. However, the shocking incident was a moment that would shape the young woman and galvanise her into a lifetime of tireless activism. Soon after, Olive – who had moved to London with her){kind=link}
Olive Morris was not the sort of person to shy away from confrontation.
‘She spoke her mind, you couldn’t mess with Olive. If she didn’t like something, then you would know,’ her friend Danny DaCosta once said.
Olive’s instinct to fight injustice was laid bare on November 15, 1969, when she intervened during the arrest of Clement Gomwalk, a Nigerian diplomat accused of stealing his own car.
As she walked towards Desmond’s Hip City in Brixton – one of London’s first Black-owned record stores – she noticed a crowd of people surrounding a white Mercedes and police van.
Police started arresting protesters, and Olive, then aged 17, was grabbed by both legs and shoved headfirst into the van.