Black Equity Organisation (BEO), a UK civil rights group for Black people, has been launched two years after the death of George Floyd.

Dubbed the first organisation of its kind in the country, BEO aims to dismantle systematic racism and advance equity and justice for Black communities. It will take a large-scale approach to improve Black lives by working with grassroots and community organisations.

The organisation, which will focus on economic empowerment, improving education and health outcomes, access to housing and general opportunities for Black communities across the UK, has notable Black figures across politics, business and the media on its board of trustees. They include Broadcaster and Historian David Olusoga, Shadow Foreign Secretary and Labour MP David Lammy and Senior Partner at McKinsey Dame Vivian Hunt.

According to Hunt, BEO will use evidence-based approaches to tackle societal anti-Black racism and has already conducted its own research. So far, they have received backing from Sky, communications firm WPP and charitable foundation Lankelly Chase, among others.

The idea for setting up BEO came in 2020 following Floyd’s murder when Lammy, Hunt and others convened to discuss the situation. The consensus was that the UK lacked a national organisation which could adequately evidence Black issues and respond to them.

The launch of the Black Equity Organisation comes at a time when diversity, equity and inclusion conversations are stressing the need for action, and its multi-pronged approach to tackle various forms of Black inequality in society could achieve this.

Moreover, the organisation’s aim to show evidence of systematic racism through research is a show of defiance against the results of the controversial 2021 Sewell report, which denied that any substantial evidence of structural racism exists in the UK.

To find out more about Black Equity Organisation, click here.

In this article, you learned that:

• Black Equity Organisation (BEO), a UK civil rights group for Black people, has been launched two years after the death of George Floyd and will look into evidence of systemic racism in the country.
• They will focus on economic empowerment, improving education and health outcomes, access to housing and general opportunities for Black communities across the UK, and have already conducted research.
• BEO’s board of trustees include Broadcaster and Historian David Olusoga, Shadow Foreign Secretary and Labour MP David Lammy, and Senior Partner at McKinsey Dame Vivian Hunt.