Mavis Best, who died earlier this month, spent more than 50 years fighting racist policing and other discrimination. Despite her MBE, she never became part of the establishment
Mavis Best seems to have done so much in her life that nobody can quite keep track of it all. Talking to colleagues and relatives, her career was a never-ending whirlwind of campaigns, protests, community groups, grassroots organisations, official and unofficial roles – most of them centred on improving the lives and civil rights of Black people. Best, who died on 14 November aged 83, was awarded an MBE in 2002 for her “services to the community”, but the full extent of those services, from the late 1960s onwards, seems almost beyond measure.
“She used to do social work by day and support people by night,” says Best’s granddaughter, Isha Dibua. “Growing up, my grandmother’s house was always a place to come to if you needed help. Any problem: go to Mavis. She was very strong and determined and not to be messed about. If something needed doing, and it was the right thing to do, she was not a woman to back down.”
