I’m a white man, and I’m conscious that people make assumptions about me before we’ve even spoken. There are parts of my background that people probably wouldn’t expect just by looking at me. I suspect that’s true for many of us.
But having my own experiences doesn’t mean I understand somebody else’s. I don’t know what it’s like to be Black in Hertfordshire, to experience racism, or to grow up in a family or community with a very different history from my own. I can listen, ask questions and try to understand, but I also need to recognise what I don’t know.
I’m currently taking part in an allyship programme, and it has made me think about how easily we make assumptions about people, often without realising, and how much we miss as a result.
With October being Black History Month, I’ve been asking how much I actually know about the Black people who have helped shape Hertfordshire. The more I’ve read, the more I’ve realised how many stories I knew very little about.
We’re good at talking about our Roman heritage, historic buildings and famous residents. But how many of us could name Black people who have lived and worked here over the centuries, or explain their contribution to the places we know today?
One story that caught my attention was that of George Edward Doney, who lived in Watford in the eighteenth century. Born in Gambia around 1758, he was captured as a child, sold into slavery and taken to Virginia before eventually coming to England. He worked for the Earls of Essex at Cassiobury for 44 years, and his gravestone can be found at St Mary’s Church in Watford.
What I found uncomfortable was how his story was recorded. His gravestone describes his years of willing servitude, despite his having been enslaved as a child. We know something about where he lived and worked, but much less about what he thought or experienced. How many other people’s stories have survived only through the accounts of those who held power over them?
Hertfordshire’s connections to slavery went further than George’s experience. Hertfordshire Archives has explored the county’s links to slavery and its abolition, and some of what we learn there is difficult to confront.
There are also stories of achievement that deserve greater recognition. Lionel Wallace, who grew up and went to school in St Albans, served as Hertfordshire’s first Black High Sheriff in 2021–22. His parents came from St Kitts and Nevis, and he has spent more than 40 years involved in youth work and community organisations, supporting young people across the county.
The St Albans Black History Research Group is doing excellent work bringing more of these stories to light. Last year its Our Stories exhibition explored Black history in Hertfordshire from Roman times to the present day. This year, local artist Aisha Adi has worked with the group and local people to create a mural at St Albans Museum + Gallery, linked to eight new oral history interviews. Among those sharing their experiences is Robert Samuel Wallace, now 101, who arrived in Britain from St Kitts in 1955.
I particularly like this project because people are telling their own stories: arriving in Hertfordshire, finding work, raising families, facing difficulties and contributing to their communities. Those accounts are being recorded for future generations, rather than left for someone else to interpret years from now.
This year’s Black History Month theme is Honouring Our Communities, which feels right. It asks us to recognise the people whose contributions make communities work, including those whose efforts rarely attract attention.
And Black history is still being made. Through local businesses, community organisations, the arts, public service and everyday life, Black residents continue to shape Hertfordshire. There is much to celebrate, alongside the need to understand the discrimination and inequalities people have faced and continue to face.
Many communities, many experiences
It’s been a busy few weeks across the county. Our Jewish communities have observed Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot. Hindu communities have celebrated Ganesh Chaturthi and Navratri, with Diwali approaching in November. And earlier this month saw the launch of Proud St Albans, joining Proud Watford in encouraging more welcoming and inclusive communities.
Each has its own history and significance. But together they've made me think about the many different people and traditions that have shaped Hertfordshire, and how much we might still have to learn about one another.
Even within communities that appear to have a great deal in common, people can have very different backgrounds, views and experiences. It's something I've been reflecting on through the allyship programme, and it has made me question how much we sometimes assume we understand.
When you’ve worked in communities for a long time, it’s easy to believe you know the people you’re trying to support. Sometimes we do. But we should be prepared to question it.
Through Communities 1st, we see people contributing to local life in all sorts of ways. Some volunteer through established charities. Others support neighbours, organise cultural activities, maintain traditions, run local groups or look out for someone who might otherwise feel isolated.
Much of it happens without formal recognition, and there are certainly people and groups doing important work across Hertfordshire that we know little about.
It also makes me think about what we recognise through our own work. We know about the volunteers who register with us and the organisations we support, but what about people doing similar things outside those networks? How much of what holds our communities together goes unnoticed?
And are we always as welcoming and accessible as we think we are?
We're looking at some of the practical barriers people experience in our own activities, including whether transport makes it difficult for people to attend creative programmes. It sounds like a fairly straightforward issue, but if someone can't get to an activity, they can't take part in it.
I think there's something to learn from that. We can have the best intentions, but we still need to understand how people actually experience what we offer.
Who gets to shape the story?
The same thinking has made me reflect on younger people and the future we're leaving to them.
We spend a lot of time talking about Hertfordshire’s future: what our towns will look like, what services we’ll need and what opportunities there will be. But how often do we properly involve young people in those conversations?
We’re exploring how young people can play a greater part in Communities 1st, whether through volunteering, creative activities, community projects or helping communities prepare for emergencies.
I'd like us to hear more directly from young people about what interests them and what they'd like to change. We already have opportunities for young people to get involved, but that doesn't necessarily mean we're offering the opportunities they want.
There’s a danger that we ask young people to take part in things we’ve already designed, rather than asking what they’d like to do or change. And we need to hear from more than the confident ones. Plenty of young people won’t join a committee or attend a consultation but have strong views about where they live and what they want for their future.
I'd welcome hearing from young people, and those who work with them, about how we could do this better. You can get in touch with Communities 1st and share your thoughts.
I wonder what young people growing up in Hertfordshire today will think when they look back in 30 or 40 years. Will they feel they had a say? Will they have seen opportunities to build their lives here? And what will they think we got right, or missed altogether?
When I started looking into Black History Month, I hadn't appreciated how much of Hertfordshire's history I didn't know. I've learned about people whose experiences weren't always properly recognised or recorded, and about others who are working today to make sure those stories are heard.
It's made me want to keep learning, and to think more carefully about whose contributions we recognise today.
We can't assume we know someone else's story or what they want for their future. But we can make time to listen, to understand and to involve people in decisions that affect them.
I'd like to think future generations will look back and feel that we took their views seriously, and that they had the opportunity to help shape Hertfordshire for themselves.