The lecture is presented by the Sam Sharpe Project, which launched last year and was created to explore and to promote the story and the legacy of Sam Sharpe, the Baptist deacon who played a crucial role in ending the slave trade.

A key instigator of the Project is the Revd Dr Delroy Reid-Salmon, a Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Christianity and Culture at Regent's Park College, University of Oxford. He is also pastor of the Grace Baptist Chapel in New York.

‘As we know very well, although the institution of slavery was abolished, the ideology that created it is very much alive today,’ he explained.

‘The Sam Sharpe Lecture is one means and part of a larger effort to continue this struggle against oppression and the cause for freedom and liberation.’

Sam Sharpe’s story is that of a Christian whose actions were clearly motivated by his faith and by his reading of scripture; he is reported to have said, “In reading my Bible, I found that the white man had no more right to make a slave of me than I have to make a slave of the white man”.

He remains a witness to the principle of ‘liberation from below’: that is, true liberation comes when those who are oppressed or marginalized participate in making their own freedom and justice, rather than simply having it granted to them by those who have power and authority.

It is hoped that the Sam Sharpe Project will be an important contribution to the field of Black Baptist Studies and will also support The Journey.

The lecture is free, but seats need to be reserved in advance.

For Luther King House, contact Glyn Chatterton on 161 224 6404 or g.chatterton@northern.org.uk; for IMC contact Lesley Hubball on 0121 472 4986 or lesley@baptist-heartofengland.org.