Friday, 12 June 2020

Black actor Alfred Fagon's statue attacked in Bristol



A statue of the Jamaican poet, playwright and actor Alfred Fagon has been doused with a bleach-like substance.

The monument in St Pauls, Bristol was erected in 1987 on the first anniversary of his death.

Mr Fagon was the first black person to have a statue erected in their honour in the city.

It is thought the attack happened overnight between Tuesday and Wednesday and was reported to police on Thursday.Avon and Somerset Police said it was liaising with Bristol City Council to establish ownership of the statue and to determine whether it had suffered any permanent damage.

It comes after Black Lives Matter anti-racism protesters tore down a statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol on Sunday.

Who was Alfred Fagon?

He was born in Jamaica in 1937, the third of nine brothers and two sisters.

At the age of 18 he came to England to work on the railways before joining the army before moving to Bristol to work as a welder in the 1960s.

One of his first plays, No soldiers in St Pauls, explored the social tension between the police and the black community in 1970s Bristol.

His final role was in the BBC's Fighting Back, set in St Pauls, Bristol.

He died suddenly from a heart attack on 28 August 1986 outside his flat in Camberwell, London.

At the time police claimed they were unable to identify him and he was given a pauper's funeral.

The annual Alfred Fagon Award was named after him and is for playwrights of Caribbean or African descent, resident in the UK.

BBC news

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