These stories from LSE’s history recognise and celebrate BME staff, students, alumni and visitors.
The Black Lesbian and Gay Centre
The Gay Liberation Front held its first meeting in a basement classroom at LSE in 1970. It had a short life and in its wake, numerous gay and lesbian groups emerged. Here, Curator Gillian Murphy introduces the Black Lesbian and Gay Centre in south London. LSE Library holds the Hall-Carpenter Archive, which contains the papers of gay activists and organisations, ephemera […]
Muhammad Ali at LSE, 10 October 1971
On 10 October 1971, Muhammad Ali took to the stage in front of a full house at LSE’s Old Theatre. His trip to London was part of a European and the Middle Eastern boxing tour, but he spoke to the audience at LSE about boxing, Black Power and politics.
This issue of the Beaver, the LSE Students’ Union newspaper, is dated 28 […]
Eslanda Robeson – acting, activism, Africa and LSE
Following her review of Paul Robeson: the artist as revolutionary by Gerald Horne at the LSE Review of Books, Sherese R Taylor introduces the life of Eslanda Robeson, who studied at LSE in the 1930s.
Eslanda Cordozo Goode Robeson, also known as Essie, was an anti-racist, anti-colonialist, anti-capitalist, and feminist born in Washington, DC on 15 December 1895. She received a scholarship from […]
Educate, Agitate, Organise – a short biography of Dr B R Ambedkar
On the 125th anniversary of Ambedkar’s birth, Sonali Campion looks back on the life of the leading jurist and social reformer. She considers how his education in India and abroad, as well as his lifelong campaign to advance the rights of minorities, meant he was uniquely qualified to lead the process of crafting of the Indian Constitution after independence.
Thursday […]
‘No More Worlds Here for Him to Conquer’ – Dr BR Ambedkar at LSE
In 1920 the economist Edwin R Seligman wrote from Columbia University to Professor Herbert Foxwell, teaching at LSE recommending a former student, Bhimrao Ramji (BR) Ambedkar, and asking Foxwell to help him in his research. In November 1920 Foxwell wrote to the School Secretary, Mrs Mair:
“I find he has already taken his doctor’s degree & has only come here to […]
LSE Nobel Prize winners
18 LSE alumni or staff members have been awarded Nobel Prizes – so far. Will you be LSE’s next Nobel?
2016: Oliver Hart, Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences (jointly)
Professor Oliver Hart was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2016 jointly with Bengt Holmström of MIT for their contributions to contract theory. Their work was described by the […]
‘Brilliant rhetoric’ – Malcolm X at LSE, 11 February 1965
On 11 February 1965 LSE’s Old Theatre was packed to listen to Malcolm X; on 21 February he was murdered while preparing to address a meeting of the Organisation for Afro-American Unity in New York.
Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska. After a difficult and disrupted childhood Malcolm X joined the controversial black supremacist movement the Nation of […]
Arthur Lewis at LSE – one of our best teachers
23 January 2015 marks the centenary of the birth of the Nobel Prize winning economist, William Arthur Lewis (1915-1991) – whose appointment in 1938 to a one year teaching contract, later converted to a four year appointment, makes him LSE’s first black academic.
Lewis was born in St Lucia and left school at 14 after completing the curriculum, working as […]
Two Nobel Peace Prize winners in two days
LSE has hosted some of the world’s most high profile statesmen and women, but two of the most memorable in recent years visited the School on consecutive days in June 2012: Aung San Suu Kyi and the Dalai Lama.
Not many universities can boast visits from two Nobel Peace Prize winners in two days so, although it involved a huge […]