15th July 2024
Caption Photo Right: centre left, Laurence Westgaph, centre right, Ian Reed, joined by Joey and Cilla Ankrah, who had attended the mission as children
We have been delighted to support the unveiling of a memorial plaque to honour a Liverpool pastor who dedicated his life to social justice and racial equality.
The plaque, recognising the life and work of Pastor Daniels Ekarte and the African Churches Mission, can now be seen on the former site of the mission, on Hill Street in Liverpool 8, which is now owned by Plus Dane.
The Liverpool Black History Research Group (LBHRG), in collaboration with the Liverpool Enslaved Memorial project, are the organisations behind the memorial.
Pastor George Daniel Ekarte, commonly known as Pastor Daniels, was a Nigerian-born minister and community activist who arrived in Liverpool around 1915. In 1931, he founded the African Churches Mission in Hill Street, Toxteth, which became a cornerstone of community support and development.
The African Churches Mission was not just a place of worship. It offered a range of community services including a hostel, a canteen providing affordable meals and free breakfasts for local children, and music and secondary school classes. The mission also provided direct assistance to those experiencing financial hardship, profoundly impacting many lives.
In the 1930s, he played a crucial role in supporting a strike by African seamen against the Elder Dempster Shipping Line, fighting for equal wages, living conditions, and rations. Additionally, he advocated for 'brown babies'—children of African American servicemen and white mothers—who found care at the mission due to discriminatory policies.
The memorial unveiling follows LBHRG's initiative last year to memorialise Pastor Daniels’s previously unmarked grave in Allerton Cemetery. He passed away in 1964 at age 67, the same year the mission was demolished. The plaque on site of the former Mission is a tribute to his enduring impact on Liverpool’s black community.
Laurence Westgaph, historian and activist, said, "He did so much for communities in Liverpool. He was constantly being attacked and never gave up. He was attacked by the establishment, the council, and the racist press. In the 1930s, at the height of eugenics, this Black man provided essential services, before the welfare state, to people from all backgrounds. That says it all. The words of one of his sermons ‘My people believe that the problems of the present and the future could be solved through a careful and sympathetic study of the past’ still hold true today."
Brian Lawrenson, a child cared for by the Mission, recalled, "I was three months old when I went into the orphanage in 1944. My father was a Black American serviceman. The mission was closed to children in 1949, a political move against Pastor Daniels. When they came to take us away, we ran and hid. They eventually caught us, but I always came back to visit and listen to him preach."
The memorial plaque was made possible through funds raised by the Liverpool Black History Research Group, reflecting the community’s commitment to honouring its diverse history.
For those interested in learning more about Pastor Daniels Ekarte, the book Pastor Daniels Ekarte and the African Churches Mission Liverpool 1931–1964 by historian Marika Sherwood is recommended by the LBHRG.
