A very English upbringing gave me courage to take on racism.

(From Bristol Evening Post)

Byline: Gerry Brooke

In 2007, Paul Stephenson OBE was made a Freeman of the City of Bristol, an honour only bestowed on a favoured few, including that great wartime leader, Sir Winston Churchill. This accolade was not only for his courageous stand against racism on Bristol's buses in the early 1960s but also for the often unrecorded and unpaid work he has done over many years to help the city's black community. A well-known and well-respected figure in Bristol, Paul was a founder of Bristol Black Archives and worked hard to obtain funding for a comprehensive slavery exhibition, a permanent feature at the former Empire and Commonwealth Museum at Temple Meads.

But as an autobiography just out reveals, there is a great deal more to the 74-year-old than just these achievements, outstanding as they are. In fact, Essex-born Paul - the Black Englishman of the book's title - seems to have spent most of his life giving other, less fortunate people a helping hand.

He says it was his unique childhood which helped prepare him for the role he was to play in his adult years, a …