Blog6 October 2026
This Black History Month’s theme is “Honouring Our Communities“.
Every Black History Month, we rightly celebrate the achievements of Black people in Britain. Universities hold lectures, exhibitions and events recognising Black pioneers and reflecting on the continuing struggle for racial equality. But recognition is not enough. If higher education genuinely values Black knowledge, it must ask a more difficult question: how do we nurture, value and protect the people who create that knowledge?
Black British academics have made significant contributions across history, sociology, education, medicine, law, science, engineering, literature, the arts, public health and many other disciplines. Yet their presence, particularly at the most senior levels of academia, remains disproportionately small.
The latest Higher Education Statistics Agency figures show that Black academics accounted for only around 1% of UK professors in 2024/25 – just 270 people – despite decades of discussion about equality and representation in higher education. More broadly, while 26% of academic staff of known ethnicity were from ethnic minority backgrounds, only 14% of professors were. These figures should make us think not just about recruitment, but about progression, belonging and institutional culture.
Who gets to be recognised as an intellectual?
There is another dimension to this debate which has concerned me for many years. We need to challenge the idea that knowledge is produced only inside universities. Across Britain’s African and Caribbean communities there has always been a rich tradition of organic intellectuals, independent scholars, writers, historians, archivists, artists, activists, community researchers and elders. Many have created knowledge without permanent academic posts, major research grants or institutional recognition. They have documented our communities when universities were not interested. They collected oral histories, preserved photographs and archives, researched family histories, established supplementary schools, published books and pamphlets, organised campaigns and challenged dominant interpretations of Britain’s past.
In 2016, I wrote an article entitled ‘Where are all the Black historians?’. I was frustrated by a debate about whether Black historians existed in Britain when so many of us were already researching, writing, publishing and sharing Black British history. I argued then that alongside the scarcity of Black historians within formal academia, there was a growing body of self-taught and independently trained historians working outside universities. I described this as part of a much older tradition of Black organic and public intellectual life. Nearly a decade later, that argument remains relevant.
Universities need to recognise knowledge wherever it is created. Community expertise should not become legitimate only after an institution validates it. Higher education should develop genuine partnerships with community historians, activists, cultural organisations and independent researchers recognising them as partners in knowledge production rather than merely inviting them onto campus during Black History Month.
From representation to protection
It is not enough to bring Black people into universities if we do not create environments in which they can flourish, challenge orthodoxy, make mistakes, be supported and feel safe.
The death of Professor Jason Arday this summer has caused enormous grief and raised profound questions across higher education. We should allow the independent reviews established by the University of Cambridge to undertake their work and not prejudge their findings. The reviews are examining, among other matters, the support and welfare protections available to Jason and wider institutional processes surrounding his time at Cambridge. Cambridge itself has also publicly acknowledged that Black students and staff have continued to receive racist, hateful and abusive messages following Jason’s death.
Since Jason died, a number of Black academics have approached me privately. They have spoken about fear, isolation, racialised scrutiny and concerns about what happens when Black academics become the subject of complaints, public controversy or attacks on social media. We need to listen to these voices. Universities have duties around equality and recruitment, but also around care, wellbeing and safety. When an academic faces sustained online abuse, racial harassment or extraordinary public scrutiny, institutions need clear systems of support. Nobody should feel that once controversy arrives, they are left to navigate it alone.
Honour us while we are here
Black History Month is fundamentally about memory and recognition. But perhaps we need to extend its meaning. We should certainly honour those who came before us. We should name buildings, establish archives, commission portraits, create scholarships and teach the contributions of Black scholars. But we must also honour people while they are alive.
That means investing in Black academic careers, mentoring the next generation, tackling unequal progression, valuing community scholarship and ensuring that Black academics have the institutional protection and pastoral support they need.
It also means recognising that Britain’s intellectual life has never existed solely within the walls of universities. Knowledge has always been created in community centres, churches, libraries, front rooms, supplementary schools, campaigns, social movements and around kitchen tables.
The challenge for higher education is therefore bigger than diversity. It is about whose knowledge counts, whose voices are heard, who is allowed to belong and whether the people whose achievements we celebrate each October are equally valued, nurtured and protected throughout the rest of the year.
Sir Patrick Vernon is an Honorary Professor and Pro-Chancellor for Health at the University of Wolverhampton. He is a campaigner, cultural historian, author and social commentator whose work spans Black British history, the Windrush generation, health inequalities, mental health and racial justice. He led the campaign for the establishment of Windrush Day and is the author of 100 Great Black Britons. His longstanding work has focused on ensuring that Black British history, community knowledge and lived experience are recognised within public institutions, education and wider British society.