Gerlin Bean

{{Short description|Jamaican community worker and activist (born 1939)}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Gerlin Bean

| image =

| alt =

| caption =

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1939|02|10|df=y}}

| birth_place = Hanover Parish, Jamaica

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2025|2|2|1939|2|10|df=y}}[https://www.instagram.com/childrenfirstja/p/DFqgUcuy2wa/ Gerlin Bean, Former Chairperson of the Board, Children First Agency], Children First Jamaica, 4 February 2025.

| death_place =

| nationality =

| other_names =

| occupation = Community worker, activist

| years_active = 1959–present

| alma_mater = London School of Economics; University of the West Indies

| known_for =

| notable_works =

}}

Gerlin Bean (10 February 1939 – 2 February 2025) is a Jamaican community worker who was active in the radical feminist and Black nationalist movements in the United Kingdom in the 1960s and 1970s. Trained as a nurse, she became a dedicated community activist and social worker, involved in the founding of the Black Women's Action Committee of the Black Unity and Freedom Party, the women's section of the Black Liberation Front, the Brixton Black Women's Group, and the Organisation of Women of African and Asian Descent (OWAAD). Bean's work and activism focused on eliminating discriminatory policies for people of colour, women, and people with disabilities. She fought for equal educational opportunity, fair wages, adequate housing, and programmes that supported families, such as counselling services, child care, and health care.

In 1983, Bean left England when Zimbabwe gained its independence and worked there on development programmes for women and children for five years. She later returned to Jamaica and focused on women's and children's issues there too. She was the managing director of 3D Projects, a charity that provided assistance programmes for children with disabilities and their families. She has been involved in the development of schools to assist children and in other community education programmes regarding disability. Bean has also served on the St. Catherine's Parish Council. Her activism has been celebrated by activities arranged for the UK Black History Month festivities, such as the 2014 exhibit "400 Years of African Women Resistance Leaders" in Islington, and a 2017 sculpture of the clenched fists of Black women activists that was exhibited at the Guildhall Art Gallery in London.

Early life and education

Bean was born in 1939 in Hanover Parish, Jamaica, to a couple who were farmers.{{sfn|Francis|2021}}{{sfn|Shrew|1971|p=10}}{{sfn|Bean|Thorburn|1995|p=107}} The rural setting taught her about communal living and instilled the values of mutual aid in the community.{{sfn|Johnson|2019|p=129}} She trained as a general and psychiatric nurse after moving to Surrey, England, at the age of 19.{{sfn|Francis|2021}}{{sfn|Shrew|1971|pp=10–11}}{{sfn|Francis|2020|p=60}} When she turned 20 in 1960, she had a daughter, Jennifer, but broke off her engagement to her daughter's father. From the time Jennifer was six months old, Bean arranged foster care for her with a local family so that her child's life would remain stable whilst she worked.{{sfn|Shrew|1971|p=11}} Bean earned a bachelor's degree in Social Science and Administration at the London School of Economics and in 1995 completed a master's degree in Public Health at the University of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica.{{sfn|Bean|Thorburn|1995|pp=107–108}}{{sfn|BIREME|1995}}

Career and activism

= England (1960–1982) =

== Social work and community development ==

After several years of working as a nurse in London, Bean left the field of medical care and began working as a community development and youth activist.{{sfn|Francis|2021}}{{sfn|Shrew|1971|p=10}} She helped set up the 70s Coffee Bar in Paddington, which was organised by the Westminster City Council as a youth activities and counselling centre. Later, she left Paddington and moved to Brixton to found the Gresham Youth Project.{{sfn|Bryan|Dadzie|Scafe|2010}} In 1969, the Caribbean Education and Community Workers' Association, based in North London, organised a conference to evaluate how West Indian children were faring in the British school system. A paper presented at the symposium by Bernard Coard demonstrated the systemic bias of administrative policies, which routinely placed Caribbean children in special classes for students with learning disabilities. Parents were outraged at the report's conclusion that their children were considered intellectually inferior because of their race.{{sfn|Cameron|2016|p=129}}

Parents from Brixton met to discuss a pioneering solution brought forward by Bean, Reverend Anthony Ottey, and the teacher Ansel Wong to hold supplementary schools to help children with their homework and reading. The plan also aimed to empower parents by teaching them how to interact with teachers and administrators and be more involved in their children's education. The trio, who worked together at the Gresham Youth Project, founded the Afiwe School, which among other services sent volunteers to accompany parents to school meetings, provided tutoring services, and assisted in outreach with schools and tuition solutions.{{sfn|Cameron|2016|pp=130–131, 158}} Bean, Ottey, and Wong also provided information to the Lambeth Council for Community Relations, which launched a temporary housing and counselling service for runaway youth.{{sfn|Cameron|2016|p=158}}

The Karibu Centre at 7, Gresham Road in [[Brixton (formerly the Abeng Centre). Number 5 is on the left|alt=Exterior of building|thumb|right]]

Bean, Gloria Cameron, and Mabel Carter began meeting as the West Indian Parents Action Group (WIPAG) around 1971, but the group was not formalised until 1974.{{sfn|Cameron|2016|pp=172, 174, 178}} The goal of the organisation was to address under-achievement by Black children in the British school system and was particularly focused on early childhood education that gave training to children before they entered formal schooling.{{sfn|Cameron|2016|pp=172–174}} Bean was also involved with Wong, Lu Garvey, and Tony Soares in 1972 in establishing a cooperative in the basement of 61 Golborne Road in Kensal Town, where community experts were able to train unemployed young people in various skills, including barbering, electrical repair, and typesetting.{{sfn|Johnson|2019|p=133}} Around the same time, Wong and Bean created the Abeng Centre in Brixton. The staff of the facility worked in conjunction with the Afiwe School, providing advice and counselling services, vocational training, and serving as a youth club.{{sfn|Johnson|2019|p=134}}

After searching for a suitable property, WIPAG secured a lease from the Housing Directorate of Lambeth in 1976 for 7 Canterbury Crescent, an abandoned terraced house.{{sfn|Cameron|2016|p=175}} Delays in funding for staff training and equipment pushed the opening of the facility back to January 1978.{{sfn|Cameron|2016|pp=176–177}} Within a short period of time, 24 children were enrolled and more than 80 children were on the waiting list.{{sfn|Cameron|2016|p=177}} Problems with the building and the need for a bigger space led Bean and Cameron to search for a more suitable location.{{sfn|Cameron|2016|pp=178–179}} They found a building at 3 & 5 Gresham Road and negotiated a 30-year lease at a peppercorn rent with the Lambeth Council.{{sfn|Cameron|2016|pp=179–180}} The planning authority granted WIPAG renovation permission in 1979 and in 1981 the facility was given official charitable status.{{sfn|Cameron|2016|p=180}} The new nursery school officially opened in 1983, the year Bean moved to Zimbabwe.{{sfn|Cameron|2016|pp=180, 183}}

== Political activism ==

Around 1966, Bean began to attend meetings with the Gay Liberation Front in London. While she recognised that some people viewed homosexuality as a threat to families, she maintained people should be free to be who they were.{{sfn|Shrew|1971|pp=11–12}}{{sfn|Francis|2020|p=63}} In 1970, the Black Unity and Freedom Party (BUFP) was formed and Bean began pressing for the group to include a women's platform. She had been inspired by her attendance at the Women's Liberation National Conference held that year at Ruskin College, Oxford University.{{sfn|Francis|2021}} There were 600 women at the meeting and Bean was one of only a few Black women attendees.{{sfn|Francis|2020|p=61}}{{sfn|Thomlinson|2016|p=67}}{{#tag:ref|Several sources indicate the presence of only two Black women. These sources include A. S. Francis, and Bean, who said in an interview that only herself and Pat Smith of Essex University attended;{{sfn|Bryan|Dadzie|Scafe|2010}}{{sfn|Francis|2020|p=61}} however, Natalie Thomlinson, a historian at the University of Reading, notes that video recorded at the Ruskin conference shows Bean and "several Black women".{{sfn|Thomlinson|2016|p=67}}|group="Notes"}} Before the BUFP was a year old, Bean had founded the Black Women's Action Committee, as its women's section.{{sfn|Francis|2021}} She specifically wanted to focus on Black women's issues because white feminists addressed different issues, such as abortion and being paid for housework. These were not central problems for Black women who sought to be paid sufficient wages to provide child care for their children, needed adequate housing and educational opportunities, and called for protection from racism and violence.{{sfn|Bryan|Dadzie|Scafe|2018|pp=148–150}}

Bean published a pamphlet Black Women Speak Out in 1970–71.{{sfn|Thomlinson|2016|p=67}}{{sfn|Wild|2008|p=97}} Despite this overt expression of the point of view of Black women and the space afforded to women by the BUFP to "express themselves politically", the scholar Rosalind Eleanor Wild notes that some members continued to "feel very constricted".{{sfn|Wild|2008|p=97}} The activist and academic Harry Goulbourne has also observed that the BUFP was "extremely authoritarian, extremely intolerant".{{sfn|Wild|2008|p=97}} When the Black Liberation Front (BLF), a group with stronger socialist ties than a strictly Black nationalist focus, was formed in 1971, Bean left the Black Unity and Freedom Party.{{sfn|Francis|2021}}{{sfn|Bryan|Dadzie|Scafe|2010}} She founded a women's section of the BLF and began publishing "Sister's Column" in the organisation's Grassroots newsletter.{{sfn|Francis|2021}}{{sfn|Francis|2020|p=61}}

The three main black power movements — the British Black Panthers, the Black Liberation Front and the Black Unity and Freedom Party — all initially attracted women members, but women often found that their issues were not taken seriously.{{sfn|Francis|2020|p=61}}{{sfn|Thomlinson|2016|pp=66, 69}} According to scholars such as John Narayan and W. Chris Johnson, women activists in these movements often felt that they were the "oppressed of the oppressed" and "most exploited" because they were impacted by the same racial and class discrimination as Black males, but also had to face sexism from both white and Black men.{{sfn|Johnson|2019|p=129}}{{sfn|Narayan|2019|p=951}}

By 1973, the British Black Panthers had dissolved and women in the other two political groups stopped gathering.{{sfn|Agyepong|2016}}{{sfn|Thomlinson|2016|p=69}} In 1974 Bean, Zainab Abbas and Wong formed part of the British delegation to the Sixth Pan-African Congress, which was hosted in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The British delegates' address to the Congress reiterated the commitment of Black Britons to the liberation of Africans, people of African descent, and others throughout the world, from colonial policies, imperialism, and racism.{{sfn|Johnson|2019|p=135}}

== Women's rights ==

In 1973, Bean joined with Abbas, Beverley Bryan, Olive Morris, Liz Obi and other activists to found the Brixton Black Women's Group (BBWG).{{sfn|Francis|2021}}{{sfn|Francis|2020|p=61}}{{sfn|Thomlinson|2016|p=69}} Though they were accused by some male activists of splitting the Black struggle, the women believed that their issues were not being heard and wanted to find solutions by working with other women, including women's groups in Africa.{{sfn|Bryan|Dadzie|Scafe|2018|pp=150–151}} Gail Lewis, a BBWG member, stated in a 2019 interview in Feminist Theory:

Activism was understood in a singular way, even if it happened in a multiplicity of places/spaces of life: work, the courtroom, the police station, the school, the local and central state. …It happens in all our kitchens, because whether they're from the Caribbean or from the African Continent or South Asia the women were leading from the kitchen. And by 'the kitchen' I mean an understanding that the lived realities and social relations of the kitchen were as much about politics as everything else, including the bedroom. And I also mean that 'the kitchen' was and is a place of political learning and theory-making. …[I]n that kind of register, and then of course we would – we being me, and Avtar [Brah] who was with Southall Black Sisters then, and Gerlin Bean, and all these people – would raise these questions with the guys. In Brixton we had a very tense relationship with Race Today, around feminism really, but they didn't just write us off, and it wasn't really hostile.{{sfb|Lewis|Hemmings|2019|pp=405–421}}

Of paramount importance to the women were the lack of available housing; Sus laws, which allowed police to stop and search anyone who might be suspected of having the intent to commit an offence; and education.{{sfn|Bryan|Dadzie|Scafe|2010}}{{sfn|Terrill|1989|p=438}} Sus law arrests were often directed at Black youth and police at the time were given broad latitude in interpreting the terms "suspect" and "intent".{{sfn|Terrill|1989|pp=438–439}}{{#tag:ref|The Home Affairs Committee on Race Relations and a subcommittee from Immigration conducted a study between 1979 and 1980 that found that Black youth were disproportionately targeted by the Sus laws and that only six police divisions actually used the laws as a basis for arrest.{{sfn|Terrill|1989|pp=439–440}} Those that did use the laws had an average 78 per cent conviction rate throughout England and Wales. However, London's conviction rate was 82 per cent. The report also pointed out that the police were allowed to use their own judgement rather than relying on independent evidence or witness accounts.{{sfn|Terrill|1989|p=440}} Public outcry and the report itself eventually led to reforms beginning in 1984.{{sfn|Terrill|1989|p=442}}|group="Notes"}} The Brixton Black Women's Group worked to obtain state funding to expand the Sabarr Bookshop, using the store as a link to provide educational materials both for schools and activists.{{sfn|Thomlinson|2016|p=69}}{{sfn|Longley|2021|p=133}}

In 1978, Bean, Stella Dadzie and Morris met with students from Ethiopia and Eritrea, who were attending the London School of Economics. Together, they formed the Organisation for Women of Africa and African Descent.{{sfn|Francis|2020|p=62}} The formation of this group was identified by historians Line Nyhagen Predelli and Beatrice Halsaa as "a watershed in the history of Black women's rights activism" in their 2012 publication Majority-Minority Relations in Contemporary Women's Movements: Strategic Sisterhood.{{sfn|Predelli|Halsaa|2012|p=55}} Within six months, the group asked Asian activists to join them and the name changed to the Organisation of Women of African and Asian Descent, known as OWAAD.{{sfn|Bryan|Dadzie|Scafe|2018|p=205}} This umbrella organisation allowed Black{{sfn|Francis|2020|p=62}} — from the political stance{{#tag:ref|The term "politically Black" as used by 1970s British women's groups meant anyone of or within the diaspora of African, Asian, Latina/o, or Middle Eastern descent, who was forced by society to face discrimination on the basis of their identity, including bi-racial women, as well as indigenous women.{{sfn|Swaby|2014|pp=12–13}}{{sfn|Warmington|2014|p=111}}|group="Notes"}} — women's groups throughout England to work together on common issues.{{sfn|Francis|2020|p=62}} As one of the first Black feminist groups that was politically formalised, OWAAD gave members experience in how to organise their communities, battle against discrimination, and educate themselves and the community about government policies. Bean served as the chair of OWAAD's first conference held in 1979 at the Abeng Centre.{{sfn|Francis|2020|p=62}} That same year, Bean and Dadzie went to Chicago, Illinois, to develop networks with the National Alliance of Black Feminists.{{sfn|Ohene-Nyako|2018|p=255}}

= Zimbabwe (1982–1988) =

From 1982, Bean focused on establishing programmes to assist women and children in Zimbabwe.{{sfn|Francis|2020|p=64}} Then, after Zimbabwe gained its independence from the UK, she moved to Africa in 1983.{{sfn|Ohene-Nyako|2018|p=249}} She worked with women to develop plans for family health and children's welfare.{{sfn|Bryan|Dadzie|Scafe|2018|p=263}} As a volunteer for the Catholic Institute for International Relations in Harare, Bean recruited doctors and nurses from the UK, encouraging them to move to Zimbabwe and work in rural areas to improve education and health facilities and programmes.{{sfn|Bryan|Dadzie|Scafe|2010}} She maintained ties with WIPAG, sharing educational materials from Africa with the nursery school on Gresham Road in London.{{sfn|Cameron|2016|p=231}}

= Jamaica (1988–present) =

Bean returned to Jamaica in 1988 and studied for a degree in public health.{{sfn|Bryan|Dadzie|Scafe|2010}}{{sfn|Cameron|2016|p=329}}{{sfn|Bean|Thorburn|1995|p=108}} In 1994, she became the deputy director at the Project Dedicated to the Development of Persons with Disabilities, known as 3D Projects, a charitable organisation that provided services for persons with disabilities and support for their families.{{sfn|The Gleaner|1994|p=6}}{{sfn|Reid|2005}} She co-wrote a chapter titled "Mobilising Parents of Children with Disabilities in Jamaica and the English Speaking Caribbean" with Marigold J. Thorburn for a book published in 1995.{{sfn|Bean|Thorburn|1995}} Within four years, Bean was serving as a project director of 3D Projects, which was headquartered in Spanish Town, in Saint Catherine Parish, and by 2002 had become its managing director.{{sfn|The Gleaner|1999|p=49}}{{sfn|The Gleaner|2002|p=41}} As director of that development, in 2005, she initiated an innovative programme called "Skills For Life" to teach sex education to people with disabilities and their carers. The programme was designed to reduce the taboos of talking about sex and minimize the vulnerability and potential for sexual exploitation of persons with disabilities.{{sfn|Reid|2005}} Supported with funds provided by the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, the programme was connected to a treatment project for young people in Jamaica who were living with HIV/AIDS.{{sfn|BBC|2005}} In 2009, she established a school in Saint Catherine Parish to provide early education opportunities for children with disabilities.{{sfn|Turner|2009|p=4}}

Bean participated in the University of the West Indies lecture series titled "That Time In Foreign — Life Stories of Jamaican England Returnees", which ran from 2006 to 2007.{{sfn|UWI|2006}} She has been a presenter for numerous community seminars touching on issues of disability, family violence, HIV/AIDS education, and overall health and support for people with disabilities.{{sfn|The Gleaner|1994|p=6}}{{sfn|The Gleaner|2005|p=25}}{{sfn|Jamaica Information Service|2007}} She worked as the chair of the gender section on the Council for Voluntary Social Services in 2007 and served as a member of the Saint Catherine Parish Committee from 2008 to 2011.{{sfn|Jamaica Information Service|2007}}{{sfn|The Gleaner|2008|p=F4}} She has worked with international organisations such as the Committee on the Rights of the Child and UNESCO, national policy boards and regional policy groups of the Disabled Peoples' International in order to create and design inclusive policies for children and persons with disabilities.{{sfnm|1a1=Committee on the Rights of the Child|1y=2003|2a1=International Conference on Education|2y=2007|2p=187|3a1=Emanuel|3y=2008|3p=28|4a1=Vision 2030 Jamaica|4y=2009|4p=61}}

In 2020 Bean was one of the few Black feminists who participated in the Oxford International Women's Festival at Oxford University, which was organised to honour the 50th anniversary of the 1970 Ruskin Conference at Oxford. The event was criticised for being predominantly white and middle-class and Bean told The New Yorker that, as a Black woman, she "couldn't really pick on the relevance" of the conference.{{sfn|Srinivasan|2021}}

Legacy

Bean is thought of by many activists as a mentor who introduced them to and guided them in their political development.{{sfn|Francis|2020|p=64}} Among these are Abbas, Dadzie, Ama Gueye, and Gail Lewis.{{sfn|Francis|2020|pp=58, 65}} When the book The Heart of the Race (1985) was in the planning stages, Bean worked with Dadzie and Bryan to ensure that it involved as many varied experiences of women activists as possible and to show that they had united in the common cause to resist economic exploitation, imperialism, racism, and sexism.{{sfn|Ohene-Nyako|2018|p=258}} When the Remembering Olive Collective was formed to gather materials in commemoration of Olive Morris, Bean donated her personal photographs and memorabilia of her friend to the archive.{{sfn|Longley|2021|p=128}} The Olive Morris Collection was made available to the public in 2009 and is housed at the Lambeth Archives in South London.{{sfn|Longley|2021|p=125}}

Bean has been the subject of two papers about her involvement radical feminism presented by W. Chris Johnson of the University of Toronto.{{sfn|North American Conference on British Studies|2018|p=22}}{{sfn|Women & Gender Studies Institute|2018|p=1}} Her activism in Britain has been recognised in UK Black History Month celebrations, such as the 2014 exhibit "400 Years of African Women Resistance Leaders" hosted by Black History Walks in Islington and a 2017 sculpture, A Fighters' Archive, by Wijnand De Jonge, which was exhibited at the Guildhall Art Gallery in London.{{sfn|Islington Council|2014|p=8}}{{sfn|European Union News|2017}} The sculpture featured bronze casts of the clenched fists (to represent boxing or fighting) of 15 Black women activists, including Bean. The castings were made live with each of the women.{{sfn|European Union News|2017}}

In 2023, a book-length biography of Bean by A. S. Francis, Gerlin Bean: Mother of the Movement, was published by Lawrence & Wishart.{{Cite web |title=Gerlin Bean |url=https://lwbooks.co.uk/product/gerlin-bean |access-date=2024-01-03 |website=Lawrence Wishart |language=en-GB |archive-date=3 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240103162156/https://lwbooks.co.uk/product/gerlin-bean |url-status=live }}

Selected works

{{cite book |last1=Bean |first1=Gerlin |last2=Thorburn |first2=Marigold |editor-last1=O'Toole |editor-first1=Bryan |editor-last2=McConkey |editor-first2=Roy |title=Innovations in Developing Countries for People with Disabilities |url=http://www.aifoeng.it/archives/disability/books/1995_innovations_book.pdf |date=1995 |publisher=Lisieux Hall Publications |location=Chorley, Lancashire |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181105101609/http://www.aifoeng.it/archives/disability/books/1995_innovations_book.pdf |archive-date=5 November 2018 |chapter=Mobilising Parents of Children with Disabilities in Jamaica and the English Speaking Caribbean |pages=105–120 |isbn=978-1-870335-18-8 |url-status=live}}
{{cite book |ref=none |last1=Bean |first1=Gerlin |editor1-last=Kramarae |editor1-first=Cheris |editor1-link=Cheris Kramarae|

editor2-last=Spender |editor2-first=Dale |editor2-link=Dale Spender|title=Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women: Global Women's Issues and Knowledge |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/routledgeinterna0003unse/page/1577/mode/1up |date=2000 |volume=III. Identity Politics—Publishing |publisher=Routledge |location=New York, New York |chapter=Politics and the State: Caribbean |pages=1577–1580 |isbn=978-0-415-92091-9}}

Notes

References

= Citations =

= Bibliography =

{{Cite news |last=Agyepong |first=Heather |author-link=Heather Agyepong |title=The Forgotten Story of the Women Behind the British Black Panthers |url=http://www.thedebrief.co.uk/news/opinion/the-forgotten-story-of-the-women-behind-the-british-black-panthers-20160362504 |date=10 March 2016 |work=The Debrief |access-date=22 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180528160329/https://graziadaily.co.uk/life/opinion/forgotten-story-women-behind-british-black-panthers/ |archive-date=28 May 2018 |via=Grazia |url-status=live }}
{{cite book |last1=Bryan |first1=Beverley |author1-link=Beverley Bryan |last2=Dadzie |first2=Stella |author2-link=Stella Dadzie |last3=Scafe |first3=Suzanne |title=The Heart of the Race: Black Women's Lives in Britain |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=by9lDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA148 |date=2018 |publisher=Verso |location=London |isbn=978-1-78663-586-0 |access-date=21 May 2022 |archive-date=31 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240531094400/https://books.google.com/books?id=by9lDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA148#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}
{{cite book |last1=Cameron |first1=Gloria|author1-link=Gloria Cameron |title=Case Dismissed!: An Ordinary Jamaican Woman, an Extraordinary Life |url=https://archive.org/details/casedismissedord0000came/page/129/mode/1up |date=2016 |publisher=Hansib Publications |location=Hertford, Hertfordshire |isbn=978-1-910553-41-1 }}
{{cite report |author=Committee on the Rights of the Child |author-link=Committee on the Rights of the Child |title=Committee on the Rights of the Child Reviews Second Periodic Report of Jamaica: CRC 33rd session |url=https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2009/10/committee-rights-child-reviews-second-periodic-report-jamaica |publisher=Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights |access-date=24 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220524160948/https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2009/10/committee-rights-child-reviews-second-periodic-report-jamaica |archive-date=24 May 2022 |location=Geneva, Switzerland |date=30 May 2003 |url-status=bot: unknown }}
{{cite report |last1=Emanuel |first1=Leslie A. |title=Equal Opportunities for All: Respecting the Rights of Persons With Disabilities |url=https://hrea.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Equal-Opportunities-for-All-Respecting-the-Rights-of-Persons-With-Disabilities-.pdf |publisher=Disabled Peoples' International |access-date=24 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220524162314/https://hrea.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Equal-Opportunities-for-All-Respecting-the-Rights-of-Persons-With-Disabilities-.pdf |archive-date=24 May 2022 |location=Potters Village, Antigua & Barbuda |date=March 2008 |url-status=live }}
{{cite web |last1=Francis |first1=A. S. |title=Leading Women of the Black Radical Movement |url=https://lwbooks.co.uk/leading-women-of-the-black-radical-movement |website=lwbooks.co.uk |publisher=Lawrence & Wishart |access-date=21 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210814191432/https://lwbooks.co.uk/leading-women-of-the-black-radical-movement |archive-date=14 August 2021 |location=London |date=8 March 2021 |url-status=live }}
{{cite journal |last1=Francis |first1=A. S. |title=The Mother of the Movement: Gerlin Bean |journal=History Matters |date=Autumn 2020 |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=58–65 |url=https://www.historymatters.online/journal |access-date=21 May 2022 |publisher=Black and Asian Studies Association |location=London |archive-date=22 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220522231448/https://www.historymatters.online/journal |url-status=live }}
{{cite book |last1=Johnson |first1=W. Chris |editor1-last=Adi |editor1-first=Hakim |editor-link=Hakim Adi |title=Black British History: New Perspectives |url=https://1lib.mx/book/17263995/e1b86d |date=2019 |publisher=Zed Books |location=London |chapter=7. 'The Spirit of Bandung' in 1970s Britain: The Black Liberation Front's Revolutionary Transnationalism |pages=125–143 |isbn=978-1-78699-427-1 }}{{Dead link|date=May 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
{{cite journal |last1=Lewis |first1=Gail |author1-link=Gail Lewis (academic) |last2=Hemmings |first2=Clare |title='Where Might We Go If We Dare': Moving beyond the 'Thick, Suffocating Fog of Whiteness' in Feminism |doi=10.1177/1464700119871220 |journal=Feminist Theory |volume=20 |issue=4 |pages=405–421 |date=21 August 2019 |publisher=SAGE Publications |location=London |s2cid=202286402 |issn=1464-7001 |oclc=8206584041 |url=https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/27911/3/27911.pdf |access-date=8 October 2022 |archive-date=7 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221207202319/https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/27911/3/27911.pdf |url-status=live }}
{{cite journal |last1=Longley |first1=Oumou |title=Olive and Me in the Archive: A Black British Woman in an Archival Space |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/01417789211041898 |journal=Feminist Review |date=November 2021 |volume=129 |issue=1 |pages=123–137 |doi=10.1177/01417789211041898 |s2cid=244348631 |access-date=24 May 2022 |publisher=SAGE Publishing |location=Thousand Oaks, California |issn=0141-7789 |oclc=9332924247 |url-access= |archive-date=28 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220228202532/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/01417789211041898 |url-status=live }}
{{cite journal |last1=Narayan |first1=John |title=British Black Power: The Anti-Imperialism of Political Blackness and the Problem of Nativist Socialism |journal=The Sociological Review |date=September 2019 |volume=67 |issue=5 |pages=945–967 |doi=10.1177/0038026119845550 |url=https://files.libcom.org/files/british%20black%20power.pdf |access-date=22 May 2022 |publisher=SAGE Publishing for the University of Keele |location=Thousand Oaks, California |s2cid=150411821 |issn=0038-0261 |oclc=8061038713 |archive-date=21 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220521164310/https://files.libcom.org/files/british%20black%20power.pdf |url-status=live }}
{{cite journal |last1=Ohene-Nyako |first1=Pamela |title=The Heart of the Race: Black Women Contesting British Imperialism and Whiteness — Third-World Feminist Internationalism in Britain in the 1970s–1980s |journal=Tijdschrift voor Genderstudies |date=September 2018 |volume=21 |issue=3 |pages=249–264 |doi=10.5117/TVGN2018.3.004.OHEN |url=https://www.aup-online.com/docserver/fulltext/13883186/21/3/04_TVGN2018.3_OHEN.pdf?expires=1653165862&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=D06824AD15A93AA0ACC4A4590D184A24 |access-date=21 May 2022 |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |location=Amsterdam, Netherlands |s2cid=165670974 |issn=1388-3186 |oclc=1125160699 |archive-date=21 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220521203723/https://www.aup-online.com/docserver/fulltext/13883186/21/3/04_TVGN2018.3_OHEN.pdf?expires=1653165862&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=D06824AD15A93AA0ACC4A4590D184A24 |url-status=live }}
{{cite book |last1=Predelli |first1=Line Nyhagen |last2=Halsaa |first2=Beatrice |title=Majority-Minority Relations in Contemporary Women's Movements: Strategic Sisterhood |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DLuj9uIAdLMC&pg=PA55 |year=2012 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire |isbn=978-1-137-02074-1 }}
{{cite news |last1=Reid |first1=Tyrone S. |title=Disabled Jamaicans to Receive Sex Videos, Posters, under New Education Drive |url=https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/disabled-jamaicans-to-receive-sex-videos-posters-under-new-education-drive/ |access-date=24 May 2022 |work=Jamaica Observer |date=6 November 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220524152431/https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/disabled-jamaicans-to-receive-sex-videos-posters-under-new-education-drive/ |archive-date=24 May 2022 |location=Kingston, Jamaica |url-status=bot: unknown }}
{{cite magazine |last1=Srinivasan |first1=Amia |author-link=Amia Srinivasan |title=Who Lost the Sex Wars? |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/09/13/who-lost-the-sex-wars |magazine=The New Yorker |date=13 September 2021 |volume=97 |issue=28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220326031403/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/09/13/who-lost-the-sex-wars |archive-date=26 March 2022 |publisher=Condé Nast |location=New York City |issn=0028-792X }}
{{cite journal |last1=Swaby |first1=Nydia A. |title='Disparate in Voice, Sympathetic in Direction': Gendered Political Blackness and the Politics of Solidarity |journal=Feminist Review |date=November 2014 |volume=108 |issue=1 |pages=11–25 |doi=10.1057/fr.2014.30 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24571917 |access-date=24 May 2022 |publisher=SAGE Publishing |location=London |jstor=24571917 |s2cid=146949251 |issn=0141-7789 |oclc=5698852868 |archive-date=24 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220524143551/https://www.jstor.org/stable/24571917 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}
{{cite journal |last1=Terrill |first1=Richard J. |title=Margaret Thatcher's Law and Order Agenda |journal=American Journal of Comparative Law |date=Summer 1989 |volume=37 |issue=3 |pages=429–456 |doi=10.2307/840088 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/840088 |access-date=22 May 2022 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford, Oxfordshire |jstor=840088 |issn=0002-919X |oclc=846848962 |url-access=subscription |archive-date=22 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220522214254/https://www.jstor.org/stable/840088 |url-status=live }}
{{cite book |last1=Thomlinson |first1=Natalie |title=Race, Ethnicity and the Women's Movement in England, 1968–1993 |url=http://ndl.ethernet.edu.et/bitstream/123456789/70485/1/65.pdf.pdf |date=2016 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220523175741/http://ndl.ethernet.edu.et/bitstream/123456789/70485/1/65.pdf.pdf |archive-date=23 May 2022 |isbn=978-1-137-44280-2 |url-status=live }}
{{cite news |last1=Turner |first1=Rasbert |title=New School for Ja's Challenged |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/politics-clipping-jun-29-2009-3229326/ |access-date=24 May 2022 |work=The Gleaner |date=29 June 2009 |location=Kingston, Jamaica |page=4 |via=Newspaperarchive.com |archive-date=21 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220521165818/https://newspaperarchive.com/politics-clipping-jun-29-2009-3229326/ |url-status=live }}
{{cite book |last1=Warmington |first1=Paul |title=Black British Intellectuals and Education: Multiculturalism's Hidden History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LvzpAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA111 |date=2014 |publisher=Routledge |location=Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon |isbn=978-1-317-75236-3 |access-date=24 May 2022 |archive-date=31 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240531094901/https://books.google.com/books?id=LvzpAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA111#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}
{{cite thesis |last1=Wild |first1=Rosalind Eleanor |title='Black Was the Colour of Our Fight': Black Power in Britain, 1955–1976 |url=https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/3640/1/489059.pdf |access-date=21 May 2022 |type=PhD |date=August 2008 |publisher=University of Sheffield |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220416150717/https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/3640/1/489059.pdf |archive-date=16 April 2022 |location=Sheffield, South Yorkshire |oclc=551613493 |url-status=live }}
{{cite news |ref={{harvid|The Gleaner|2002}} |author= |title=An Urgent Appeal |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/politics-clipping-apr-15-2002-3232261/ |access-date=23 May 2022 |work=The Gleaner |date=15 April 2002 |location=Kingston, Jamaica |page=41 |via=Newspaperarchive.com |archive-date=23 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220523214156/https://newspaperarchive.com/politics-clipping-apr-15-2002-3232261/ |url-status=live }}
{{cite thesis |ref={{harvid|BIREME|1995}} |author= |last=Bean |first=Gerlin |title=Trauma in children presenting at the Bustamante Hospital for Children |url=http://bases.bireme.br/cgi-bin/wxislind.exe/iah/online/?IsisScript=iah/iah.xis&src=google&base=MedCarib&lang=p&nextAction=lnk&exprSearch=1153&indexSearch=ID |website=BIREME Biblioteca virtual em Saúde |publisher=Centro Latino-Americano e do Caribe de Informação em Ciências da Saúde |access-date=23 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220523172753/http://bases.bireme.br/cgi-bin/wxislind.exe/iah/online/?IsisScript=iah%2Fiah.xis&src=google&base=MedCarib&lang=p&nextAction=lnk&exprSearch=1153&indexSearch=ID |archive-date=23 May 2022 |location=São Paulo, Brazil |date=1995 |id=Reference Id: 1153 |url-status=live }}
{{cite web |ref={{harvid|Women & Gender Studies Institute|2018}} |author= |title=Black and Caribbean Diasporic Feminisms Research Workshop, April 6–7, 2018 |url=https://wgsi.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Queer-Diaspora-Poster-legal.pdf |website=Women & Gender Studies Institute |publisher=University of Toronto |access-date=24 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220524182441/https://wgsi.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Queer-Diaspora-Poster-legal.pdf |archive-date=24 May 2022 |location=Toronto, Ontario |date=2018 |url-status=live }}
{{cite web |ref={{harvid|Islington Council|2014}} |author= |title=Black History Month 2014 |url=https://www.vai.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Islington-Black-History-Month-Festival-2014.pdf |website=Vai.org |publisher=Islington Council |access-date=24 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220524183331/https://www.vai.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Islington-Black-History-Month-Festival-2014.pdf |archive-date=24 May 2022 |location=London |date=February 2014 |url-status=live }}
{{cite report |ref={{harvid|International Conference on Education|2007}} |author= |title=Caribbean Symposium on Inclusive Education: Preparatory Activity of the 48th Session of the International Conference on Education |url=http://www.ibe.unesco.org/sites/default/files/Kingston_IE_Final_Report.pdf |publisher=IBE-UNESCO |access-date=24 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220121041541/http://www.ibe.unesco.org/sites/default/files/Kingston_IE_Final_Report.pdf |archive-date=21 January 2022 |location=Kingston, Jamaica |date=7 December 2007 |url-status=live }}
{{cite news |ref={{harvid|European Union News|2017}}|author= |title=Commemoration of Black Women's Movement Fight for Social Justice |work=European Union News |date=3 February 2017 |location=Lyon, France |id={{Gale|A480639454}}}}
{{cite web |ref={{harvid|Jamaica Information Service|2007}} |author= |title=CVSS to Host Forum on Gender-Based Violence |url=https://jis.gov.jm/cvss-to-host-forum-on-gender-based-violence/ |website=Jamaica Information Service |publisher=Government of Jamaica |access-date=23 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201025083525/https://jis.gov.jm/cvss-to-host-forum-on-gender-based-violence/ |archive-date=25 October 2020 |location=Kingston, Jamaica |date=6 November 2007 |url-status=live }}
{{cite magazine |ref={{harvid|Shrew|1971}} |author= |title=Gerlin |journal=Shrew |date=September 1971 |volume=3 |issue=8 |pages=10–12 |url=https://twitter.com/maydayrooms/status/1370352164586070019/photo/1 |publisher=Women's Liberation Workshop |location=London |oclc=1001130639 |access-date=21 May 2022 |archive-date=21 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220521175322/https://twitter.com/maydayrooms/status/1370352164586070019/photo/1 |url-status=live }}
{{cite interview |ref={{harvid|Bryan|Dadzie|Scafe|2010}} |interviewer-last1=Bryan |interviewer-first1=Beverley |interviewer1-link=Beverley Bryan |interviewer-last2=Dadzie |interviewer-first2=Stella |interviewer2-link=Stella Dadzie |interviewer-last3=Scafe |interviewer-first3=Suzanne |subject=Gerlin Bean |title=Oral Histories of the Black Women's Movement for The Heart of the Race |date=January 2010 |publisher=Black Cultural Archives |location=London |url=https://www2.calmview.co.uk/BCA/CalmView/record.aspx?src=DServe.Catalog&id=ORAL%2F1%2F3 |format=Transcript |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220606232757/https://www2.calmview.co.uk/BCA/CalmView/record.aspx?src=DServe.Catalog&id=ORAL%2F1%2F3 |archive-date=6 June 2022 |id=Reference No. ORAL/1/3 |url-status=bot: unknown |access-date=7 October 2022 }}
{{cite news |ref={{harvid|BBC|2005}}|author= |title=Jamaica Revamps HIV/AIDS Treatment Programme|work=BBC Monitoring Americas |date=2 November 2005 |page=1}}
{{cite news |ref={{harvid|The Gleaner|1999}} |author= |title=JSIF Backs the Disabled |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/politics-clipping-may-27-1999-3232255/ |access-date=23 May 2022 |work=The Gleaner |date=27 May 1999 |location=Kingston, Jamaica |page=49 |via=Newspaperarchive.com |archive-date=31 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240531094902/https://newspaperarchive.com/politics-clipping-may-27-1999-3232255/ |url-status=live }}
{{cite web |ref={{harvid|North American Conference on British Studies|2018}} |author= |title=North American Conference on British Studies: Providence, Rhode Island October 25–28, 2018 |url=http://www.necbs.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/program2018.pdf |website=Northeast Conference on British Studies |publisher=North American Conference on British Studies |access-date=24 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211022150322/http://www.necbs.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/program2018.pdf |archive-date=22 October 2021 |location=Beverly, Massachusetts |date=2018 |url-status=live }}
{{cite news |ref={{harvid|The Gleaner|2008}} |author= |title=Parish Committees 2008–2011 |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/politics-clipping-oct-26-2008-3229331/ |access-date=24 May 2022 |work=The Gleaner |date=26 October 2008 |location=Kingston, Jamaica |page=F4 |via=Newspaperarchive.com |archive-date=21 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220521165826/https://newspaperarchive.com/politics-clipping-oct-26-2008-3229331/ |url-status=live }}
{{cite news |ref={{harvid|The Gleaner|2005}} |author= |title=Sexual Health Progamme for Persons with Disabilities |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/politics-clipping-nov-07-2005-3229330/ |access-date=23 May 2022 |work=The Gleaner |date=7 November 2005 |location=Kingston, Jamaica |page=25 |via=Newspaperarchive.com |archive-date=21 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220521165818/https://newspaperarchive.com/politics-clipping-nov-07-2005-3229330/ |url-status=live }}
{{cite news |ref={{harvid|The Gleaner|1994}} |author= |title=St. Mary orientation on disability |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/politics-clipping-feb-20-1994-3229321/ |access-date=23 May 2022 |work=The Gleaner |date=20 February 1994 |location=Kingston, Jamaica |page=6 |via=Newspaperarchive.com |archive-date=21 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220521165826/https://newspaperarchive.com/politics-clipping-feb-20-1994-3229321/ |url-status=live }}
{{cite web |ref={{harvid|UWI|2006}} |author= |title=That Time In Foreign |url=https://www.mona.uwi.edu/marcom/uwinotebook/entry/1860 |access-date=23 May 2022 |website=mona.uwi.edu |publisher=Marketing and Communications Office, University of the West Indies |location=Mona, Jamaica |date=2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220523202152/https://www.mona.uwi.edu/marcom/uwinotebook/entry/1860 |archive-date=23 May 2022 |url-status=live }}
{{cite report |ref={{harvid|Vision 2030 Jamaica|2009}} |author= |title=Vision 2030 Jamaica: National Development Plan for Persons with Disabilities |url=http://www.caribbeanelections.com/eDocs/strategy/jm_strategy/jm_Persons_with_Disabilities_2009.pdf |publisher=Government of Jamaica |access-date=24 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220127131951/http://www.caribbeanelections.com/eDocs/strategy/jm_strategy/jm_Persons_with_Disabilities_2009.pdf |archive-date=27 January 2022 |location=Kingston, Jamaica |date=June 2009 |url-status=live }}

External links

[https://www.gerlinbeanproject.com/ GerlinBeanProject.com]
[https://www.ourhistory.org.uk/gerlin-bean-a-trailblazer-for-equality-and-social-change/ "Gerlin Bean: A trailblazer for equality and social change"], Our History, 1 October 2022.

Category:1941 births

Category:Living people

Category:Alumni of the London School of Economics

Category:Black British activists

Category:Black British history

Category:Black feminist organizations

Category:British anti-racism activists

Category:British feminists

Category:British social workers

Category:British women's rights activists

Category:Jamaican disability rights activists

Category:Jamaican emigrants to the United Kingdom