Outpouring of love following racist abuse made lasting impact at Arthur Wharton Foundation

The outpouring of love demonstrated by a community, and the rest of the world, after the Arthur Wharton Foundation's England team tribute was targeted for racist abuse has had a lasting impact on its founder.

The foundation was created to celebrate the life and achievements of Arthur Wharton, who became the world's first black professional football player, the world's first official fastest man, and played in goal for Darlington FC when he was just 19. years in 1883.

Two weeks ago, founder Shaun Campbell woke up to messages that the foundation's walls, which had been painted in tribute to the three England soccer players who missed penalties in the Euro 2020 final, had been defaced. .

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But at the time I couldn't imagine the scale of the hateful and racist words we scrawled in tribute to Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka, who suffered a torrent of racist abuse after the Wembley final.

More than 50 people had gathered at the Drury Street mural the night before for a Stand Up Racism rally in support of the Three Lions.

When Shaun started painting the walls on Saturday, July 17, the story quickly unfolded around him, not from vile comments, but from the exceptional love and community spirit that brought people together in a stance against racism.

Community members quickly began to appear, equipped with their own paints and brushes, much like the effort to cover Marcus Rashford's mural with messages of love after it was also defaced.

"Right before I left the house, my phone rang and someone put a picture of him on Facebook and I thought, he's everywhere, he's on both walls. I came here looking at him in the flesh, he looked worse than the picture." Shaun said.

"The image didn't really do justice to the impact because it's in you, it's there, it's the whole wall.

“In the photograph it is a small image and you can zoom in, but standing here it was all there, all hitting you at the same time. I went in for a brush and thought I'd start.

"A car pulls up, two adults and three kids in England jerseys, they were so shocked. They had come to take a picture with the England flag, they were so lovely offering to help, but I told them it's okay. Just keep going.

"The next thing I knew, there are a lot of people here with brushes doing it for me.

"I put myself aside in the office, it was very emotional, it had nothing to do with racism, it was love. It was the commitment of those people. In fact, they came to say that we have seen this, how can we help - give us a brush, give us the paint.

“After I had done it, a woman appeared around the corner and said that she had found out and that she had come armed ready to cover him.

“It really touched me. She came with determination. He had garbage bags and cellulose tape that he was going to cover.

"The extraordinary thing that came out of this was that 99.99 percent of it was just to support those three guys and us, not one more peep from the racists, it was like they just drowned.

“The community came and did it and that created the story. We received messages from Australia, Russia, the Caribbean.

"All of a sudden, you had this huge outpouring of love. It's amazing how many overwhelming positive messages came out of it. It was deeply moving."

Shaun has always advocated for the importance of Black History, and through the foundation, he is also fighting to defend other important black figures who have been lost to time.

"It's so easy to say that Black Lives Matter - we know they do, we live in that experience. The reason they're yelling is almost as if they're saying please listen to us, our lives do matter.

“They will never matter until black history matters. When black history matters and is on par, and so does the history of women and the history of people with disabilities.

"My education consisted of knowing everything about the Romans and the Saxons, but we did not know anything about our own heritage in terms of education."

"Until now, other people have not been celebrated or recognized for their contribution to our society. We have a duty through Arthur's legacy to defend them in the way that we have defended him."

"One of the things we are advocating is getting Walter Tull his military cross."

Walter was a professional soccer player and was the First black officer in the British Army. He fought and died in WWI on the battlefields of France and was recommended for a Military Cross, which he never received.

A campaign is currently underway for the Tottenham Hotspur and Northampton Town player to receive a Military Cross more than 100 years after his death.

Durham police are still undergoing an investigation following the criminal damage to the foundation earlier this month.

A spokesperson for the force said: "The CCTV footage is of a man we would like to speak to in connection with this incident.

"If anyone knows who this man is or can provide information regarding this incident, please contact 101 and request PC 1704 Young or alternatively email antony.young@durham.police.uk. Crime number CRI00345818 refers to this investigation. "

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