Lionel Morrison

Lionel Morrison OBE (13 October 1935 – 31 October 2016) was a South African-born British journalist, and a former president of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ).^[1][2] He was the first black journalist to hold that office.^[1][2]

Biography

Morrison, whose grandfather came from Lewis in the Outer Hebrides,^[3] was born and spent his early life in South Africa, where he set up a multiracial journalists' union in the 1950s in opposition to the apartheid regime.^[1][4] He was arrested for treason in 1956.^[1]

Having moved to the UK in 1960, Morrison became a member of the NUJ's National Executive Council in 1971, and its president in 1973.^[2] Much of his life's work focused on increasing black participation in unionism and journalism, and countering racial discrimination.^[1] In the 1970s, finding it difficult to find employment in Britain as a black journalist, Morrison was involved in setting up some of the country's first black newspapers such as The Voice and The West Indian World.^[1][5] Along with fellow journalist Syd Burke, he also helped to establish journalism courses and further education colleges across London.^[1][5] Morrison was the Principal Information Officer of the Commission for Racial Equality in the 1970s and 1980s. He later became Vice President and Chair of Notting Hill Housing Trust. ^[4][6] An honorary member and life member of the NUJ, he was awarded an OBE in 2000.^[1]

He died on 31 October 2016 and is survived by his wife, two sons, grandson and granddaughter.^[7]

Publications

• As they See it: A Race Relations Study of Three Areas from a Black Viewpoint, Community Relations Commission, 1976
• Arts Education in a Multicultural Society, Commission for Racial Equality, 1981 (with Irene Staunton and Tania Rose)
• A Century of Black Journalism in Britain: A Kaleidoscopic View of Race and the Media (1893–2003), Truebay Limited, 2007, ISBN 978-0-9555540-0-1

References