At Brentford FC, October is an important time of the year to recognise the role that Black history has played in our society, as well as celebrating our Black colleagues, players and staff.
We appreciate that Black history and culture should not just be remembered in the month of October, but across the year. One of the club’s key values is togetherness and that means that our diversity is a part of our club and who we are.
This October, we’ve had a number of events to celebrate Black History Month, as well as key activities throughout the year.
We kicked off the month by holding a staff panel event focusing on the theme of this year’s Black History Month, ‘Saluting our sisters’. Lorna Falconer and Neula Hanley from Brentford FC, and Cheriah Williams-Tabannor and Zhane Ferguson from our Brentford FC Community Sports Trust shared their stories as part of our panel. The panel were later joined by Brentford Women’s team player K’lah Briscoe.
Later in the month, we had the pleasure of welcoming British-Nigerian historian, author, presenter and BAFTA-winning filmmaker David Olusoga to the club. Olusoga spoke to the club and Trust staff and took part in a Q&A.
2023 marked the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the Empire Windrush ship. Many of our staff members have families that are part of the Windrush generation. To mark the anniversary, we invited our staff members and their family members to share their experiences, stories and culture for Windrush Day.
This month we have seen key Brentford figures speak on diversity and their experience. Brentford Under-18s assistant coach Jon-Paul Pittman recently spoke to Versus about diversity in coaching across football, as well as working with Lydia Bedford’s U18s and taking inspiration from Thomas Frank as part of the Premier League’s No Room for Racism initiative.
Our club ambassador Marcus Gayle also wrote an article about the role his mother has played in his football career, explaining some of the challenges he faced, as well as what his mother taught him.