Baroness Oona King, former Homerton resident and the second-ever Black woman MP, has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Cambridge’s Homerton College.
King grew up in Belsize Park, went to the University of York and began her professional career in Europe.
She returned to East London in 1997 to become an MP, which she achieved on her 14th attempt, filling the Labour seat for former East London constituency Bethnal Green and Bow.
“One of the reasons I love East London is that it’s an incredible combination of real people struggling to make ends meet and real wealth. It’s an amazing intersection. And it’s where immigrants came through and where the National Health Service was created”, she said in an interview with the Hackney Post.
Oona King as Britain’s second Black woman MP
King’s election made her the second Black woman MP and 200th woman to reach the House of Commons. During her time in office, she authored the 2016 legislation requiring companies to publish gender pay gaps. She went on to work under Gordon Brown during his premiership.
Months before her 50th birthday, she moved from London to Silicon Valley.
Today, she works at Google as its Chief Economic Opportunity Officer.
“The vast majority of people who sacrifice something unimaginable, which I feel my dad did…have had their lives entirely shaped by racism,” she said.
Her father, the Civil Rights activist and academic Preston King, spent decades in exile from the United States.
When Cambridge reached out to Oona to offer the award, she said that if they were truly interested in Black history, they should also honour her father.
Preston was exiled from the United States when he was 19 after being convicted of evading the draft for Korea, a decision that occurred solely based on his race.
His conviction finally got overturned when the judge admitted in a letter to President Bill Clinton that his race had been the sole factor in the verdict, which led to a presidential pardon.
As a result, in 2000, after 40 years of exile, he returned to America.
Leah Beller has worked for The Kenyon Collegian, Athens Insider, and is currently getting a Master's in Journalism from City St George's, University of London, where she is covering the Homerton, Hackney area.