For What Matters Lecture

Operation Black Vote was founded in 1996 to leverage the power of the ‘Black vote’ in order to tackle racism and increase the number of Black and minority ethnic people in elected and prominent public roles. This was at a time when there were only seven MPs from ethnic minorities and British politics was seemingly deaf to the concerns of minority communities.

Now, almost 30 years on, the percentage of ethnic minority MPs in the House of Commons more closely matches the population, and the UK has seen people from ethnic minorities occupy all four of the Great Offices of State.

In this For What Matters Lecture, Lord Woolley will share his thoughts on where he, and OBV, have progressed to now and what challenges our society faces in terms of political engagement. He will speak about the importance of political education for young people and what educators might learn from the success of Operation Black Vote in mobilising groups with low levels of political involvement.

Simon Woolley, Lord Woolley of Woolford, is Principal of Homerton College, Cambridge, and sits as a crossbench peer in the House of Lords.

He is known for founding Operation Black Vote, the internationally renowned campaigning NGO, in 1996 and served as its Director until 2021. OBV works with ethnic minorities in the UK to increase understanding of civic society, participation in Parliament and public life, and to promote equality and human rights.

He served as an Equality and Human Rights Commissioner from 2009 to 2012, and in 2018 he was appointed by Prime Minister Theresa May to create and lead the UK Government’s pioneering Race Disparity Unit.

Fostered and then adopted as a small child, Lord Woolley grew up on a council estate in Leicester, and left school without A-levels, working first as an apprentice mechanic and then in marketing for the Rank Organisation. He later gained a BA at Middlesex University and an MA at Queen Mary University of London. He was knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in June 2019 and was created a life peer in December of the same year.

Part of our For What Matters public lecture series. Guest speakers and our academic community are invited to talk about what matters to them, share knowledge and insight, spark conversations which address current critical issues and global challenges, and promote positive social impact.

Admission is free, but booking is essential.

This lecture takes place at Stewart House, part of Royal Holloway's Central London campus. Guests should enter via Senate House on Malet Street.