Dr. Harold Moody: Google doodle on Jamaican-born physician, UK’s first civil right movement founder

Google today dedicates a beautiful doodle to Dr. Harold Moody, a Jamaican-born physician who emigrated to the United Kingdom. He is also famous for raising campaign in the UK against racial prejudice and established the League of Coloured Peoples in 1931 with the support of the Quakers.

Dr. Harold Moody was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1882, the son of pharmacist Charles Ernest Moody and his wife Christina Emmeline Ellis. On this day in 1904, Dr. Harold Moody arrived in the UK from Jamaica to pursue his medical studies at King’s College London. Alongside his medical work, he dedicated his life to campaigning for racial equality and advocating against discrimination.

In March 1931, Dr. Harold Moody formed and became president of the League of Coloured Peoples (LCP), which was concerned with racial equality and civil rights in Britain and elsewhere in the world. Its first members included C. L. R. James, Jomo Kenyatta, Una Marson, and Paul Robeson.

Dr. Harold Moody also campaigned against racial prejudice in the armed forces, and is credited with overturning the Special Restriction Order (or Coloured Seamen's Act) of 1925, a discriminatory measure that sought to provide subsidies to merchant shipping employing only British nationals and required alien seamen (many of whom had served the United Kingdom during the First World War) to register with their local police. Many black and Asian British nationals had no proof of identity and were made redundant. In 1933, he became involved in the Coloured Men's Institute, founded by Kamal Chunchie as a religious, social and welfare centre for sailors.

Dr. Harold Moody’s determination to improve the lives of those around him wasn’t limited to his medical practice—he simultaneously focused his attention on combating racial injustice as well. He founded the League of Coloured Peoples in 1931 with the mission to fight for racial equality both in the UK and around the world. The group pushed for change, at a government level, to combat discrimination in its many forms.

Google dedicates an artist doodle to Dr. Harold Moody on September 1, the day of his arrival in the UK.

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