Spotlight culture scavenger hunt

Team 1, stop 3 – Dr Harold Moody

 Dr Harold Moody was a prominent humanitarian, anti-racist campaigner and civil rights activist who studied medicine at King’s, graduating in 1910. Despite his academic achievements, Harold was unable to gain work as a physician because of the colour of his skin. He was denied a hospital job because the matron refused to ‘have a coloured doctor working at the hospital’ and was rejected for the post of medical officer for the Camberwell Board of Guardians, being told that people did not want to be treated by a black man.

Harold set up his own medical practice in 1913, and in 1931, he became one of the founders of the League of Coloured Peoples (LCP).  Harold worked tirelessly lobbying politicians, the civil service and trade unions, seeking to build and strengthen race relations and challenge injustices, and he served as the LCP’s president right up until his death.

Harold’s campaign for civil rights has been credited as being the key to influencing the Race Relations Act 1965 – the first legislation in the UK to prohibit discrimination on the grounds of colour, race, ethnicity or national origins.