St Pauls Carnival co-founder, civil rights activist and community pioneer Barbara Dettering, has been awarded an honorary doctorate by University of Bristol.
Barbara Dettering is a civil rights campaigner and retired social worker whose impact has been felt across the UK for more than 60 years. Born in British Guyana in 1939, Barbara moved to Bristol in 1961 where she co-founded the Bristol West Indian Parents and Friends Association which fought against housing discrimination and racial segregation, and initiated the Bristol Bus Boycott in 1963. This helped pave the way for the UK’s Race Relations Act in 1965. In 2022 she was awarded the Freedom of the City from Bristol City Council for her part in the Bus Boycott.
Barbara also co-founded St Paul’s Carnival in 1968, which remains one of the city’s most popular and longstanding cultural events. Her portrait is one of the ‘Seven Saints of St Pauls’, a mural series celebrating the contributions of Black Bristolians, and she is a trustee of Bristol Black Carers and part of the Malcolm X Elders Forum.
