Profile | Listen. Learn. Act.

National Museums Liverpool has been telling the story of transatlantic slavery for many years, and Michelle Charters embodies this long-term commitment.

She was first introduced to the Transatlantic Slavery Gallery at the Maritime Museum in 1994. Three decades later, the gallery has evolved to become the International Slavery Museum, with Charters leading it.

“I’ve been on a bit of a journey,” says Liverpool-born Charters. “And I now have my dream job.”

Her journey began in 1979 when she began working as a community activist in Toxteth, often referred to by its postcode, Liverpool 8, by local people.

The area suffered from poor housing, high unemployment, and a policing regime that frequently showed discriminatory and racist attitudes towards the Black community. This led to an uprising in July 1981 when many locals came into direct conflict with the police. This was the context for the beginning of Charters’ activism.

Michelle Charters

Community activist Michelle Charters, who was born in Liverpool, became the head of the International Slavery Museum in the city at the start of this year.

Charters features on the museum’s Black Achievers Wall, alongside figures such as Martin Luther King, Kofi Annan and Muhammad Ali, for her activism work, which dates back to 1979. For the past 17 years, she was the chief executive of Kuumba Imani Millennium Centre in Toxteth, Liverpool.

She is the founding chair of the Merseyside Black History Month Group and the first Black woman to be appointed a trustee of the Everyman and Playhouse theatres in Liverpool.

Charters was a National Museums Liverpool’s trustee until she took up her role as the head of the International Slavery Museum. She was awarded an OBE for services to the community in Liverpool in the 2024 King’s Birthday Honours list.

“At 17 years old, I walked into a place called the Charles Wootton Centre,” Charters says. “At the centre, I was surrounded by community activists who were trying to make sure there was equity and opportunities for us as a community because we were facing a lot of exclusion and discrimination. I was influenced by this group, who were fighting for justice and social inclusion.”

From there, Charters was part of a team led by Gloria Hyatt, Liverpool’s first Black headteacher, that developed Elimu Study School. This began as a small homework club and ended up being a registered school for kids facing exclusion from school.

For the past 17 years, Charters has been the chief executive of Kuumba Imani Millennium Centre in Toxteth.

This multi-purpose centre was the vision of the Liverpool Black Sisters, an organisation formed in the 1970s to address the discrimination experienced by the Black community, with a particular aim to improve the lives of women.

The group grew out of the Liverpool Black Women’s Group and was renamed Liverpool Black Sisters when the group gained younger members and a more activist focus.

“As the Liverpool Black Sisters, we became well-known throughout the country for our campaigning, our training, and our work to engage young people. I’m a proud Liverpool Black Sister.”

Among the many things that this history of activism has given Charters is a commitment to help others to understand the importance of collectively fighting for justice and supporting communities to make positive change in their lives.

“I have a good understanding of the issues that we face as a community and not just those who are Black and born in Liverpool, but the other diverse communities that make up the L8 postcode. And throughout my career, I have wanted to put activism in a positive light, not associated with the usual negative connotations.”

For Charters, it is vital to listen to communities, but also to act on what you hear. “Listen, learn, then act, that’s my motto, because by doing that you can create change,” she says. “I truly believe that.”

Although Charters’ roots and experience lie in community activism, her relationship with the city’s museums began at an early age when she visited the World Museum.

“It was where we went for our summer holiday, as we couldn’t afford to go away. It was a place of wonder and we loved it because you could just put yourself into all these different spaces and learn as you were going along. I’ve always had a love for history and, in particular, the social history of all groups, not just the Black community.”

Shocking discovery

The visit to the Transatlantic Slavery Gallery at the Maritime Museum had a huge impact on Charters. She was taken there by the late Dorothy Kuya, one of Liverpool’s renowned human rights and anti-racism activists.

“We were traumatised, to be truthful, because we had heard about our history, but we hadn’t seen it and we sure as hell hadn’t seen shackles until that exhibition. The reality of the facts and the objects in front of us linked directly to our story and our pain, and it created a passion in me to push for, with the rest of the community, the creation of an actual museum.”

From then on, Charters became a strong advocate for National Museums Liverpool and its efforts to explore the legacy of slavery in particular.

“When I decided to go for this job, I had been involved with the museum for 30 years. I was the constructive, critical friend with solutions. So, I’d say what I say, but I would always come up with a solution for how things could be better.”

The huge enthusiasm that Charters has for helping to tell this story, and her commitment to making it work, is very much evident when you meet her.

“I absolutely love this job,” she says. “I love what it represents and I love the challenge of getting involved in the multimillion pound redevelopment of the whole waterfront. I’m super-excited about the fact that I’m here at a time when the dreams of a lot of people can come into reality in this place.”

Charters is a member of the Respect group, which was established in 2008 leading on from the Liverpool Slavery Remembrance Initiative Steering Group. Respect was set up following the opening of the International Slavery Museum and the need for broader strategic advice and support.

For the past five years, Charters has also sat on National Museums Liverpool’s board as a trustee, although this ended when she became the head of the International Slavery Museum.

She has joined the museum as it embarks on a £58m transformation from what is effectively a gallery space that sits within Liverpool’s Maritime Museum, into a standalone museum.

Both venues are due to close for works in 2025, reopening in 2028. The ambition is to become the world leader in understanding and exploring the impact and legacies of historic and modern slavery.

“We will have a world-class contribution to make that will feed into other museums nationally, in Europe, and internationally into Africa, the Caribbean, Haiti and America. It’s a big task, but not impossible.”

Charters says that partnership working will be vital to make the museum a success and to have the global impact she wants.

“We all need to work in partnership and share opportunities and information as that’s a sign we're not gatekeepers or just doing it for ourselves. I think it’s going to be important that this shows the museum sector, especially in the UK, at its best.”

This ambition is building on National Museums Liverpool’s long-term commitment to tell the story of slavery.

“[It] has been really brave, and I’m super-proud of that,” Charters says. “It’s not a subject that many museums will take on, although it has become more common now.”

For Charters, understanding slavery is vital if you want to understand global history, and also the history of Liverpool itself. The creation of the new International Slavery Museum, part of a wider scheme to revitalise the waterfront area, will play an important part in this.

The plans include creating a new entrance to the International Slavery Museum in the Dr Martin Luther King Jnr Building. Charters says it will make a big statement.

“When you cross over to the Albert Dock, you’ll see the International Slavery Museum right in your face. And the whole waterfront development is critical in telling the stories of these docks. It’s about how the city was built on the economy of the transatlantic slave trade and the impact that it has had on everybody who’s been through these spaces. I just hope people see that there’s something to learn from this.”

Community engagement

You can see why Charters is a perfect fit to create this new museum because community engagement is central to National Museums Liverpool’s strategy. From the start, a series of workshops, events, meetings and surveys have taken place with diverse local groups and members of the public to ensure the new museum reflects the needs and hopes of the community.

“We’ve got a strategy for co-production and we’ve been testing it within the museum,” Charters says.

“But I sometimes sit there and giggle to myself, as, even though we didn’t have a name for it at the time, creating the International Slavery Museum all those years ago was co-production. We just did it, and look what the result was. It was a good model, and we were way ahead to some extent.”

Whether it is working with communities, engaging international organisations or motivating her staff, Charters will continue to be led by her mantra of listening to others, then acting on what she hears.

“Every day, I'm learning. And every day I’m getting the opportunity to contribute something as well – that is the balance. I’ve got a lot to offer the museum, but I’m only one of many.”

Michelle Charters is a speaker at this year’s Museums Association Conference in Leeds (Royal Armouries, 12-14 November)

International Slavery Museum

The International Slavery Museum at the Royal Albert Dock in Liverpool is the only national museum in the world dedicated to the history of the transatlantic slave trade and its legacies. It is one of seven venues run by National Museums Liverpool.

The International Slavery Museum opened in 2007, the bicentenary of the abolition of the British slave trade.

Past heads of the museum include Richard Benjamin, now co-director at the Centre for the Study of International Slavery at the University of Liverpool, and Paul Reid, a former director of the Black Cultural Archives in London.