Simon Woolley - Soar: With a foreword by the Reverend Jesse L. Jackson Sr

I dedicate this book, first to my two mothers: Lolita and Phyllis, aka Pippi. They are wonderful women who have had to fight throughout their lives but always remained loving. The latter is sadly no longer with us. Pippi essentially made me who I am today.

Lastly to my son, Luca. I cant love a human being more than this kid who, by the way, is taller than me. Hes humorous, smart, and full of bare-faced cheek, but loving with it.

I hope youre all as proud of me as much as I love you all.

CONTENTS

BY THE REVEREND JESSE L. JACKSON, SR

I t was a source of great pride to travel to Homerton College at Cambridge University to receive the prestigious Honorary Fellowship from my dear friend Lord Simon Woolley.

Bestowed a Fellowship from one of the great universities of the world is in and of itself a big deal, but for me this was much more than that. It was personal.

It was a landmark of an incredible journey initiated and witnessed by my friend, mentee and apprentice call it what you will come of age as a leader, something I knew he was always meant to be.

Our journey appropriately began more than twenty years prior in Atlanta, Georgia, fittingly home of my mentor Dr Martin Luther King, Jr., at the first State of the Black World conference organised by the great Ron Daniels.

Simon Woolley was the UK representative. He gave an accomplished speech that day, and wasnt fazed by the 2,000-strong audience or the stellar lineup of speakers, including Congresswoman Maxine Walters, Martin Luther King III, Danny Glover, and the Reverend Al Sharpton. But it was our conversations during those few days that convinced me that this was a young man who I wanted to mentor and above all collaborate with. He was that impressive!

He held a strong view, like me and many others, that racial injustice cannot be effectively tackled without political and indeed financial empowerment of Black communities around the world. Brother Woolley informed me that he wanted to emulate in the UK Dr King and his campaign of registering millions of African Americans to vote. His enthusiasm and energy was contagious. So, I agreed to travel to London and around the country to support Brother Woolley and his Operation Black Vote campaign on several occasions.

Every country and every civil rights campaigner has their own particular approach to confronting the lack of social, economic and political engagement of Black communities, and Woolley was no different, but he did share a lot of key tenets of my own organisations makeup and mission in the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. Woolleys team spoke to the multicultural face of the UK with Africans, Asians, and Caribbeans all being a part of the OBV family. I got to know and love working with all of them. The irrepressible Lee Jasper, co-founder of OBV, Rita Patel, Karen Chouhan, Audrey Adams, whose son Marlon was murdered by racist thugs back in 1980, Francine Fernandez, Winsome Cornish, and Ashok Viswanathan. It was a Rainbow team driven by the sole purpose of delivering racial justice.

My role was simple. Attract media attention, help bring together the various Black communities, and with Brother Woolley, explain that the vast majority of elections were won and lost by very small vote margins. In many close political races it was as clear as night-to-day that the Black vote could be the deciding factor.

Every general election I watched with immense pride as I witnessed the House of Commons become transformed with many more Black and Asian MPs. I knew very well the UKs first Black MPs Bernie Grant, Keith Vaz, Diane Abbott, and Paul Boateng, even before I got to know Brother Woolley, as the latter three have been my lifelong friends. But now the four MPs were becoming nine and then twenty-five, and now to what they are today, an unprecedented sixty-five. Lord Woolley and his team deserve a lot of the credit for massively moving these numbers.

I also recall with fondness how he would bring his political protges from the UK and across Europe to the US for the annual Congressional Black Caucus Conference in Washington D.C., including one of Swedens first male Black politicians, Momodou Jallow, Helen Grant MP, former equalities minister and first Conservative MP of African descent to be elected, Mayor Marvin Rees, first directly elected Mayor in Europe of Caribbean descent, former Shadow Minister Clive Lewis, and David Lammy, Shadow Justice Minster.

He told me the organisations mission was twofold: 1: The British and other European MPs needed to see how Black America did big politics when more than 10,000 Black politicians gathered over four days to talk politics, business and give thanks to God; and 2: Equally important he wanted to showcase European talent to Black America.

Lord Woolley told the story of Mayor Marvin Rees, a descendent of an enslaved African who was now running the city of Bristol that had been at the epicentre of the barbaric human trade, and the audience rose as one to applaud the symbolism: from enslaved to governor for all, Black and white.

I would return again and again to the UK. In 2001, we combined a political and economic tour of the UK with a campaign bus tour fit for a king. In every city a huge crowd gathered to greet us, sometimes wed visit two cities in a day. It was like being back on the 1984 and 1988 presidential campaign trail all over again. I loved it, and I loved being with them.

When youre a campaigner like Lord Woolley, like Karen Chouhan, you know budgets are low, and a lot of things get done on a wing and a prayer. But they always got things done, and when things got tough I never once heard them argue as Ive seen elsewhere with some activists.

I didnt know Brother Woolleys entire story until I read his book, and when you read it youll have a greater appreciation of him as well. But what I did know is this, having watched and mentored this man over two decades, my mentor Dr King would not have hesitated in demanding that Brother Woolley join him as a key campaigner.

Thats why I asked him to join me as one of my very special guests at the lyse Palace when President Emanuel Macron awarded me their nations highest honour: the Lgion dHonneur.

Lord Simon Woolley is not finished yet, not by a long way. His role as the first Black man to head an Oxbridge college is a new and exciting chapter to encourage and inspire generations to believe, no matter your race or your impoverished start in life you can and must succeed dream beyond your circumstances. And in that success the goal is to bring others up to the decision-making tables to insist that political policies tackle poverty, inequality, and the scourge of global racism.

It has been my honour to know and work with Brother Woolley over many years. I look forward to doing so for many more years, keeping hope alive for others to follow. Brother Woolley continue to run a good race to serve and save humanity and will continue to soar.

Keep Hope Alive, Brother Woolley, Keep Hope Alive!

Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.
March, 2022

M y name is Simon Woolley: Lord Woolley of Woodford, Kt, if you care to use my full title, which mostly I dont. Im a crossbench peer, and principal of Homerton College, Cambridge; one of the first people of colour to lead an Oxbridge college. Im the founder of Operation Black Vote, an organisation credited with encouraging tens of thousands of Black women and men to exercise their democratic right in the United Kingdom. Im first generation British, of Barbadian Heritage. I grew up on an estate in Leicester, fostered by white parents at around two years old. Im father to a son who makes me so proud I cry when I talk about him. My life has been hard, complicated, rich, varied, exciting and filled with adventures. It hasnt been easy, but today I can look back on what Ive done with a sense of pride.