Campaign launched to erect statue of Jack Leslie, first black player rejected by English national team
London, July 1, 2020 (AltAfrica)-Football fans are raising money to erect a statue of Jack Leslie, who was chosen to play for England but dropped when selectors discovered he was black.
The Plymouth player, who had an English mother and a Jamaican father, was called up to the national side in 1925 but the invitation was subsequently withdrawn.
It would be another 53 years until Viv Anderson became England’s first black player.
The Jack Leslie Campaign website said: “We not only want to build a statue as a memorial to Jack Leslie, but also use his story to celebrate diversity and combat racism.”
It comes at a time of heightened awareness of racial injustice, with Premier League players wearing “Black Lives Matter” logos following the death of George Floyd in the United States.
Leslie’s granddaughter, Lesley Hiscott, told the BBC: “I believe that the manager sent in his request, saying ‘I’ve got a brilliant player here, he should play for England’.
“So then someone came down to watch him. They weren’t watching his football. They were looking at the colour of his skin.
“And because of that, he was denied the chance of playing for his country.”
Anderson said Leslie’s achievements in such a hostile atmosphere should be a badge of pride for black people.
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The Nottingham Forest star, who also played for Arsenal and Manchester United, eventually became the first black player to represent England against Czechoslovakia in 1978.
“I’d never heard of Jack Leslie until up to two weeks ago,” he told the BBC.
“And that’s a crying shame because what he achieved and what he did should be paramount in every black person’s mind.”
There is already a mural to Leslie at Plymouth’s Home Park ground and the club named their boardroom after him, but fans want to go further.
Campaign co-founder Greg Foxsmith, who hopes to raise £100,000 ($124,000), told the BBC: “At a time when some statues are being pulled down, we want to put one of Jack Leslie up to commemorate his amazing achievements and to remember the injustice that he suffered.”
Plymouth chairman Simon Hallett said: “Having a statue promoted by our fans and funded by fans is a statement by them that they are joining the fight against racism in football,”
“History has been written by the winners and I think we are now trying to pay more attention to some of the victims of those victories.”
England call-up
In 1925, Argyle’s manager, Bob Jack, called his star striker into his office and gave him some thrilling news – Jack Leslie had been selected to play for England against Ireland.
It was a great achievement for the player and an honour for third-division Plymouth.
His selection was the talk of the club and the town – but some days later, when the newspapers published the team, Billy Walker, of Aston Villa, was in the starting line-up and Leslie was named as a travelling reserve.
He never did travel with the England team to Belfast.
Instead, while England struggled to a 0-0 draw, he scored twice, as Plymouth trounced Bournemouth 7-2 at home.
“I believe that the manager sent in his request, saying: ‘I’ve got a brilliant player here, he should play for England,'” his granddaughter, Lesley Hiscott, said.
“So then someone came down to watch him.
“They weren’t watching his football.
“They were looking at the colour of his skin.
“And because of that, he was denied the chance of playing for his country.”
Leslie later suggested finding out he was black, for the selectors, must have been “like finding out I was foreign”.
But he accepted what had happened and, according to his granddaughters, never expressed any bitterness.
They remember him as a kind and loving grandfather.
He had married their grandmother, Lavinia, in 1925, at a time when it was unusual for a black man to marry a white woman.
And as a consequence, some of the family, and Lavinia in particular, experienced racial abuse.
Lyn Davies said: “If I walked down the street with my friends and he was coming the other way, he would cross to the other side of the road so I could pretend that I didn’t know him, so I didn’t suffer.
“But I’d run across and say, ‘Hello Granddad.'”
Despite helping Plymouth gain promotion, a top-four finish in division two, captaining the club and, in 1931-32, scoring 21 goals in 43 games, Leslie was never again picked for England.
Anderson, picked to play for England against Czechoslovakia at Wembley in 1978, went on to win 30 caps.
“I’d never heard of Jack Leslie until up to two weeks ago,” he told BBC News.
“And that’s a crying shame, because what he achieved and what he did should be paramount in every black person’s mind.
“It’s a crying shame but hopefully the statue they are trying to get erected will carry on his legacy.”
Argyle have already honoured Leslie with a mural and renamed their boardroom after him.
And now a group of fans are campaigning for a statue.
“At a time when some statues are being pulled down, we want to put one of Jack Leslie up to commemorate his amazing achievements and to remember the injustice that he suffered,” campaign co-founder Greg Foxsmith says.
The campaign hopes to raise £100,000.
And supporters include Anderson and the club itself.
“Having a statue promoted by our fans and funded by fans is a statement by them that they are joining the fight against racism in football,” Plymouth chairman Simon Hallett told BBC News.
“History has been written by the winners and I think we are now trying to pay more attention to some of the victims of those victories.”
Bill Hern co-author of the upcoming book Football’s Black Pioneers said: “Jack Leslie should have been a major figure in the history of British football and society.
“Everyone needs a role model and young black footballers didn’t have that major role model in the 30s, 40s and 50s.
“Had he played for England, as he should have, he would have fired the aspirations of generations of young black players.”
Boot room
Leslie’s playing days came to an end after he sustained an injury when a lace from a leather ball flew into his eye.
He and his family returned to east London and he resumed his trade as a boilermaker.
Following his retirement and with time on his hands, Lavinia urged him to go to West Ham and ask the club if there was any work he could do.
He met manager Ron Greenwood, who immediately recognised and remembered him as a great player.
Greenwood offered him a job in the boot room, where, somewhat poignantly, he cleaned mud from the boots of England stars Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst, Martin Peters, and Trevor Brooking.
In a further ironic twist to his story, Leslie also cleaned the boots of West Ham’s black striker Clyde Best, who, in the late 1960s and 1970s, was still one of only a tiny number of black players in top-flight English football.
Leslie loved the work and being around footballers but it was hardly fitting for a man who should have occupied a unique place in football history – and now, perhaps, will.
“Stories like this are incredibly sad. Discrimination in the game, in any form or from any time period, is unacceptable,” said FA chairman Greg Clarke, adding that English football had made “huge strides” in diversity, although there was still more to do.
He said the FA backed the campaign for a statue to recognise Leslie as a pioneer
AFP/BBC
