The Trust was founded by
Jak Beula and works in partnership with educational groups, cultural institutions, local government, and public- and private-sector organizations. Its activities include exhibitions, seminars, workshops, and learning programmes, as well as managing a national plaque and sculpture scheme. The scheme, which is the only one of its kind in
Europe, highlights
BME presence in Britain by commemorating individuals who have made a recognisable contribution to the nation. These individuals (mostly deceased) are either nominated by members of the public, or recommended by a special panel within the Trust, to receive a
commemorative plaque. One of the most famous plaques of recent years is the
Bob Marley Blue Plaque, which the Nubian Jak Community Trust arranged in partnership with the Mayor of
London in October 2006. It was the first commemorative event organised by the Nubian Jak Community Trust, as well as also being County Hall's first ever blue plaque. The installation of the Bob Marley plaque was filmed as a feature for a 90-minute
Arena documentary aired on
BBC1 the following October called
Bob Marley: Exodus 77. The next three Nubian Jak Community Trust plaques were installed as part of the bicentenary commemoration for the British abolition of the
Slave Trade Act 1807. The first of the plaques installed in 2007 had a public ceremony unveiling inside
Luton Town Hall in February 2007. The Luton Bicentenary Plaque is now installed outside Luton Central Library in Central Square. This was followed by the historic plaque to
Ignatius Sancho erected in October 2007 at the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office in the
City of Westminster, near which site Sancho lived and had a grocery store. It is the only black plaque in
Whitehall. A couple of weeks later, on 26 October, another NJCT bronze plaque was installed on
Senate House, part of the
University of London, to
Bermuda-born
abolitionist and author
Mary Prince. On 24 August 2018, Nubian Jak unveiled the world's largest blue plaque, honouring the pioneers of the
Notting Hill Carnival. By 2019, the Nubian Jak Community Trust Plaque Scheme had installed 50 commemorative plaques around the
UK. In November 2020, the "Black Plaque Project", a joint campaign by Havas London and Nubian Jak Community Trust to honour Black Londoners, was launched to address the lack of diversity in the capital's "blue plaques". Nubian Jak blue plaques will subsequently replace the black plaques. On 1 April 2021, a blue plaque was installed at 16-18 Trinity Gardens, Brixton, where
Choice FM, the UK's only black radio station to have held a London-wide commercial licence, was launched, co-founded by
Neil Kenlock and
Yvonne Thompson.
Nubian Jak Community Trust plaques 2006–present , outside
Brisbane Road ,
Yvonne Mosquito, with the Edgbaston
blue plaque • The Honourable
Bob Marley plaque: October 2006 •
Claudia Jones plaque x 2 (Bronze and Blue): August 2008 •
Kelso Cochrane plaque: May 2009 • Chief
Amy Ashwood Garvey plaque: November 2009 •
ANC/
Nelson Mandela anniversary plaque: February 2010 •
Learie, Lord Constantine plaque: September 2010 •
Rudy Narayan plaque: November 2010--> • Mayor
John Archer Plaque: December 2010 •
New Cross Fire plaque: January 2011 •
George Padmore Plaque: June 2011 •
Claudia Jones plaque: August 2011 •
Rhaune Laslett plaque: August 2011 •
Malcolm X plaque: February 2012 •
Dennis Brown plaque: April 2012 •
Russell Henderson plaque: August 2012 •
Leslie Palmer plaque: August 2012 •
Arthur Wint plaque: October 2012 •
Bernie Grant MP Plaque: October 2012 •
Samuel Coleridge Taylor Plaque: December 2012 •
Frederick Douglass plaque: February 2013 • Frank Bates plaque: May 2013 •
Stephen Lawrence anniversary plaque: June 2013 • Pete Robinson Plaque: July 2013 •
Laurie Cunningham plaque: October 2013 • Dr
John Alcindor plaque: July 2014 •
George Africanus plaque: October 2014 •
Walter Tull plaque: October 2014 •
Sidney Bechet plaque: November 2014 •
British West Indies Regiment Seaford plaques x 2, November 2015 and March 2018 •
Cy Grant plaque: November 2017 •
Notting Hill Carnival Pioneers plaque: August 2018 •
Daphne Steele plaque: 16 October 2018 • Eric Huntley and
Jessica Huntley plaque: October 2018 •
Ida B. Wells plaque, 12 February 2019 •
Harold Moody,
League of Coloured Peoples anniversary plaque: 13 March 2019 •
Cecile Nobrega plaque, 1 June 2019. • Plaque commemorating the contribution of
African-American soldiers based in
Wales in
World War II, installed at
RAF Carew Cheriton on the 75th anniversary of the
D-Day landings, 6 June 2019. •
Phillis Wheatley plaque, 16 July 2019. • Bob Marley,
Peter Tosh, and
Bunny Wailer plaque at the former site of
Basing Street Studios in London where
The Wailers' albums
Catch a Fire and ''
Burnin' were completed, as well as the Bob Marley and the Wailers album Exodus'', October 2019. • "In Memory of
Septimius Severus 145–211, African Roman Emperor", October 2019. •
Emma Clarke plaque, 2 December 2019. • Dr George Alfred Busby plaque, 9 March 2020. •
Crystal Palace Bowl, venue where Bob Marley played his last and biggest London concert and debuted "
Redemption Song". •
Winifred Atwell, at the site of her former hair salon, Chaucer Road, Brixton, south London, November 2020. •
Errol Brown, Black plaque outside the RAK Studios in St John's Wood, November 2020. •
Choice FM, blue plaque, Trinity Gardens, Brixton, 1 April 2021. •
William Cuffay and his father Chatham Cuffay, plaque at
Chatham Historic Dockyard, 15 July 2021. •
Darcus Howe, Railton Road, Brixton, 4 January 2022. •
Michael Ibru, at his former Kensington home, 7 April 2023.
African and Caribbean War Memorial On
Armistice Day 2014, as part of the four-year centenary commemorating
World War I, the Nubian Jak Community Trust temporarily displayed Britain's first dedicated
African and Caribbean War Memorial to servicemen and women from Africa and the Caribbean, who served alongside Britain and the Allied Forces during World War I and
World War II at the
Black Cultural Archives in
Brixton, before its eventual permanent installation on London's
Windrush Square, on 22 June 2017. ==References==