Black Equity Organisation (BEO), the UK’s first national civil rights organisation established to advance justice and equity for Black people has been launched by some of the country’s most influential Black figures, including shadow foreign secretary David Lammy, academic David Olusoga, chief executive Karen Blackett, business leader Dame Vivian Hunt and artistic director Kwame Kwei-Armah.
Launched to coincide with the second anniversary of the murder of George Floyd, BEO is founded on the premise that systemic racism not only exists but plagues millions of people across Britain. The legacy of historic policies and attitudes means that 50% of Black children live in poverty, Black mothers are four times more likely to die in childbirth and at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Black people were four times more likely to die from Covid than white people.
The organisation has been compared to the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) in the United Scales, founded in 1909 by key Black progressives.
Read more in The Independent. Or in The Guardian here. The launch of BEO has been supported by six law firms – more.
