Patrick Vernon

**REPARATIONS OR BUST: THE STRUGGLE FOR RECOGNITION AND REPARATIVE JUSTICE ✊🏿**

I am honoured to be delivering the **Memorial 2007 Annual Lecture 2026**, hosted by the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London, on Tuesday 8 December.

Reparations are not simply about compensation for historical injustice. They are about **truth, recognition, remembrance, repair and justice for future generations.**

Drawing on my own family history of enslavement in Jamaica, alongside over three decades of campaigning for racial justice, Windrush recognition and health equality, I will explore how the legacies of enslavement and colonialism continue to shape Britain today.

From racial inequalities in health and mental health to the Windrush scandal, contested belonging and the erasure of Black history, we must confront the enduring consequences of what Orlando Patterson described as *social death*.

I will also reflect on the importance of Memorial 2007's campaign for a permanent national memorial and Garden of Remembrance honouring enslaved Africans and their descendants.

**Remembrance without action is not enough. We must move from acknowledgement to accountability, and from recognition to meaningful reparative justice.**

📅 **Tuesday 8 December 2026**

🕡 **6:30pm–9:30pm**

📍 **Chancellor's Hall, Senate House, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU**

I hope you can join us for this important conversation about our shared history and the future we must build together.

🎟️ **Register via Eventbrite — link in bio.**

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