Dr Paul Stephenson: Hundreds remember civil rights campaigner

Earlier this week, Radio Bristol met three people who knew Dr Stephenson personally at The Bay Horse pub in central Bristol.

It was here the campaigner attracted national attention when he was arrested after refusing to leave without being served – an event that is now marked by a plaque on its wall.

Lilleith Morrison, who co-wrote Dr Stephenson’s autobiography Memoirs of a Black Englishman, described him as “our Martin Luther King”.

Ms Morrison said: “Everyone’s got equal rights now, theoretically at least, and it all came about because of what happened in the bus boycott and in this pub.

“This pub now represents a way of keeping that story alive, and people can come in and read about it and acknowledge what Paul did.

“It’s a sort of line of communication from the past to now.”

She added Dr Stephenson “loved telling” a joke about being the only person to be granted Freedom of the City of Bristol who had spent a night in jail.