Play prompts children to call for apology over boxing colour bar

The creators of a play telling the shameful story of how the black boxer Cuthbert Taylor was prevented from competing for a British title because of his colour hoped it would give audiences pause for thought.

- Steven Morris

But they have been overwhelmed by the passionate reaction of young theatregoers who have launched a campaign demanding a formal apology from the sport's governing body.

Hundreds of children from south Wales, where Taylor lived, have written letters to the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBC) calling on it to formally apologise for one of the sport's enduring wrongs.

More than 300 children from 13 schools have so far sent letters and emails to the board after watching the play, The Fight, and they have been backed by Welsh politicians including the country's culture minister, Jack Sargeant.

Although Taylor competed as a flyweight for Great Britain at the 1928 Olympics, his potential was never completely fulfilled because of the colour bar. The bar, which ran from 1911 to 1948, said fighters had to have "two white parents" to compete for British titles. Born in 1909 in Merthyr Tydfil to a father of Caribbean descent and white Welsh mother, Taylor was not allowed to fight for a title.

Young people from schools in south Wales decided to call for an apology after watching the Neath-based Theatr na nÒg's retelling of Taylor's story.