Paul Stephenson is one of the UK's leading Civil Rights activists and has travelled extensively to the United States to support the US Civil Rights Movement. In his foreword to Memories of a Black Englishman Tony Benn writes: "Paul Stephenson's life, as readers of this book will see, offers living proof that history is made by the people who make the effort. "It also shows that the initial hostility that they provoke is replaced by respect and good will if the effort continues for long enough. "