I was sad to hear of the death of Solly Bassey on the 23rd December 2017. Solly was a giant of the Liverpool-born black community of Liverpool 8 in more senses than one. His funeral was on Thursday and it was a privilege to be present. During the hour long tribute to Solly from family and friends, my own life in Toxteth came flooding back to me.

I arrived in Liverpool in 1972 having spent my childhood in Bradford and then 2 years on VSO in Indonesia. I got involved with Liverpool 8 through the Methodist Centre in Princes Road, a youth club attended by some of the tough Liverpool black kids who lived around Granby St. As a trainee I also gave advice in the Granby St Housing Aid Centre. I was shocked at the ghetto like nature of Toxteth. We had there a community of mixed race residents born in Liverpool who had no stake whatsoever in the economic life of their City and many of whom never ventured outside the Granby Triangle.

The borders of Granby often resembled a war zone between the white kids of the Dingle and the black kids of the Triangle. Battles accompanied by brick throwing and racist abuse were a nightly happening with the Police (affectionately known as the Pigs) throwing their own threepenneth in from time to time. The majority of black kids quickly gained criminal records unless they had the kind of parents who gated them on a nightly basis. This second sort of children were not frequenters of the Methodist. The scene was set for the Toxteth Riots in 1981, a destructive and cathartic event which changed the City forever, and in hindsight, much for the better.

Solly Bassey was a fighter for the local Black community; he was not prepared to put up with the injustices. In 1985, Zola Bud, a South African citizen and potential Olympic Athlete, was granted British Citizenship within two months whilst most black citizens were made to wait years for a similar outcome. When she ran in the National Cross Country Championship in Arrow Park, who was there to stand in her way but one Solly Bassey who was arrested and charged. However that did not stop Solly who played an important part in City Centre store protests shortly after to ask why no black people were employed at all in Liverpool City Centre commerce. Quite frankly it was a disgrace that black residents were being totally excluded from the job market.

Solly was proud of his background and his community. His later life’s work was to compile, first through his time at Liverpool 8 Law Centre, and later on his own, a history of the black community in Toxteth. Through moral authority and determination, people like Solly changed this City from a racist past to a much less racist present. As a Solicitor who worked on the front line in Princes Road for nearly 30 years, I was glad to have known Solly, a proud Liverpool 8 black resident. He and many others also present at the funeral can look back on lives well spent in the cause of equality.

There is still racism and discrimination, but through the rule of law, my practice first in Liverpool 8 and now in the City Centre, has been able to play a part in changing our society for the better. There is still much to do by gradually chipping away some of the barriers and injustices which still occur in our Society.

Here’s to Solly Bassey, who stood up for justice and equality and played his part in making Liverpool a much better place.