WCWFC Celebrates Black History Month

Worcester City Women celebrates Kerry Davis for this year’s Black History Month, who was the first black woman to represent England.

Photo by The National Football Museum

By Dil Porter

Black History Month is an annual celebration – in the UK it takes place every October – which provides an opportunity to highlight the contribution of people of African and Caribbean heritage to the making of British history. It’s there to remind us of their part in Britain’s story.

In the 1960s and 1970s, many women felt that the part that they had played in British history was routinely overlooked. Women who had played football during the First World War and were then subject to the FA’s infamous ‘ban’ in 1921 had every reason to feel that their efforts were routinely disregarded.

They were among the millions of women who had been ‘hidden from history’. Now – thanks to the efforts of historians like Jean Williams - we are aware that the women’s game has a history that commands serious attention and respect.

Today, many people of African and Caribbean heritage sense a similar need to raise awareness of their own communities and what they have achieved. Black History Month helps to ensure that they are not ‘hidden from history’ in the way that Lily Parr and other pioneers of women’s football once were.

So, Black History Month 2025 provides WCWFC with an opportunity to celebrate Kerry Davis, who made 82 appearances for England between 1982 and 1998, scoring 44 times. Kerry, who started with Crewe Alexandra Ladies, moved to Italy to play as a professional for four years before returning to England, where she was part of the Croydon team that won the women’s league and cup double in 1995/19966. In 2022, she was inducted into the National Football Museum’s Hall of Fame.