Chronicle Spring 2022

16 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

of Queen Mary, shown on page 14) through to my inclusion of First World War and post-Second World War images. In writing the text panels for the exhibition, I reflected upon my own secondary education, and my own teenage memories of the absences in the images of war heroism presented to me during GCSE and A Level History lessons. I produced an exhibition bibliography detailing just some of the texts which informed my writing and research. My hope is that this reading list will be of inspiration to St Edward’s pupils, staff and the wider Oxford community. There are things I learned during my research process of direct relevance to Oxford and its history. I found a beautiful and moving letter which was written in 1942 by the proprietor of an Oxford snack bar and sent to The Times in defence of a Black US serviceman’s equal treatment. That letter is included in David Olusoga’s stunning book Black and British: A Forgotten History (2016) and it is evidence of the courage of people, across time, to speak up for justice and fairness. ‘Rommi Smith was able to select images that captured the emotions of Black people during that period. What I love was that not everything was sad and depressing, but also portrayed the joy black people experienced. It just showed that Black history isn’t all about sadness. The exhibit was a sign that there ​ isn’t necessarily White history and Black history. We just have history. [This is a] small step towards a revolutionary change in representing those who have always been a part of the story in Britain.’ CHIMDI OKONKWO, SIXTH FORM

Young boy with a cricket bat, Portobello, 1954, by Ken Russell

What will the legacy of the exhibition be? A lasting one. I hope that the conversations it started extend beyond exhibition walls and timeframes; that it reshapes curriculums and that people who came to see it carry its meanings and messages with them out into the wider world. I hope that the knowledge and experience of what was seen on the walls of The North Wall Gallery become a spark for encouraging people to rethink how they see British history, themselves, and the world. Was it appealing to you that the exhibition would sit at the heart of a teenage community alongside its presence as part of the wider arts landscape of Oxford and surrounding area? Knowing that the exhibition would sit within the context of a school community was deeply relevant to both the nature and content of the exhibition. This fact informed everything from my proposal for the lead exhibition image (a 1938 photo of flag- waving school children awaiting the arrival

‘As an educator, I have been struck as we’ve prepared for the exhibition by Rommi’s words – ‘my history lessons did not look like this’. Thanks to this innovative venture, we have an opportunity to enrich and expand our pupils’ understanding of history, taking them out of the classroom, away from their books, and demonstrating in this most striking of ways the often unacknowledged racial diversity of British history. This is an educational experience like no other.’ THE WARDEN