Lionel Morrison

Lionel Edmund Morrison OBE (13 October 1935 – 31 October 2016) was a South African-born British journalist, and a former president of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ).[1][2] He was the first black journalist to hold that office.[1][2]

Biography

Morrison, whose grandfather came from Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides,[3] was born and spent his early life in South Africa, where he set up a multiracial journalists' union in the 1950s in opposition to the apartheid regime.[1][4] He was arrested for treason in 1956.[1]

Having moved to the UK in 1960, Morrison became a member of the NUJ's National Executive Council in 1971, and its president in 1973.[2] Much of his life's work focused on increasing black participation in unionism and journalism, and countering racial discrimination.[1] In the 1970s, finding it difficult to find employment in Britain as a black journalist, Morrison was involved in setting up some of the country's first black newspapers such as The Voice and The West Indian World.[1][5] Along with fellow journalist Syd Burke, he also helped to establish journalism courses and further education colleges across London.[1][5] Morrison was the Principal Information Officer of the Commission for Racial Equality in the 1970s and 1980s. He later became Vice-President and Chair of Notting Hill Housing Trust.[4][6] An honorary member and life member of the NUJ, he was awarded an OBE in 2000.[1]

He died on 31 October 2016 and is survived by his wife, two sons, grandson and granddaughter.[7]

Publications
  • As They See it: A Race Relations Study of Three Areas from a Black Viewpoint, Community Relations Commission, 1976
  • Arts Education in a Multicultural Society, Commission for Racial Equality, 1981 (with Irene Staunton and Tania Rose)
  • A Century of Black Journalism in Britain: A Kaleidoscopic View of Race and the Media (1893–2003), Truebay Limited, 2007, ISBN 978-0-9555540-0-1
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References
  1. Webb, Oscar. 2 April 2011. "Lionel Morrison OBE speaks about racial discrimination within journalism" Archived 30 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine, NUJ.
  2. Staff. 20 April 2007. "My NUJ: Lionel Morrison" Archived 2 October 2009 at the Wayback Machine, Press Gazette.
  3. National Union of Journalists, The Journalist
  4. Barker, Geoffrey. "The Tragedy of Britain's Blacks", The Age, 29 March 1978. .
  5. Benjamin, Ionie, The Black Press in Britain, Trentham Books, 1995, ISBN 978-1-85856-028-1, pp. 47–50, 58–59.
  6. Dod, Charles Roger; Dod, Robert Phipps, Dod's Parliamentary Companion, 1990, ISBN 978-0-905702-16-2
  7. "NUJ pays tribute to Lionel Morrison", National Union of Journalists, 1 November 2016.
Trade union offices
Preceded by
R. Keogh		 President of the National Union of Journalists
1987–1988		 Succeeded by
Barbara Gunnell and S. McGuire


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