A MONUMENT of Wales’ first black headteacher and Black History Month campaigner was unveiled in Cardiff.

Betty Campbell, who died in 2017 at the age of 82, defied her doubters after being told as a child that her dream to become a head teacher was “insurmountable”.

The statue was commissioned following a BBC Wales Hidden Heroines poll where people were asked who they wanted to see immortalised from a shortlist of five historical Welsh women. 

Professor Uzo Iwobi, Founder of Race Council Cymrum said she was “delighted” to see Betty’s historical statue erected in her home country.

“This is such a worthy tribute to an outstanding black woman of Wales who led the way for embedding Black History in Welsh schools. Wales has shown that this black woman truly matters to us all,” she said.

Betty – whose full name is Rachel Elizabeth Campbell – was born in 1934 in Cardiff’s Blutetown docklands area to a Jamaican father and Welsh Barbadian mother.

She became a teacher in 1963 and throughout the early 70s, she secured her position as headteacher at Mount Stuart Primary School in Bluetown, cementing her as the first Black headteacher in Wales.

Family and friends gathered to watch the unveiling of the £75,000 statue, which marked the first of its kind to honour a non-fictional woman in a public space in Wales.  

Geraldine Trotman, Black History Patron for Wales, said: “I am so proud of Betty, this is one of the greatest moments for us, all of us in Butetown, all of us in Wales. Betty was family and I have such fond memories of her. She was a champion for every single one of us in the Black History movement and a real champion for all the people of Wales.”

Ms Campbell was noted for her work in the curriculum at her school, which included references and examples to Black people’s positive contribution to British society.

The pioneering educator was also a member of the Broadcasting Council for Wales from 1980 until 1984 and served on the Home Office’s race advisory committee. 

In 2015, she was presented with her lifetime achievement award by Kebba Manneh, chair of Unison Cymru Wales’ Black Members Group, for her lifetime contribution to Black History in Education in Wales.

Mrs Campbell’s granddaughter – Rachel Clarke – told the The Voice how proud she is of her grandmother’s legacy.

“It’s because of her that Black history in Wales started, because she was adamant that all of her pupils should have a strong sense of belonging, to be proud of who they are and to not be ashamed of where they come from,” she said.

“She was really forward thinking and had this strong sense of belief and wanting to instill that in the children that she taught and interacted with. She was a trailblazer.”

Geraldine Trotman, a friend of Mrs Campbell whose children were taught by the teacher, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “She instilled a sense of pride and sense of belonging in all the pupils that attended.

“And unlike Betty’s own experiences, she gave all her pupils the confidence to follow their dreams.”

Rachel, 40, along with her mother, are both headteachers themselves and credits her grandmother as her longstanding inspiration to pursue a career in education.

“I’d like people to remember her as being somebody who was unashamedly proud of who she was. She was a black female in post World War II Britain, Welsh, from a poor socio-economic background and she was able to not have any of those identities be a barrier to where she wanted to go,” she said.

“She was a trailblazer, someone who was really strong willed, particularly around racial justice and having a positive sense of self.

“But she was also very warm and kind and loving. I mean…she was my grandmother and I had a great time going on holiday and shopping and eating and playing games with her too.”

A programme about Mrs Campbell’s life is being aired on BBC One Wales tonight at 7.30pm.