The Bristol Bus Boycott 1963: Paul Stephenson and the End of the Colour Bar

The Bristol Omnibus Company had an unofficial policy in 1963 of not employing Black or Asian workers in any capacity visible to the public – as drivers or conductors. The policy was informal rather than written, but it was consistent, and it was known. Bristol’s West Indian community, concentrated largely in St Pauls, was aware of it. The Transport and General Workers Union, which represented the bus workers, had not challenged it.

Paul Stephenson was a 26-year-old youth worker who had moved to Bristol the previous year. He had grown up in Essex, attended Rossall School, studied at the London School of Economics and served as a Royal Air Force officer. He was not, in other words, a person who had limited experience of navigating white British institutions. He decided to challenge the colour bar directly, using the model of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in Alabama that had ended in 1956.

Guy Bailey and the Application

Stephenson worked with 18-year-old Guy Bailey, a Jamaican-born resident of St Pauls who had been educated at Bristol’s Merrywood Grammar School. Bailey applied for a position as a bus conductor with the Bristol Omnibus Company in April 1963. He was told by the company’s general manager Ian Patey that no coloured workers were employed on the buses and that none would be. The refusal was explicit and unambiguous.

Stephenson announced a boycott of the buses. The West Indian community in St Pauls stopped using them. The boycott attracted national attention with a speed that surprised both the company and the Bristol city government. Tony Benn, then MP for Bristol South East, supported it publicly. Harold Wilson, then Labour leader, visited Bristol and expressed support. Local students joined the protest.

The Victory

The Bristol Omnibus Company announced the end of its colour bar on 28 August 1963 – the same day as Martin Luther King’s March on Washington. The timing was not coincidental; the international context had made the company’s position untenable. Ian Patey’s explanation was that the company was responding to public opinion. Stephenson’s view was that the company had concluded it could not continue to defend an indefensible position under sustained public pressure.

Raghbir Singh became the first non-white employee of the Bristol Omnibus Company when he started work as a bus driver in September 1963. Guy Bailey was offered a job but declined, having by then found other employment.

The National Impact

The Bristol Bus Boycott is credited with influencing Harold Wilson’s Labour government to introduce the Race Relations Act 1965, which made racial discrimination in public places unlawful for the first time in British law. The Act was widely regarded as inadequate at the time – it did not cover employment and its enforcement mechanisms were weak – but it established the principle. The Race Relations Act 1968 extended the legislation to employment. The Race Relations Act 1976 created the framework that remained in place until the Equality Act 2010.

Paul Stephenson was awarded an OBE in 2009. A blue plaque marks the spot outside the Bristol Omnibus Company’s offices where Guy Bailey was turned away in 1963. It is on Marlborough Street in the city centre, a short walk from the harbour.