Jessica Huntley

came to Britain from Guyana in 1958, to join her husband Eric. She was a leading member of the Peoples Progressive Party in the vanguard struggle for National Independence.

In 1969, along with others, and with the help of donations from friends, she and her husband founded the groundbreaking publishing house Bogle-L'Ouverture Limited, and later opened a bookshop under the same name. Their first publication was The Groundings with My Brothers, a book of essays by activist, academic and friend Walter Rodney. Walter was banned from Jamaica for daring to combine his professional career with activism by teaching across all sections of the Jamaican society.

Bogle-L'Ouverture distributed publications in Europe, the Caribbean and Africa. Their literature played a major part in the promotion of consciousness of being black. Other authors included, Andrew Salkey and Linton Kwesi Johnson. In 1980 the Bogle-L'Ouverture bookshop was renamed The Walter Rodney Bookshop as a tribute to his work.

Jessica Huntley was a founding member and co-director of the First International Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World Books and the Black Parents Movement. She was active in several campaigns against injustices by the police and the courts against black people, as well playing a vital role in promoting education for all.

History is an enlightenment of our past and the way we move to the future.