Dorothy Kuya

Dorothy Kuya (16 March 1933 – 23 December 2013) was a leading British communist and human rights activist from Liverpool, the co-founder of Teachers Against Racism, and the general secretary of the National Assembly of Women (NAW). She was a life-long member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), and is known for being Liverpool's first community relations officer and for leading a successful campaign to establish the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool. During the mid-1980s, Kuya served as the chair of the London housing association Ujima, during which time it became the largest black-led social enterprise in Europe.

Early life Dorothy Kuya was born in Toxteth, Liverpool, on 16 March 1933; her father was a black man from Sierra Leone and her mother was a white British woman. After her father disappeared, her mother remarried and Dorothy took her step-father's surname. Dorothy grew up in Liverpool 8, a working-class area and one of the oldest black communities in Britain.

During the mid-1980s, Kuya became the chair of Ujima, a London housing association, and in that role she helped steer the organisation into becoming the largest black-led social enterprise in Europe. Her campaign was successful, and she played a key role in the development of Liverpool's International Slavery Museum, which opened in August 2007.

Death and legacy Kuya died on 23 December 2013.

The Communist Party of Britain, the successor of the Communist Party of Great Britain, considers Dorothy Kuya as "one of the Communist Party's most important Black members from the 1940s to the 1980s".

Journalist Louis Julienne described Kuya as "a tireless campaigner against discrimination and racism."

In 2022, the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool published an animated video describing Dorothy Kuya's life and praising her work.

Annual memorial lectures To honour her, National Museums Liverpool renamed their annual "Slavery Remembrance Day Memorial Lecture" as the "Dorothy Kuya Slavery Remembrance Memorial Lecture Series". In 2015, Nelson Mandela's grandson was scheduled to give a speech at the annual lectures; however, he called off his visit, citing family reasons. Other lecturers in the series have included: 2016: Black British activist, author and musician Akala, on the Haitian Revolution 2019: writer, photographer and broadcaster Johny Pitts 2020: community and human rights campaigner Zita Holbourne and British academic specialising in slavery Stephen A. Small 2023: historian Hakim Adi, on combatting racism through transformative education

Liverpool University residential hall In 2021, a residence hall belonging to the University of Liverpool, which was formerly known as "Gladstone Hall", was renamed after Dorothy Kuya. Gladstone Hall was originally named after William Ewart Gladstone, who served on four occasions as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, whose family became rich through the slave trade. More than 4,465 students of the University of Liverpool voted on a historical figure they believed would be a suitable replacement, and the winner of the vote was Dorothy Kuya. The University of Liverpool described Kuya as a "tireless campaigner for racial equality".