Celebrating Black Lives: Lavinya Stennett

As part of Rosslyn Hill Chapel's 'Celebrating Black Lives' series, this month we celebrate a British author and social entrepreneur, Lavinya Stennett.

Lavinya Stennett is a British social entrepreneur and the founder of The Black Curriculum, an organization dedicated to embedding Black British history into the UK school system. Motivated by her own experience of growing up without seeing her heritage reflected in education, she launched the initiative in 2019.

During the global Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, her work gained national attention, highlighting the need to confront Britain’s colonial past and systemic racism through education. Lavinya advocates for a truthful, empowering curriculum that includes more than just slavery - emphasising Black contributions to British history.

Her activism focuses on using education as a tool for identity, justice, and long-term societal change, making her a key figure in anti-racism efforts in the UK.

“We have existed in Britain and been pioneers, inventors, icons. And then colonialism happened, and that has shaped the experiences of Black people – but that is not all we are.”

“Slavery is not the entirety of our history.”

“The motivation came from not being able to see that there was Black history being taught constantly at a school level. In primary and secondary level, in a way that was truthful and empowering for young people.”

“There’s the saying birds of a feather flock together – if you’re around a community that isn’t uplifting you and empowering you, you’re not really going to have much of an insight or understanding as to what is possible.”

"When people know the value of our history and cultures to the world, it has the power to remove social divides."

Each month we mark the significant life of a person of colour as a positive statement and a contribution to redressing historical imbalances in our society. More profiles.