The unsung heroes of Black history and mental health

Aggrey Burke was born in Jamaica in 1943 and arrived in the UK in 1959. He completed his research fellowship in Birmingham and went on to become the Chair of the Transcultural Psychiatry Society. Burke was appointed the NHS’s first Black British consultant psychiatrist and worked for many years as a psychiatrist and senior lecturer at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, London.

Burke's work throughout the 1980s examined how social determinants, especially racism and poverty, are associated with mental illness. He was one of the first clinicians to question the disproportionate number of black men detained in secure mental health hospital wards. Other work included a study on suicide in immigrant Irish, West Indian and Asian people in Birmingham. Burke worked directly with bereaved families to offer them psychological support following the New Cross Massacre, a fire in which 13 young black people died.

He also published groundbreaking work looking at racism and sexism in medical schools, which led to an inquiry by the Commission for Racial Equality and changes in admission processes.

In a more than 40-year-long career, Aggrey Burke fought tirelessly against discrimination in mental health, sacrificing his own advancement to do so.

Born in the American south in 1917, Mamie Phipps Clark went on to become a pioneer of child development studies, spearheading research that became pivotal in the ending of racial segregation in schools.

She completed a Masters at Howard University, on the development of racial consciousness, and then became the second ever Black doctoral student at Columbia, alongside her husband Kenneth. Together they completed the famous study, the 'Doll Test'.

In the experiment 250 Black children aged 3-7 were asked questions about dolls that were identical apart from race and hair colour. They were asked which doll does the child want to play with, which doll looks nice, which looks nasty. Most of children preferred and assigned positive characteristics to the white doll.

The Clarks reported that many southern Black children, with their experiences of racial segregation had internalised a belief in their own racial inferiority. They concluded that integration could help children develop healthy racial self-identification and improve racial relations more generally.

The Clark’s research became the ethical basis for the NAACP's case in Brown Vs the board of Education, the conclusion of which was the banning of racial segregation in public schools.

Dr Clark then went on to found the Northside Centre for Child Development in Harlem, one of the first agencies to provide psychological services to Black, minority and poor children. She worked at the centre until her retirement, and also was involved in social service programmes such as the national Head Start Programme, which is active across the US today.

Dr Ellen Kitch Childs (1937-1993) was a pioneering clinical psychologist and activist whose work championed gay and lesbian rights. Born in 1937 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she grew up against a backdrop of racial discrimination, segregation, and the Civil Rights Movement, experiences that profoundly shaped her worldview and activism.

Kitch earned her PhD in Human Development at the University of Chicago, one of the first African-American women to do so.

During her time in Chicago, she became a founding member of both the Association for Women in Psychology and the Gay Liberation Front at the university. Her activism was deeply intertwined with her professional work, and she was instrumental in challenging the American Psychiatric Association's harmful classification of homosexuality as a mental disorder, a stance that was maintained until 1973. For her efforts, she was honoured in the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame.

Kitch began her own clinical psychology practice, prioritising accessible and inclusive services for the most marginalised groups. She implemented sliding scale fees and offered free services, prioritising Black clients, sex workers, and those living with AIDS, among other groups. Her commitment to inclusivity and social justice was a hallmark of her practice, and of her contributions to the field of psychology.

As vice-chair of the independent Mental Health Taskforce, set up in 2015, Jacqui was essential in laying the path for unprecedented increases in investment in mental health through the mental health long-term plan, as well as a series of recommendations to transform mental health services. Jacqui is also the Mental Health Equalities Advisor for NHSE, and has led on the Advancing Mental Health Equalities Strategy and the development of the Patient & Carer Race Equality Framework – a ground-breaking approach to equipping the NHS to address racial disparities in mental health. 

Jacqui is also a politician, serving as councillor and cabinet member in Lambeth and a social entrepreneur and activist, co-founding Black Thrive. It is a community-led initiative to create a more positive story around mental health in the African-Caribbean community and ensure systemic change to create more responsive, culturally sensitive public services. 

Meanwhile, in her tenure as Mental Health Foundation President, Jacqui has been responsible for a concerted shift and effort towards becoming an anti-racist organisation and leaves us with this goal as her abiding legacy.

Black History Month has given us an opportunity to look back at the pioneers who make our work possible and celebrate those who continue to shape our future. Now, beyond Black History Month, we remain committed to ensuring that all voices are heard and that all those who fight tirelessly for our mental health are recognised.