It was back in the 1980s that Lawrence Walker, now the chair of Colchester’s Black History Month, settled in the UK having moved from his homeland America.

Given the UK and USA are two English speaking powerhouses in the western world, it is broadly assumed both countries have, over the years, espoused similar cultural values on democracy, freedom, and community spirit.

But on arrival on UK shores more than 30 years ago, it became apparent to Mr Walker, now 70, that there are in fact a myriad of differences between the two cultures, with the approach to race perhaps one of the biggest of all.

He said: “At home, I had the issue that when people first met me as a black person, they met a black guy.

“Here, when I met people, they met an American – that made an extreme difference with how I interacted with people and how they interacted with me.”

Then, as now, the disadvantages people of colour are forced to confront are major in scale and great in number – but there is certainly a sense these disadvantages are better documented and that those facing them are better supported than they have ever been.

Black History Month is one such event which not only brings people together, but equally informs and educates – and Mr Walker has been at its forefront for 15 years.

The event has changed significantly over that time though, and Mr Walker explained it has slowly morphed into an educational endeavour which teaches people of all ages the struggle which people of colour have had to confront and fight for centuries.

“Black History Month used to be more of a celebrative engagement – what happened as the years went on [is that] I chose to remove the Americanisms from what we were doing with Black History Month.

“The idea of talking about Martin Luther King, Rosa Parkes, Mohammed, Malcolm X, and those people who made a difference... I changed focus to a more British Black History Month.

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“It changed because the target market evolved as well; in those early days, it was just put on for the public; we've taken on a direction where we could look at how to get more young people involved.

“It was getting them involved actively in delivering Black History Month; as it has grown, the idea of getting more and more young people involved [has come to the forefront].”

Few can say this approach hasn’t been successful; last year, Mr Walker says, he reached more than 15,000 people across Essex with the Black History Month message.

The message for 2022 is safeguarding people’s mental health.

Mental health is by no means a new topic of discussion, having emerged as a major conversation in public discourse over the past five years or so. 

Mr Walker’s outlining of how mental health disproportionately affects black people is compelling, and lends further justification to the very meaning of events such as Black History Month.

One of the key speakers at Black History Month Colchester is Dr Hári Sewell, a writer in social justice and equality who will be appearing at the community celebration taking place at Firstsite tomorrow, starting at 10am.

Mr Walker said: “He is an expert in his field and works with mental health inclusion, diversity, and inequality – and the idea of how we as a community struggle with mental health issues.

“It is a question of how we deal with that in the whole community – our community is smaller than other communities, which means we have a larger concentration of people who are struggling with mental health issues.

“What we’re looking for are answers – Hári Sewell doesn’t necessarily have the answers, but what he’ll be able to do is make more people aware of the problem and look at how we can view solutions we can work on ourselves."

If anybody had previously questioned the relevance of events like Black History Month, the events in August 2020 – when protests erupt around the world following the murder of George Floyd – showed the issue of racial inequality is still highly relevant, and the appetite for change is still strong.

Mr Walker said: “The death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement has stirred up a lot of things that were left dormant for the last decade or so.

“[This year’s Black History Month] gives us an opportunity to reach more schools, more young people, and discuss with them the idea of what racism is, what exclusion is, what diversity is and put these ideas in their minds early in their lives so they can grow up understanding this.

“We need to be able to recognise that this is an issue we don’t have to whisper about anymore.”