October marks Black History Month and also the national 'One Game, One Community' weeks of action for equality in football. The action weeks will see professional and grassroots football clubs and other organisations take part in a range of activities between 13th and 31st October.
FURD is involved in the following activities to mark the Action Weeks and Black History Month.
Tuesday 18th October until Monday 14th November: FURD's Arthur Wharton and Pioneers, Past Masters and Future Challenges exhibitions will be on display at the Showroom Workstation, Paternoster Row, Sheffield. They will accompany Black Britannia, an exhibition of photos by the professional portrait and documentary photographer John Ferguson. Black Britannia aims to inspire the younger black generation by highlighting the achievements of 50 black British pioneers who have all broken through the glass ceiling while also trying to counteract the negative stereotypes of black people often portrayed in the media.
The exhibitions will be open to the public from Mon – Friday 8.45am – 8pm and 9am – 3pm on weekends and admission is free. See the link below for more information.
Tuesday 25th October: Staff and volunteers will be handing out free anti-racist football resources at the Sheffield United v MK Dons match as part of Sheffield United's anti-racist action week activity, including a specially designed Sheffield United team poster with anti-racist messages. The poster can be viewed below. The new FURD-supported Under-12 girls' team, Nubian Girls, will be flag bearers, parading anti-racist banners on the pitch at the match.
Wednesday 26th October: Under-14 and Under-16 5-a-side tournaments will be held at Goals, Sheffield - see previous news item.
FURD is also involved in a Black History Month event at Fir Vale School, Sheffield on 18th October, one of our exhibitions was on display last week at Sheffield City College and two of them will be travelling to London later in the month for a Show Racism the Red Card event with the Ministry of Defence.
One Game, One Community is part of a Europe-wide Action Week co-ordinated by FARE ( the Football Against Racism in Europe network) which aims to boost public awareness of the problems of racism and exclusion and to create a united front in dealing with this malign influence on Europe‘s number one sport.
Follow the links below for more information about Action Weeks events.