Bristol launches summer of activist events to become UK civil rights capital

Programme of events announced on anniversary of Bristol bus boycott aimed at inspiring new social manifesto for city

Bristol has long been a city of activists prepared to work for change, from followers of John Wesley in the 18th century to the 21st-century citizens who toppled the statue of slave trader Edward Colston.

On Wednesday, a new campaign was launched – on the anniversary of the start of the groundbreaking 1963 Bristol bus boycott – aimed at making the city the UK’s capital of civil rights.