This statue of Betty Campbell sculpted by Eve Shepherd was unveiled in 2021. Betty Campbell had been the first black head teacher in Wales. Campbell, who died in 2017 aged 82, was honored for her pioneering work championing equality and diversity. She went on to help create Black History Month, serve as councilor for the Butetown ward, and was a member of the Home Office’s race advisory committee. In 2003, she was awarded an MBE for her services to education and community life.
Until this statue was dedicated, in Cardiff, the only statue in Wales of a woman who actually lived was one of Boudicca. In 2016,’Monumental Welsh Women’, a task force to tackle this imbalance, was formed. In 2019, the BBC ran the ‘Hidden Heroines’ campaign to decide who should be the subject of Cardiff’s first statue of a named woman. Five women were shortlisted: the poet and teacher Cranogwen (Sarah Jane Rees), the suffragette Lady Rhondda (Margaret Haig Thomas), the political organizer Elizabeth Andrews, the writer and anthropologist Elaine Morgan, and Betty Campbell.
In this 13-foot-tall bronze statue, Cambell’s head and shoulders create a canopy sheltering ten bronze children of various ages. The base also includes mini bronze models of landmarks in Tiger Bay, Wales’ oldest multi-ethnic community. There are small bronze chairs which are designed to be sat upon. One of the messages inscribed within the statue is “we are a good example to the rest of the world, how you can live together regardless of where you come from or the colour of your skin”.
