Bernice’s story

Further Info

This story was made by members of the Malcolm X Elders Forum (based at the Malcolm X centre in St Pauls) working with staff from the Museum of Bristol and Watershed.

The participants, many of whom had moved from Jamaica to Britain in the 1950s, wrote the stories of their younger lives, which were recorded, and edited into short films by Paddy Uglow, using participants’ photos and other photographs (used under Creative Commons license).

Other project workers were Ruth Jacobs, Sarwat Siddiqui, Jackie Winchester and Aikaterini Gegisian. The project was supported by Bristol’s Museums, Galleries & Archives.

Transcript

When we came here in 1962, my daughter was five. She went to school and when she was seven she came home and started acting funny. I asked her what was wrong, but she wouldn’t tell me. I was worried- she wasn’t like herself so I took her to the doctors, Dr Beetson on Ashley Road. He sent me away so that he could speak to Marlene on her own. When I returned, he said that I should make an appointment to see Marlene’s school’s headmaster. He didn’t tell me why- he said Marlene would let the teacher know what it was all about.

So I made an appointment to see the Headmaster, Mr Owen and that was when Marlene explained to him that her teacher asked to see her tail and if she climbed trees. She was the only black child in her class at that time. He had a chat with Marlene and said that he would put her in another class, which he did- in a male teacher’s class and she was a changed child after that. Mr Russell was kind to her and let her feel good about herself. She started to improve in her class. I was happy because she was happy.

I told her that I didn’t have a good education and that she had to be 110% and not 90% to get on and get a good job- not working in a hospital! She went on to Monks Park School and when she reached school leaving age, a teacher told her she should go in for nursing. I said ”No - go back to tell the teacher that I am already cleaning bed pans and shit and as long as I am breathing I’ll do what I can to keep them in school and college - as long as they behave themselves and do not get into trouble with the police - do not go to shops and shoplift ‘cos I’ll be no mother to you”

She left home at 21. After university she worked in the civil service. Now her daughter is growing up and she goes to St Paul’s Cathedral School in London! And she gets high grades.

Credits

All drawings created by Paddy Uglow, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.