Gerlin Bean

Gerlin Bean (born 10 February 1939) is a Jamaican community worker who was active in the radical feminist and Black nationalist movements in the United Kingdom in the 1960s and 1970s. Trained as a nurse, she became a dedicated community activist and social worker, involved in the founding of the Black Women's Action Committee of the Black Unity and Freedom Party, the women's section of the Black Liberation Front, the Brixton Black Women's Group, and the Organisation of Women of African and Asian Descent (OWAAD). Bean's work and activism focused on eliminating discriminatory policies for people of colour, women, and people with disabilities. She fought for equal educational opportunity, fair wages, adequate housing, and programmes that supported families, such as counselling services, child care, and health care.

In 1983, Bean left England when Zimbabwe gained its independence and worked there on development programmes for women and children for five years. She later returned to Jamaica and focused on women's and children's issues there too. She was the managing director of 3D Projects, a charity that provided assistance programmes for children with disabilities and their families. She has been involved in the development of schools to assist children and in other community education programmes regarding disability. Bean has also served on the St. Catherine's Parish Council. Her activism has been celebrated by activities arranged for the UK Black History Month festivities, such as the 2014 exhibit "400 Years of African Women Resistance Leaders" in Islington, and a 2017 sculpture of the clenched fists of Black women activists that was exhibited at the Guildhall Art Gallery in London.