Dorothy Kuya (16 March 1933 – 23 December 2013) was a leading British communist and human rights activist from Liverpool, the co-founder of Teachers Against Racism, and the general secretary of the National Assembly of Women (NAW).
[2] During the mid-1980s, Kuya served as the chair of the London housing association Ujima, and built the organisation into the largest black-led social enterprise in Europe.
"[4] Dorothy Kuya was born in Toxteth, Liverpool,[5] on 16 March 1933; her father was a black man from Sierra Leone and her mother was a white British woman and native "Liverpudlian".
[6] When remembering her childhood, Dorothy Kuya recalled: "You'd be hard pressed to find a Black face in Liverpool city centre only twenty minutes away by foot.
[6] One of her proudest memories of her activism as a young YCL and CPGB member was greeting American civil rights leader Paul Robeson with a bouquet of flowers during his tour of Britain in 1949.
Kuya became heavily involved with an influential academic journal called Dragon's Teeth, which published research investigating racism and sexism within British children's books, and also suggested alternatives.
[8] During the mid-1980s, Kuya became the chair of Ujima, a London housing association, and in that role she helped steer the organisation into becoming the largest black-led social enterprise in Europe.
[3] During this time, Kuya dedicated herself to anti-racist activism and pushed for the creation of a slavery museum in Liverpool, a city that had been heavily involved in the transatlantic slave trade.
[1] In 2023, it was announced that National Museums Liverpool had commissioned the community organisation Writing on the Wall to develop a Creative Heritage Programme working with Kuya's archives.