Petition for statue of former Peckham resident

[BornAgainSELondoner]

You may have seen the news earlier this week that King's College took down its statue of Thomas Guy from its Guy's campus on account of his having profiteered from slavery.

I have started a petition, asking them to use this opportunity to commission a statue to King's alumnus and former Peckham resident Dr Harold Moody.

Petition here: http://chng.it/SWjFgvgZ - please sign and share.

Moody was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1882, and then trained in medicine at King's. Despite finishing top of his class, he was unable to secure employment on account of the colour of his skin (or, to be accurate, becuase of people's attitude to the colour of his skin) and so set up his own practice in Peckham. He also founded and became the president of the League of Coloured Peoples, which campaigned for racial equality and civil rights. He was also organised in organising in his local community during the Second World War, tending to injured victims at bomb sites and saving lives.

He died in his home in Peckham shortly after the war in 1947.

This is the kind of person we should be celebrating with statues.

[BornAgainSELondoner]

More info on Harold Mooody here: https://www.southwarknews.co.uk/history/dr-harold-moody-peckham-physician-thought-britains-martin-luther-king/?fbclid=IwAR2tZsBOnYEhFBDMuRXe0EtFVfnyxjEVcMSimq1T_g3pQhvM20mRA8qfUU8

[Chick]

Signed

[BornAgainSELondoner]

Thank you.

[Cyclemonkey]

I think that is a good idea. However it is not quite the whole truth to say Thomas Guy profited from Slavery. It was more complex than that.

[BornAgainSELondoner]

Perhaps. I was just using the same language I'd read in an article (I think a press release from King's). It has certainly been taken down on account of his links to the slave trade.

Either way, a statue of Harold Moody would be a worthy replacement.

[Cyclemonkey]

Agreed it would be a fine memorial to a remarkable man.

Thomas Guy, like many many people at the time, invested in the South Sea Company which was primarily a government debt holding company. The company was also awarded the monopoly on selling slaves amd goods to the Spanish colonies, but due to the Spanish war of succession the company never really got this trade underway or made much money from it. Guy's money was mainly made in trading government debt and being lucky enough tl get out before the South Sea Bubble burst.

His main crime in my view was he did not care or perhaps realise how the company he invested in intended to make a profit on his investment. Something many of us continue to be guilty of today.

I don't think it totally negates the good he did by using the money he made to found Guy's Hospital.

[BornAgainSELondoner]

Thanks for that info. I'll be sure to look into it in more detail myself.

To be clear, though: I'm not calling for the statue to be taken down - King's have taken it down already. I'm merely suggesting a replacement (or, I guess, an addition if the Guy statue ends up being put back up).

[Cyclemonkey]

Yep I realise that! I think all this current debate is good and positive as it allows us to question assumptions. It should also make us examine our own assumptions. People like Thomas Guy saw nothing wrong with investing in companies who intended to sell slaves. How many of us think too deeply about where our cheap clothes and electronic goods come from and why they are cheap.

History may judge us just as harshly

[BornAgainSELondoner]

Absolutely agree. We could all do with paying closer attention to the ethics of the companies we choose to patronise - be that clothes, food, electrical goods, banks or whatever.

Question everything.

[seenbeen]

BornAgainSELondoner Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Absolutely agree. We could all do with paying

> closer attention to the ethics of the companies we

> choose to patronise - be that clothes, food,

> electrical goods, banks or whatever.

>

> Question everything.

The information about the exploitation of poor people for profit has been readily available for decades. Shops will still open tomorrow and people will go there in droves.

The hair market alone is a prime example

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/oct/28/hair-extension-global-trade-secrets

[gabys1st]

Rather think that Kings ha othr more pressing items to spend money on right now, however re DR. Moody do agree quite a guy who deserves more recognition.

[Dulwich Born And Bred]

Signed!

[J27]

Great idea - signed!

[Annie5]

I think we all need to question where people invested and made their money. In today's climate, where are our electronic goods and clothes being made. Are they being made in factories with no workers rights. Are they exploiting children? This in itself is a type of slavery ......

[colville09]

I totally agree that now is the time to reflect if anything we do supports modern day slavery like trainers made by child slave labour, electronics and some nail bars. Seems a much better idea rather than another statue (to yet another dead male) that a scholarship to encourage local BAME kids to consider / help a career within medicine like the worthy Dr Moody would be a much better idea.

[Zippydoo]

Great idea BornagainSELondner!

[Dulwich Born And Bred]

Quite disappointing with the low numbers of signatures :(

[nxjen]

If anyone deserves a statue it is certainly Dr Harold Moody. I haven?t signed though because I question the whole concept of putting up statues to individuals, it seems a somewhat outmoded form of commemoration. Dr Moody has a park named after him and there is a plaque on the house in Queens Road where he lived and practiced, in these ways he is still a part of a living community. I question the idea of putting anyone literally on a pedestal.

[JohnL]

I'd rather a painting than a statue if I had a choice - but I won't get either LOL.

Signed

[Soylent Green]

Signed and shared.

[Nigello]

I think that people are reluctant to sign because they just have a bad taste in the mouth when anything with the word ?statue? is involved. It just puts people off, even if they are generally OK people. How about a fund for a scholarship in his name, or a grant for teachers of biology and other sciences, or a room in the hospital that can be used by visiting relatives of patients and with a plaque/permanent exhibition?

[BornAgainSELondoner]

Thanks to everyone who has signed and shared the petition. Since I started it, Southwark Council has announced an ?anti-racism audit? of public statues and street names, so I?ve let the relevant councillor know about the petition. If you know anyone else who might be inclined to sign, please spread the word. (Do remind people to check their junk mail form verification emails, though.)

I posted on the forum simply to spread the word of something I thought uncontroversial, not to start a squabble. But I guess that?s akin to saying ?I came to the pool for a swim, not to get wet?.

Anyway, thanks for your feedback. In response, I guess I?d like to say this:

- I?m not suggesting that putting up a statue of a Black person will even begin to address the huge problem this country has with racism (I?ve educated myself enough about the nature of systemic racism to know better than this); I merely think he is a worthy recipient of memorialisation. Of course, there are bigger fish to fry (and yes, as the Careers Lead at my school, I am all too aware of the need to find ways to get more Black kids into top universities), but when I heard that Guy?s statue had come down, I saw an opportunity to try to do something positive and start a conversation about other people we could be celebrating.

- I agree that the whole concept of putting up statues and literally putting people on pedestals is problematic, but statues do - and will continue to - exist, so if we can replace some of the statues of bad white people (and to be clear, here I specifically mean white people who have track records of being bad, not that all white people are bad - let?s not get into that right now) with some Black people, that?d be a tiny step in the right direction. After all, we have to work with the tools that we have.

- Yes, it is infuriating that the overwhelming majority of statues are of men. Ideally, I?d be pushing for a woman of colour, but for this *particular* purpose I thought it needed to be somebody connected to King?s, and, as a King?s alumnus, Moody seemed the stand-out choice. Were we talking about a statue or memorial in another part of the borough, I?m sure there are some brilliant women of colour we could - and should - celebrate. If anyone has any in mind, please share them here as I would love to learn about them - and then we should suggest them to the council?s anti-racism audit.

- I?m not even going to get into the debate about ethical consumer choices. It is one I?m interested in and very conscious of myself but right now I?m just trying to get support for a statue of a local hero.

Anyway, if people want to sign the petition, I?m grateful; if they don?t, that?s fine. I hope nobody would feel any pressure or judgement from anyone else here.

Peace. x

[healer]

Signed

[garages2018]

I Quite disagree with some of these posts, to take down a statue and want to replace it with another.

I say why in all of Southwark why pick on one man when Southwark has many that could be there, like

Henry Cooper as one. Im not being silly just honest, Max Bygraves as another.

On these Bases that they stood on why not modern art, there are plenty of Artists in Southwark that would love

to see there work on displayed, So Kings Its your ground look into this.