Roy Hackett MBE
1929 – 2022
Roy Hackett grew up in Trench Town in Kingston, Jamaica.
It was the same 7th Street that was immortalised in the Bob Marley and the Wailers song “Natty Dread.”
Despite working as an insurance broker, among other jobs, he had struggled as a young man to make enough money even to eat.
Roy Hackett was one of the organisers of the Bristol Bus Boycott, the successful campaign which overturned the ban by Bristol Omnibus Company on employing black and Asian drivers and conductors.
He once said: “I lived in many places before I came to Bristol, and I never had racism as tough as back then.”
He was appointed an OBE in 2009 and an MBE in 2020.
He was the co-founder of the Commonwealth Coordinated Committee which set up the St Paul’s Carnival in 1968, leaves behind three children.
Deputy mayor of Bristol, Asher Craig, said this:
“The transition of Mr Hackett has hit many of us really hard. A humble, principled, freedom fighter – Bristol Bus Boycott, St Paul’s Carnival, Bristol West Indian Parents & Friends Association, Bristol Race Equality Council – his legacy will live on.”