As part of Black History Month held in October every year in the UK, the University of Bristol Union regularly celebrates the life and achievements of one of St Lucia’s most illustrious sons, the late Bro. George Odlum. George made history as Bristol University’s first black Students’ Union President. While here, at home, George had gained near legendary fame for his political and mobilisational struggles, as well as his intellectual prowess and his oratorical skills and erudition, long before that he had made his mark at Bristol University, his alma mater.
In 2004 one of the rooms in the Students’ Union was renamed the Odlum Room. It has since undergone a major refurbishment programme and has been redeveloped. It will become part of a multi million pound International Foundation Centre. In the words of Chief Executive of the University of Bristol Union, Samantha Budd, George Odlum was “a voice for all of Bristol’s students” and a man with a sense of purpose” who “developed a vision of hope for change.”
In 2009 the Bristol University Students’ Union appointed Samantha Budd as its first Chief Executive. Together with a team from the union, she set about transforming the Students Union “from the inside out” to improve the Bristol student experience, according to the University of Bristol magazine Nonesuch. As part of the process, the team had been looking back at the Union’s history and in the process Sam Budd discovered a plaque dedicated to alumnus George Odlum, the first black President of the Students’ Union, from 1958-59. The following article was penned by Samantha Budd as a tribute to Bro George.
The University of Bristol Union (UBU) has been working with its trustees, officers and staff to shape the union’s future, building on the legacy of past presidents to provide outstanding support to improve the Bristol student experience.
We’ve spent a considerable amount of time asking questions: who are we? What are we about? What do students and the university want from us?
To answer these questions, it’s important to remember where we’ve come from and to see what has gone on before us. Integral to this process was the discovery of a plaque dedicated to George Odlum (BA 1959), the first black president of the students’ union in 1958/59. When I saw the plaque, something chimed for me and I wanted to find out more.
It described Odlum as “a man of immense political experience” and a “catalyst for mobilisation”. Inspired, I delved deeper into Odlum’s past, and what it could tell me about the union and what it has stood for. I spoke to alumni and searched through the university and theatre archives for images.
I uncovered newspaper articles and went to the far reaches of the British Library to learn more about Odlum’s remarkable tale and the union’s role in it. The son of a barber, Odlum had left the Caribbean island of St Lucia in 1956 to study English and philosophy at Bristol. He had arrived in a country that was still recovering from World War II and had not yet reformed its race relations.
Significant social and political events were still to come: the Notting Hill riots, Bristol’s boycott of the Omnibus Company and the establishment of the Race Relations Act. In spite of all the challenges he faced, Odlum maintained a sense of purpose and developed a vision of hope for change. In 1958 he was elected students’ union president and became the voice for all of Bristol’s students.
Not going to hide in the shadows
It is the historical context that makes George Odlum and his achievements stand out as truly extraordinary. As the daughter of a black man from the Caribbean myself, I realised that I shared many of Odlum’s ideals as I continued my research.
Against this national and local background of challenge and racism, Odlum found a more enlightened and tolerant reception at the University of Bristol, which even at that time was reasonably international: in 1958, students from 28 countries around the world were studying at Bristol (this compares with students from over 100 nations today).
In 1958, Bristol was nearing its 50th anniversary, and was even then considered one of the better-established UK universities. Far from home and alone in a provincial city, Odlum, like many of his fellow students, gravitated towards the students’ union: the social hub where students could relax, have a drink, or develop hobbies or pastimes.
Odlum may not have been able to socialise easily in the wider Bristol community, but he was not a man who was going to hide in the shadows; it is clear that he was gregarious within the university community. As president and figurehead of the students’ union, Odlum represented the students at university functions and events as well as on the national stage of student politics.
In 1958, he welcomed Her Majesty the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh to the university during their visit. Bristol Students’ Union was a founding member of NUS. After the war, NUS was instrumental in establishing the International Union of Students in 1946, and in 1952 it joined other student organisations and established the International Students’ Conference.
Odlum had been on the committee of UBU’s international society, and it was in this increasingly internationalised backdrop that he began to operate on the national stage of student politics. NUS Council was debating issues that would have fired Odlum’s passion and provided him with the platform to demonstrate his emerging political and oratory acumen.
His legacy lives on
Issues debated included: support for the ‘problems faced by colonial students’ (1957); ‘condemnation of apartheid and violations of academic freedom in South Africa’ (1957); ‘condemnation of the policy of the French government in arresting the officers of the Algerian Students’ Union’ (1958); and the motion that George himself presented at the Easter Conference in 1958, calling for more co-operation between East and West.
The motion was passed unanimously, and the Bristol student newspaper, Nonesuch News, reported: “It should be noted that only on rare occasion does a council act in such unison.” When Odlum left Bristol he went into a life of politics, changing the face of politics in St Lucia and beyond.
By enhancing the union’s partnerships with the university and its students, I believe that UBU can help to transform the Bristol student experience for the better, enabling today’s students, like Odlum, to be courageous and pioneering.
In addition to reforming the union’s structures and staffing, the building itself is undergoing a huge refurbishment programme, which includes the development of a new International Foundation Centre that will support international students when they arrive at Bristol.
After my own voyage of discovery about George Odlum and his life, the university corporate board, responsible for the refurbishment, will be putting the George Odlum Room at the heart of the centre. Although Odlum died 11 years ago, his legacy lives on in the Caribbean and as a pioneering alumnus of Bristol University.
George Odlum’s legacy will continue to live on within UBU and the university itself, inspiring Bristol staff and students as well as others as they hear about his achievements.
Photo Captions
- TRIUMVIRATE – Majorie Loud (ladies’ president), George Odlum (president) and Roddy Hughes (vice president) – Photo credit: ‘The Western Daily Press’
- George Odlum meets The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh when they visited the University in 1958. Image by Bristol University’s Special Collection
