page_title: Betty Campbell
section_title: Career and life
hierarchical_section_title: Betty Campbell / Career and life
caption_attribution_description: English: Mount Stuart Primary School, Butetown, Cardiff (signage)
context_page_description: Betty Campbell MBE was a community activist and Wales' first black head teacher. Born into a poor household in Butetown, she won a scholarship to the Lady Margaret High School for Girls in Cardiff. She later trained as a teacher, eventually becoming head teacher of Mount Stuart Primary School in Butetown, Cardiff. She put into practice innovative ideas on the education of children and was actively involved in the community.
context_section_description: Betty Johnson became pregnant at the age of 17, while she was doing her A-levels. She left school when she married Rupert Campbell, a fitter's mate, in 1953. Betty Campbell had four children, one of whom had special needs. She had 14 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren. 
  In 1960, when Campbell already had three children, she discovered that Cardiff Teacher Training College had started to enrol female students. Campbell applied, and was one of only six female students to be admitted.
  Campbell's first teaching post was in Llanrumney. She soon returned to Butetown, getting a job at Mount Stuart Primary School, where she taught for 28 years. As a black teacher she experienced hostility from some parents: "They hadn't seen a black teacher before. It was as if you could do a job, but if you’re black you weren’t quite as good."
  Campbell was inspired by a trip to the US where she learned about anti-slavery activists like Harriet Tubman and the civil rights movement. When she became Wales' first black head teacher at Mount Stuart in the 1970s, she began teaching children about slavery, black history and the system of apartheid which operated at the time in South Africa.
  Speaking later in the Senedd, Campbell explained: "I was determined that I was going to become one of those people and enhance the black spirit, black culture as much as I could." Campbell helped to create Black History Month and taught a series of workshops on the role of Butetown's citizens and their countries of origin in the Second World War.
  She served as an independent councillor for Butetown on Cardiff Council from 1999 to 2004. Prior to that, she had been a Butetown councillor on Cardiff City Council, from 1991 to 1995.
caption: Mount Stuart Primary School, Butetown, Cardiff
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "Sony", "Image Model": "G3311", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "autoA", "Image DateTime": "2019:09:15 18:48:29", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Tag 0x0220": "0", "Image Tag 0x0221": "0", "Image Tag 0x0222": "0", "Image Tag 0x0223": "0", "Image Tag 0x0224": "1", "Image Tag 0x0225": "", "Image ExifOffset": "414", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1268", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "13018", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "9999/1000000", "EXIF FNumber": "11/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Unidentified", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "160", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2019:09:15 18:48:29", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2019:09:15 18:48:29", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF LightSource": "other light source", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "87/25", "EXIF SubSecTime": "84", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "84", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "84", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4208", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2368", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "949", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Custom", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}