Education and early years Patrick Vernon was born in
Wolverhampton,
Staffordshire (now in the
West Midlands), England, to Norris and Avis Vernon, He grew up in the
All Saints and
Penn Fields areas of Wolverhampton, before going on to study law at
Manchester Metropolitan University. He later undertook postgraduate studies at
Warwick University. He moved to London in 1989.
Health and social care work Vernon initially worked in health and social care, where he was a manager for
Citizens Advice Bureau and a civil servant at the Department of Health and Local Government Association. He later served as director of the Brent Health Action Zone (Brent Primary Care Trust), and Regional Director for charity
MIND. He later worked in the third sector for a number of organisations focussing on the mental health of refugees, immigrants and prisoners. an advisory board member for the mental health campaign
Time To Change, and a former ministerial adviser for mental health.
Every Generation Media and family history work In 2002, Vernon founded Every Generation Media to develop education programmes, publications and films on cultural heritage and family history, with the Every Generation website becoming one of the main sites on family history for African and Caribbean communities in Britain. In 2003, he launched the successful "
100 Great Black Britons" campaign, in response to a television series broadcast by the BBC called
100 Greatest Britons (a list topped by
Winston Churchill through public nomination), in order "to raise the profile of the Black contribution to Britain and to challenge the notion of Britishness." The campaign received wide coverage in the national print and television media, with
Mary Seacole eventually announced as having been voted the greatest Black Briton. In 2019, the decision was taken to relaunch and update the poll, and the results of the updated poll were revealed in a new book entitled
100 Great Black Britons, written by Vernon with Angelina Osborne, that was published on 24 September 2020.
Windrush Day and community activism Vernon was among the first to call for the national celebration of "
Windrush Day" on 22 June, to recognise the migrant contribution to UK society, marking the day in 1948 when the
Empire Windrush docked at
Tilbury, bringing the first big group of post-war migrants from the West Indies to Britain. He was appointed an
OBE in 2012, in recognition of his work to promote health equality for Black and minority ethnic communities. and he is a member of the RHS's Race, Ethnicity and Equality Working Group, which in 2018 published
Race, Ethnicity & Equality in UK History: A Report and Resource for Change. In May 2018, following his earlier campaign for Windrush Day and his 2013 petition to the British government, Vernon relaunched a petition asking the Prime Minister to recognise 22 June as a national day to commemorate and celebrate migration and migrant communities in Britain. It was later announced by the government that an annual Windrush Day would be celebrated, supported by a grant of up to £500,000, to recognise and honour the contribution of the Windrush Generation and their descendants and to "keep their legacy alive for future generations, ensuring that we all celebrate the diversity of Britain's history." In April 2020, after his sister's partner died from the
COVID-19 virus, Vernon set up a fundraising initiative called "The Majonzi Fund" which will provide families from Black & Minority ethnicities with access to small financial grants that can be used to access bereavement counselling and organise memorial events and tributes after the social lockdown has been lifted. Vernon featured on the August 2020 cover of
British Vogue as one of 20 activists "ready to change the world". Vernon played a pivotal role in obtaining a Blue Plaque in memory of British immigrant rights activist
Paulette Wilson, a member of the
Windrush Generation. The plaque was launched with campaigners including
Claire Darke MBE at the Wolverhampton Heritage Centre. The centre is a cornerstone of the area's local Caribbean community and was formerly the constituency office of
Enoch Powell where the infamous
Rivers of Blood speech was written.
Political career Vernon served for eight years as a
Labour councillor for the
Queensbridge ward in the
London Borough of Hackney, stepping down in May 2014, when the ward was abolished. He was appointed as chair of the Labour Party's Race Equality Advisory Group in December 2015.
Controversy In 2015, Vernon was caught up in controversy after he asserted that the design of the
flag of the Black Country, which features a chain motif, was offensive and insensitive. Vernon has claimed that this led to him being "dragged into an online hate campaign after saying that the flag's chain motif represents an image of an industry which profited from the
transatlantic slave trade."
Cultural contributions As a film-maker, Vernon's work includes directing and producing
A Charmed Life, a documentary about the Caribbean contribution in the UK during
World War II, focusing on Jamaican ex-serviceman Eddie Martin Noble. Among the outlets for which Vernon writes are
The Guardian,
The Voice,--> and
Media Diversified. In 2017, the 30th anniversary of
Black History Month in Britain, he was appointed as guest editor for
Black History Month Magazine. As MC Patrick Vernon, he presents
Museum of Grooves, a podcast that explores
Afrofuturism. ==Publications==