Walter Tull was a successful footballer and officer in the British Army in World War One. These achievements are even more exceptional because Walter was Afro-Caribbean, succeeding in a world that still considered black people inferior.
Walter Tull is one of the very first black footballers, he played for Tottenham Hotspurs where he received so much racial abuse that he found it hard to stay. He then went on to play for Northampton for a short while, before being drafted to fight in the war where he died.
He played many roles throughout his short life: a brother, a son, an orphan, a footballer, a soldier, an officer and, finally, a war hero. At every stage he had to overcome adversity and challenges – obstacles he refused to let define him.
Tull’s story can teach us are legion. The gnawing persistence of prejudice. The stupidity of war. And the quiet gallantry of the hundreds and thousands of women and people of colour who stood against the overwhelming tide of history and just did their thing. Let’s at least try and understand how we got here. And let’s not stop.
Read more hereWalter Tull: The incredible story of a football pioneer and war hero
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/43504448
The story of Walter Tull and why the tragic lessons from it are just as relevant 100 years on https://goo.gl/qAixaZ
