RAY COSTELLO intends featuring the biographies of about 50 black people from Liverpool in his book. These will include some familiar figures such as Howard Gayle and John Conteh.
Gayle (1958 -) Liverpool Football Club's first black player was with the club between 1977 and 1982. His great moment came in the Reds' one//nil triumph over Bayern Munich in the semi-final of the 1981 European Cup, when he was brought on as a substitute for Kenny Dalglish.
The Germans had no answer to his pace, which was crucial to Liverpool's victory. But he transferred to Birmingham the following year.
Conteh(1951-), was the World, European and Commonwealth light heavyweight boxing champion of the 1970s, whose wit and looks were compared to those of Muhammad Ali.
Other names will be less familiar, but they served their city and community well.
James Brown (1750-?) was an American slave known as Cato. It was fashionable to give them Greek or Roman names. It seems that he fought for the British cause during the War of Independence and then fled to Nova Scotia. Using the name James Cato, he arrived in England and joined the Royal Navy, changing his name to James Brown.
He served on Nelson's flagship Victory as boatswain at the Battle of Trafalgar (1804). Later, he settled in Liverpool, worked as a foundry worker, married three times and had two sons, one of whom was James.
James Brown Junior (1815-1881), was a young journalist with the Liverpool Mercury. Influenced by the Bible and fed with a passion for social justice, he became a Chartist and moved to the Isle of Man, founding the Isle of Man Times and winning the admiration of radical Manxmen for his campaigns to reform the House of Keys.
James Clarke (1886-1946) came to Liverpool as a stowaway on a ship from Georgetown British Guiana.
He established himself as a great athlete and boxer, winning dozens of medals, a singer and children's entertainer. Swimming was his best sport. In addition to winning races, he was called by the emergency services to rescue dozens of drowning children from the docks and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. A street is named after him in the Vauxhall area and a plaque was erected in his honour.
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