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Google Doodle celebrates community activist Olive Morris

Olive Morris – who fought for racial, gender and social equality during the 1970s – would have been 68 years old on Friday.
Olive Morris – who fought for racial, gender and social equality during the 1970s – would have been 68 years old on Friday. Olive Morris – who fought for racial, gender and social equality during the 1970s – would have been 68 years old on Friday.

Google has marked the birthday of British community activist Olive Morris in its latest Doodle illustration.

The Jamaica-born south Londoner fought for racial, gender and social equality in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s.

Some of her work included helping to found the Brixton Black Women’s Group, one of Britain’s first networks for black women, to co-founding the Organisation of Women of Asian and African Descent, considered instrumental in rallying movements for change.

Ms Morris passed away in 1979 at the age of 27 after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Friday would have been her 68th birthday.

Google
Google Google regularly changes its logo with a Doodle illustration to mark special events and celebrate notable historical figures (Yui Mok/PA)

Google enlisted Londoner Matthew Cruickshank to design the Doodle, which shows a mural painting of Ms Morris on her street, Railton Road, in Brixton.

As with all Google Doodles, the artwork will appear on the search engine for the duration of Friday.

Google Arts and Culture also features a dedicated exhibition of artwork by Linett Kamala inspired by the activism of Ms Morris, in partnership with the Black Cultural Archives.

“There has never been a more timely moment to commemorate the birthday of Olive Morris, whose fight for equality, left an extraordinary legacy of local activism in Brixton and beyond,” Google said.

“We hope that by recognising and celebrating Olive Morris with a Google Doodle, we can inspire others to keep pushing forward for change.”