Betty Campbell

Betty Campbell (6 November 1934 – 13 October 2017, born Rachel Elizabeth Johnson) was a Welsh community activist, who was Wales' first black head teacher. Born into a poor household in Butetown, she won a scholarship to the Lady Margaret High School for Girls in Cardiff. Campbell later trained as a teacher, eventually becoming head teacher of Mount Stuart Primary School in Butetown, Cardiff. She put into practice innovative ideas on the education of children and was actively involved in the community.

Early life and education Betty Campbell was born Rachel Elizabeth Johnson in Butetown, Cardiff, in 1934. The area was formerly known as Tiger Bay, which had built up around Cardiff docklands and was one of the UK's first multi-cultural communities. Her mother, Honora, known as Nora, was Welsh Barbadian. Her father, Simon Vickers Johnson, who had come to the UK from Jamaica when he was 15, was killed in World War II when his ship the Ocean Vanguard was torpedoed in 1942. Her mother struggled financially after the death of Betty's father and occasionally worked as an illegal street bookmaker. At school, Betty was top of her class.

In 1960, when Campbell already had three children, she discovered that Cardiff Teacher Training College had started to enrol female students. Campbell applied, and was one of only six female students to be admitted. As a black teacher she experienced hostility from some parents: "They hadn't seen a black teacher before. It was as if you could do a job, but if you’re black you weren’t quite as good."

Speaking later in the Senedd, Campbell explained: "I was determined that I was going to become one of those people and enhance the black spirit, black culture as much as I could." Prior to that, she had been a Butetown councillor on Cardiff City Council, from 1991 to 1995. She was unseated by Vaughan Gething who won by two votes, Gething would go on to become the first black First Minister of Wales.

Influence and recognition Under Campbell's leadership, Mount Stuart School raised its profile across the United Kingdom, and became a template for multicultural education. In 1998, as a member of the Commission for Racial Equality, she was invited to meet Nelson Mandela on his only visit to Wales. Hundreds of people lined the streets of Cardiff to pay their respects.

Statue

Race Council Cymru immediately called for a statue to be erected in Campbell's memory. In Cardiff, the only statue of a woman who actually lived was that of Boudicca in the City Hall. This contrasted with the number of statues of famous men, including Aneurin Bevan, Ivor Novello and Lloyd George. In 2016, Helen Molyneux (the Chair of the Institute of Welsh Affairs), Carolyn Hitt, and the Welsh Women's Equality Network, organised 'Monumental Welsh Women', a task force to tackle this imbalance.

On 18 January 2019, it was announced that Campbell had won a vote, to have a statue erected in Cardiff, from a shortlist of the poet and teacher Cranogwen (Sarah Jane Rees), the suffragette Lady Rhondda (Margaret Haig Thomas), the political organiser Elizabeth Andrews, the writer and anthropologist Elaine Morgan, and Betty Campbell. Her statue would be erected in the plaza of Central Square. After delays caused by COVID-19 restrictions, the unveiling took place on 29 September 2021. In 2022 an image of the statue appeared in the video to the official Wales World Cup song Yma o Hyd.