Lee Heidhues 4.4.2023
We watch the BBC everyday on public television and had come to look forward to Laura Trevelyan’s daily 30 minute presentation.
Laura has been missing from the airwaves the past several weeks with a parade of different announcers handling the assignment.
Today I learned why this top level BBC announcer has not been on the air. It looks like we will never see her, again in a broadcast capacity.
Excerpted from The Guardian 3.16.2023
A BBC journalist whose family made history for publicly apologizing for its ownership of more than 1,000 enslaved African people and paying reparation has quit the broadcaster to campaign for reparative justice full-time.
The decision comes after Trevelyan family apologized for ownership of more than 1,000 enslaved African people
Laura Trevelyan and her family travelled to the Caribbean country of Grenada last month to publicly apologize for their family’s role in slavery and announced £100,000 in reparations.
In November, King Charles was reported to have said he was ready to have “active conversations” about Britain’s involvement in the slave trade. His goddaughter, Fiona Compton, who is an artist and daughter of former prime minister of St Lucia Sir John Compton, said the king had spoken to her about the way the subject could be better highlighted and acknowledged.
Trevelyan told the Telegraph: “The coronation of the king and his comments about being ready to talk about the legacy of slavery provide an opening for a wider discussion.”
Trevelyan, who said that the £100,000 donation would be drawn from a pending pension payout from the BBC, said she would be quitting the public broadcaster to become a full-time “roving advocate” on the campaign to secure financial reparations for the Caribbean from former colonial powers.
She also said she wanted to work with other families whose ancestors owned enslaved people in the Caribbean and who wanted to make amends.
The Trevelyan family’s apology and reparation was announced alongside Sir Hilary Beckles, chair of the Caricom Reparations Commission. Caricom, or Caribbean Community, is a group of 15 countries in the region.
Trevelyan said that her future work would entail “advocating for Caricom’s reparatory justice agenda”.
Lee's Perspective 