Betty Campbell was born in the docklands area of Cardiff in 1934. You can see a short interview with Betty in the link above. When she was 15 years old, she told her head mistress she wanted to be a teacher, and her headmistress replied, "Oh get the idea out of your head right away. You'd have insurmountable problems." Betty says, "Even at that tender age of 15, I knew that she meant, if you're black that's your lot, you're not going to get very far in teaching. And I say down and cried and that's the first time I ever cried in my life over a colour problem."
Betty went on to be a teacher and then a head teacher. She worked on race advisory committees throughout her career and was a pioneer in multicultural education and black history in schools.
People in Wales were asked who they wanted to honour with a statue and thousands voted for Betty.
A study of UK statues in Britain in 2018 found that only 1 in 5 statues were of women and most of those were fictional characters or un-named.
Prof Uzo Iwobi of the Race Council Cymru said, "Wales has shown that this black woman truly matters to us all."
Betty died in 2017 and her daughter was at the unveiling. She says, "I think she (mum) would have been a bit humbled and said, 'why are they making all this fuss about me' but deep down I think she would have appreciated it"
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