Best, Mavis
Biography
Mavis Best and the ‘Scrap SUS’ Campaign (1977-81)
In 1970′s London, the notorious Sus law (based on the 1824 Vagrancy Act) was used by police to stop, search, arrest, detain and assault young black men. Mavis Best and a group of black women from Lewisham lobbied the police and the government to scrap the sus law. It took numerous demonstrations and meetings with Government officials but within 3 years the law was scrapped. This was a major chapter in the Black British fight for civil rights.
(http://www.blacklawyer.org/?post=legal-history-mavis-best-and-the-scrap-the-sus-campaign-1981)
Councillor Mavis Best came to the UK from Jamaica, in 1961. She trained as a Community Develpment Youth Worker at the University of London, Goldsmith College, in 1974. Councillor Best is married with six children and grand- children. She believes that having a large family should not mean that women cannot achieve their potential and play an effective role in society. She has worked for North Lewisham Project where she set up a supplementary school for African-Caribbean children who were under achieving in schools in the Deptford area. She embarked upon a campaign to repeal the 1824 Vagrancy Act, used to pick up black under-age males in the seventies. The campaign lasted three years and the Act was repealed. She also worked as a Community Development Worker for Camden Social Services where she developed her skills as a trainer, and went on to become a national Co-ordinator for Health and Race Project over a period of three years. She became a member of a team charged with the responsibility of developing issues on health matters for Neil Kinnock. Councillor Best was the Chair of the Maternity Alliance, concerned with issues of childbirth and women's rights. Her family means a lot to her, as well as her faith and belief in God. She believes profoundly in helping to challenge injustice in our society, this belief underpinning all of her undertakings. Councillor Best has lived in the borough for nineteen years. She is a councillor for the Ferrier Ward and an Executive Member for Equalities, Social Inclusion and Justice. Six years ago, she was re-married, to Mr Fabian Best.
(http://www.casbah.ac.uk/cats/archive/235/MHPAA0003.htm)
In 1970′s London, the notorious Sus law (based on the 1824 Vagrancy Act) was used by police to stop, search, arrest, detain and assault young black men. Mavis Best and a group of black women from Lewisham lobbied the police and the government to scrap the sus law. It took numerous demonstrations and meetings with Government officials but within 3 years the law was scrapped. This was a major chapter in the Black British fight for civil rights.
(http://www.blacklawyer.org/?post=legal-history-mavis-best-and-the-scrap-the-sus-campaign-1981)
Councillor Mavis Best came to the UK from Jamaica, in 1961. She trained as a Community Develpment Youth Worker at the University of London, Goldsmith College, in 1974. Councillor Best is married with six children and grand- children. She believes that having a large family should not mean that women cannot achieve their potential and play an effective role in society. She has worked for North Lewisham Project where she set up a supplementary school for African-Caribbean children who were under achieving in schools in the Deptford area. She embarked upon a campaign to repeal the 1824 Vagrancy Act, used to pick up black under-age males in the seventies. The campaign lasted three years and the Act was repealed. She also worked as a Community Development Worker for Camden Social Services where she developed her skills as a trainer, and went on to become a national Co-ordinator for Health and Race Project over a period of three years. She became a member of a team charged with the responsibility of developing issues on health matters for Neil Kinnock. Councillor Best was the Chair of the Maternity Alliance, concerned with issues of childbirth and women's rights. Her family means a lot to her, as well as her faith and belief in God. She believes profoundly in helping to challenge injustice in our society, this belief underpinning all of her undertakings. Councillor Best has lived in the borough for nineteen years. She is a councillor for the Ferrier Ward and an Executive Member for Equalities, Social Inclusion and Justice. Six years ago, she was re-married, to Mr Fabian Best.
(http://www.casbah.ac.uk/cats/archive/235/MHPAA0003.htm)
