Tributes pour in for founder of Kick It Out, Herman Ouseley

Tributes have poured in for anti-racism campaigner Herman Ouseley, who died on Wednesday aged 79 after a short illness.

Described as a “trailblazer” and a “titan”, Lord Ouseley worked as a public servant and campaigner throughout his life to combat the challenges faced by the UK’s black population.

During a period of political and social turmoil, he forged pathways between neighbourhoods and Government institutions to deliver change, including one of his most high-profile achievements, the Let’s Kick Racism Out of Football programme to tackle racism and discrimination in football.

Lord Ouseley was born in British Guiana – now Guyana – on March 24, 1945. His father died when he was seven, after which his mother remarried and moved to the UK to work as a nurse in 1955. 

In 1956, aged 12, Lord Ouseley travelled alone for 17 days from Guyana to live with his mother in Peckham, where he attended William Penn school in Red Post Hill, North Dulwich, and then Catford College. 

Two years after his arrival, race riots flared. Gangs of young white men rioted in Notting Hill, attacking the area’s Caribbean population and damaging their homes.

The 1958 riots came at a time when black people were frequently excluded from skilled employment, pubs and clubs. Racism was fuelled by far right politicians like Oswald Mosley and fascist organisations such as the White Defence League, the League of Empire Loyalists as well as gangs who carried flick-knives and knuckle dusters.

In 1963, Lord Ouseley began his career in local government at Middlesex county council, before he became a community relations worker in a Lambeth council-supported organisation helping young black people. 

By the end of the 1970s, he ran Lambeth’s community relations unit before moving up to the Greater London Council (GLC), where he became head of its ethnic minorities unit from 1981 to 1984.

Throughout this time, he witnessed a vicious political struggle between Lambeth’s radical Labour leader Ted Knight and Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government, as the Prime Minister tried to “cap” local government spending.

In the 1990s, Lord Ouseley made history as Lambeth council’s first ever black chief executive.

Cllr Claire Holland, Leader of Lambeth council, said: “As we mark Black History Month, it is a sad time to mark the loss of such a passionate campaigner for racial equality, but also an important one to commemorate a lifetime of public service to that cause.

“We send our best wishes to his friends, family and all of those impacted by this sad news.”

In 1993 – the same year Stephen Lawrence was murdered – Lord Ouseley was appointed as chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE).

It was during his time at the CRE that he established the Let’s Kick Racism Out of Football programme – since renamed Kick It Out. 

He approached all 92 clubs in the English Football league and the newly-formed Premier League to ask them to join in a campaign to tackle the worst excesses of racial abuse, harassment and violence in football. With more than 50 clubs signing up, the campaign was launched on August 12, 1993.

For the 25 years he chaired the organisaiton, which later became a registered charity, he took no money and worked solely on a voluntary basis.

In a statement released on Thursday, the charity said: “Lord Ouseley’s vision to set up Kick It Out was the first true structural change in football to take on a problem that had blighted the game for decades.

“Fans and participants are now more aware of discrimination and how to challenge it, which is a legacy of the tenacity and vigour he showed in ensuring football continued to change.

“We owe him a huge debt of gratitude and vow to continue that legacy for the benefit of future generations.

“Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this difficult time.”

Knighted in 1997, Lord Ouseley was made a peer in 2001, sitting as a crossbencher in the House of Lords.

He also sat on the board of the Manchester United Foundation and was an avid fan of the club as well as Millwall FC and Dulwich Hamlet.

A spokesman for Millwall FC said: “Millwall FC was deeply saddened by the passing of Lord Herman Ouseley, a man the club was honoured to have worked closely with, and sends its love and best wishes to all his family and friends at this very sad time.”

Herman Ouseley born March 24, 1945 and died October 2, 2024.

Pictured top: Lord Herman Ouseley during the 2018 PFA Awards at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London (Picture: Steven Paston/PA Images)