheid system in South Africa and asked what trade union leaders were doing to counteract racism in their own ranks.

[10] When reporters questioned the bus company about the boycott, the general manager, Ian Patey, said The advent of coloured crews would mean a gradual falling off of white staff.

[13] On 2 May, local Labour Party Alderman Henry Hennessey spoke of the apparent collusion between bus company management and the TGWU over the colour bar.

Constantine wrote letters to the bus company and Stephenson and spoke out against the colour bar to reporters when he attended the cricket match between the West Indies and Gloucestershire at the County Ground, which took place from 4 to 7 May.

Ron Nethercott, South West Regional Secretary of the union, persuaded a local black TGWU member, Bill Smith, to sign a statement which called for quiet negotiation to solve the dispute.

[17] The Bristol Council of Churches launched a mediation attempt, saying We seriously regret that what may prove an extended racial conflict arising from this issue has apparently been deliberately created by a small group of West Indians professing to be representative.

We also deplore the apparent fact that social and economic fears on the part of some white people should have placed the Bristol Bus Company in a position where it is most difficult to fulfil the Christian ideal of race relations.

[20] The dispute led to what has been described as one of the largest mailbags that the Bristol Evening Post had ever received, with contributors writing in support of both sides of the issue.

[28][29] Robert Verkaik, Legal Affairs Correspondent for The Independent newspaper, said "Few doubt that without Mr Stephenson's efforts it would have been difficult for Harold Wilson's Labour government to bring in Britain's first anti-discrimination laws.

[31] In the 2009 New Year Honours, Stephenson was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE),[32] for his part in organising the bus boycott ("for services to Equal Opportunities and to Community Relations in Bristol.")