Lionel Morrison

Lionel Edmund Morrison OBE OIS (13 October 1935 – 31 October 2016) was a South African-born British journalist, and a former president of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ). He was the first black journalist to hold that office.

Lionel Morrison, whose grandfather came from the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, was born in Johannesburg and spent his early life in South Africa, where he set up a multiracial journalists' union in the 1950s in opposition to the apartheid regime. He was arrested for treason in 1956.

Having moved to the United Kingdom in 1960, Morrison became a member of the executive council of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) in 1971, and was elected its president in 1973. Much of his life's work focused on increasing black participation in unionism and journalism, and countering racial discrimination. In the 1970s, finding it difficult to find employment in Britain as a black journalist, Morrison was involved in setting up some of the country's first black newspapers, such as The Voice and the West Indian World. Along with fellow journalist Syd Burke, he also helped to establish journalism courses and further education colleges across London. Morrison was the principal information officer of the Commission for Racial Equality in the 1970s and 1980s. He later became vice-president and chair of Notting Hill Housing Trust.

An honorary member and life member of the NUJ, he was awarded an OBE in 2000. In 2008, he was a recipient of a South African national honour, the Order of Ikhamanga (Silver).

Morrison died on 31 October 2016, survived by his wife, two sons, two grandsons and granddaughter.

In 1955, Morrison served three months at notorious Johannesburg prison the Fort, for painting slogans on walls in Cape Town. Inspired by the Freedom Charter, he had daubed "Let us Black folk in" on a wall in the parliamentary precinct and "The People Shall Govern" on a wall nearby, resulting in his arrest for graffiti and a sentence of four months' imprisonment.

On 6 December 1956, Morrison was arrested for high treason against the state, an offence that carried the death penalty, and he was put on trial along with 155 others (including Walter Sisulu and Nelson Mandela). The preliminary hearings of the Treason Trial began on 19 December at the Drill Hall. Morrison, the youngest defendant, was accused number 89. The prosecution claimed the accused had campaigned to draw up the Freedom Charter which envisaged granting equal rights to all and was tantamount to plotting the overthrow the existing state. The defence team representing Morrison and his co-accused included Vernon Berrange QC and Bram Fischer. In December 1957, the charges against Morrison and 60 others were withdrawn. The trial finally ended on 29 March 1961, when the remaining 30 defendants were acquitted.

Morrison joined the first act of resistance in 1961 by both the PAC and ANC, a demonstration against the pass laws, which required all Africans to carry passes. The Sharpeville massacre followed. Both liberation organisations were immediately declared illegal. Morrison and many others, including Mandela and Robert Sobukwe, were arrested resulting in Morrison serving a five-month sentence at the Fort prison until the ending of the State of Emergency.