Paul Stephenson was born on 6 May 1937 in Rochford, Essex, to a West African father and a British mother, and was evacuated during the Second World War to a children's home in Great Dunmow, where he was the only Black child.
After serving in the RAF from 1953 to 1960, Stephenson trained as a youth worker and was appointed by Bristol City Council, where he encountered the Bristol Omnibus Company's refusal to employ Black or Asian drivers and conductors.
In April 1963 Stephenson led the Bristol Bus Boycott, organising thousands of Bristolians in a 60-day campaign that forced the company to abandon its colour bar, a victory that helped pave the way for Britain's first Race Relations Act in 1965.
In 1964 Stephenson was arrested after refusing to leave a Bristol pub that had denied him service, and his subsequent trial, in which the charges were dismissed, further raised the national profile of Britain's civil rights movement.
Stephenson was appointed OBE in 2009 and named a Freeman of the City of Bristol, spending his later years writing his memoirs and speaking widely about racial discrimination until his death in November 2024 at the age of 87.
Every generation has a duty to fight against racism.
The Bristol Bus Boycott that Paul Stephenson led in 1963 became one of the defining civil rights victories in postwar Britain, helping to secure the country's first anti-discrimination law and inspiring the naming of a Great Western Railway train in his honour in 2020.
- 1937Born in Rochford, Essex.
- 1953Joins the Royal Air Force.
- 1963Leads the Bristol Bus Boycott.
- 1964Arrested and tried after a pub protest against a colour bar.
- 1965Race Relations Act passed, Britain’s first anti-discrimination law.
- 2009Appointed OBE.
- 2024Dies aged 87.
- ★ Led the 1963 Bristol Bus Boycott, ending a company's colour bar on employment
- ★ His campaigning helped pave the way for the Race Relations Act 1965
- ★ Appointed OBE in 2009 for services to race relations
- ★ Made a Freeman of the City of Bristol
- ★ Honoured with a Great Western Railway train named in his memory, 2020