Olive Morris

In 2018, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of women's right to vote, The Voice newspaper listed Olive Morris – alongside Kathleen Wrasama, Connie Mark, Fanny Eaton, Diane Abbott, Lilian Bader, Margaret Busby, and Mary Seacole – among eight Black women who have contributed to the development of Britain. She was also named by the Evening Standard on a list of 14 "Inspirational black British women throughout history" (alongside Mary Seacole, Claudia Jones, Adelaide Hall, Margaret Busby, Joan Armatrading, Tessa Sanderson, Doreen Lawrence, Maggie Aderin-Pocock, Sharon White, Malorie Blackman, Diane Abbott, Zadie Smith and Connie Mark.

In 2011 the Olive Morris memorial award was launched to give bursaries to young black women.

Lopez de la Torre launched the "Remember Olive Morris" blog in 2007. As Lopez started to team up with other women, in October 2008 the Remembering Olive Collective (ROC) was started.

Lambeth Council named one of its key buildings after her, in 1986. The naming of the building followed the Brixton Uprising in 1981 and further riots in 1985. Both riots were fuelled by the killing of black people by police, some see it as an attempt by the council to appease the black community or, in a more positive spin, show the council's future commitment to reconciliation. A play area and garden for the community was also named after her in Myatt's Fields.

Morris became ill during a trip to Spain in 1978. When she returned to the UK, she was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma. She underwent treatment, which was unsuccessful. She died on 12 July 1979 at St Thomas's Hospital, Lambeth, and was buried in Streatham Vale cemetery. She was 27 years old.

Morris studied at Manchester University between 1975 and 1978. Her activism did not take a break while she was away from London. She became involved in the Manchester Black Women's Co-operative and the Black Women's Mutual Aid Group as well as establishing a supplementary school after campaigning with local black parents for better education provision for their children.

She was a founding member of the Brixton Black Women's Group, which was founded in 1974. Within this group, Olive Morris and other members rallied to explore the experience of women in the Black Panther Party. She participated in other activities such as squatting in support of establishing of self-help community spaces in the Brixton community as well. The overall purpose of the group was to raise conscientiousness while being a platform for the women to communicate with each other and talk about their daily lives. The efforts made by the women of the Brixton Black Women's Group pushed for more transparency and unity in their community. Eventually, the group dissolved and transformed into numerous specific groups that were focused on increasing the awareness of the black struggle.

Morris squatted at 121 Railton Road, Brixton, with her friend Liz Obi in 1973. This squat became a hub of political activism and hosted community groups such as Black People against State Harassment. The building was also the site of the Sabarr Bookshop, one of the first black community bookshops. It was set up by a group of black men and women in Brixton that included Morris. The site subsequently became an anarchist project, called the 121 Centre, which lasted until its eviction in 1999.

In the early 1970s Morris became a member of the youth section of the British Black Panther Movement (later the Black Workers movement), alongside Linton Kwesi Johnson and Clovis Reid. In August 1972 she and a friend, Liz Obi, planned to visit the American Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver, who was in exile in Algeria, but they became stranded in Morocco.

On 15 November 1969, Nigerian diplomat Clement Gomwalk was confronted by police while parked outside the Desmond's Hip City record store. The police dragged him out of his car to interrogate him and then when unsatisfied by his responses continued to beat him as a crowd formed around them to witness the police brutality. Local journalist Aymo Martin Tajo stated that Morris "broke to the crowd to the scuffle" and "tried to physically stop the police from beating the Nigerian", the police reaction being to beat her also. Morris's account stated that she did not arrive till after the diplomat had been taken away by the police. The situation with the police escalated after the crowd began to confront the police about their brutality. She recalls her friend being dragged into the record store by police shouting "I've done nothing". She does not state how she got involved but does state that she was brutally beaten. Her account goes on to describe her treatment in prison. She was forced to strip and was threatened with rape in police custody; "They all made me take off my jumper and my bra in front of them to show I was a girl. A male cop holding a billy club said, ‘Now prove you're a real woman.’" referencing his billy club he stated: "Look it's the right colour and the right size for you. Black Cunt!

Olive Elaine Morris (26 June 1952 – 12 July 1979) was a British community leader and activist in the feminist, black nationalist, and squatters' rights campaigns of the 1970s in the United Kingdom.

Olive Morris was born in 1952 in Harewood, St Catherine, Jamaica, to Doris (née Moseley) and Vincent Nathaniel Morris, and moved to London, England, with her family at the age of nine. She lived predominantly in South London. Leaving school without qualifications, she later went on to study at the London College of Communication.