Who Was John Lynch?

Mr John Lynch was a Youth and Community Worker, a Regional (Avon County) Youth Service Manager and community activist in Bristol in the 1970's and 80's.  He was a very influencial and well respected Elder in the community. His roles in the community were numerous - A Board Member of Bristol West Indies Cricket Club, Project FullEmploy, Bristol West Indian Parents and Friends Association to name a few. He once managed the Mill Youth Centre where he had a profound effect on many young people who used the club, including the founder of JLAEP, Sis Jendayi Serwah who still leads the organisation since its founding in 1990. Mr Lynch took a group of young people of the Mill Youth Centre to the Club's only exchange trip to Jamaica in 1983  - part of his enduring commitment to Black youth knowing themselves and their heritage. His vision, expressed in a Mill Youth Centre training session held in a hotel in Weston Super Mare in 1989 was for the community to establish a supplementary school to provide cultural education to our young people to keep them proud and grounded in who they were.  Sadly in December 1989 Mr Lynch passed away after experiencing a heart attack. After a period of mourning the community set about a mission to realise his vision. In 1990 The John Lynch Afrikan Education Programme was established.

Timeline

1990 - JLAEP founded

1991 - JLAEP delivers its first supplementary school programme for primary and secondary age children in Cultural Studies as well as Maths and Englishheld at the Mill Youth Centre

1992 - JLAEP organises first ever Kwanzaa celebration held in Bristol at the Mill Youth Centre. Organised an annual delgation to the Education of the Black Child Conference in Manchester which ceased in 1997.

1994 - JLAEP sponsors the delivery of a 36 week history course for adults written by Sis Jendayi Serwah and Bro Jimmy Ajani Taylor which ran for 10 years

1997 - The first Sankofa Youth Programme for members Children launched

1998 onwards - hosting various international scholars, historians and activists such as Antony Browder, Marimba Ani. Rev Ishakamusa Barashango, Paul Obinna and Dr Nana Sekhmet AKA Patricia Newton.

2004 - Organised the National Breakthrough Conference - Holistic Health and Education of the Black Child held in Wesley College Henbury.

2000s - Hosting various workshops and Family Education Forums

2007 - Launched the Operation Truth 2007 Campaign in response to the revisionist history and insulting commemortive programme organised by Bristol city council to commemorate the 1887 Abolition of Slavery in British colonies. This campaign was later taken up by Toyin Agbetu of Ligali who is reknowned for his act of protest in Westminster Abbey in front of Queen Elizabeth II in March that year.

2011 - Sis Jendayi Serwah accepted an invitation to become part of the leadership of the interim National Afrikan Peoples Parliament

2014 - JLAEP facilitates Bristol's participation in the first annual reparations march from Windrush Sq to Downing St in London

2015 - Sis Jendayi Serwah alongside the entire leadership team of INAPP depart from INAPP and form the Global Afrikan Peoples Parliament (GAPP)

2015 - September - JLAEP founder and leader Sis Jendayi Serwah invited to co chair the Annual Afrikan Emanicipation Day Reparations March Committee based in London