After establishing her charity more than 40 years ago, a local hero is still giving back to the community.
As a member of the Windrush generation, Eunice McGhie-Belgrave sailed for Britain in 1957 from her home in St. James' Parish, Jamaica.
After the Handsworth riots in Birmingham, she went on to contribute to the establishment of the charity Shades of Black, which helped her neighborhood regain calm.
She's currently 89 years old and still holds the chair.
She is a member of the Windrush Generation, a group of 500,000 people who left their homes in the Caribbean to help rebuild Britain after World War Two had decimated the country.
She moved across the ocean to be with her future husband, a former RAF soldier, when she was 22 years old.
She anticipated a friendly welcome when she got to her new house, but what she got was as chilly as the snow that covered the roofs in the strange winter.
"The people weren't pleasant. Since we were taught in Jamaican schools that the streets of England were paved with gold, I had anticipated a much more liberal society, the woman said.
"This man approached me and pressed for my passport.
Another time, I was doing my grocery shopping, and the cashier threw the change on the counter rather than touch my hand.
"Each time something similar occurred, I simply clung to the piece of advice my grandmother gave me before I left Jamaica: to always choose the right course of action. ".
The future Mrs McGhie-Belgrave was living in Handsworth at the time and had just accepted her first position in the UK as a mental health nurse.
Rooms were divided by curtains, not brick or woodwork, the mother of four recalled. You lived on one side of the room, and a stranger occupied the other.
No privacy existed. ".
Racial tensions and civil unrest erupted as she grew accustomed to her new neighborhood.
Following the arrest of a black man following a police stop and search in September 1985, Handsworth was completely destroyed by two days of violent rioting.
She joined forces with four other women to start the Shades of Black charity because she was determined to try to help mend the wounds in the community.
The group worked to create social and educational workshops to motivate young people as well as support their elderly neighbors.
Mrs. McGhie-Belgrave is still an important member of the neighborhood after 40 years. In 2001, she earned her MBE.
The community leader continued, "We came and helped to restore and to maintain the country, and we continue to do so, and our children continue to do so. It has been 75 years since Empire Windrush docked in Essex.
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