Birmingham Humanists

Birmingham Humanist Group was formed on May 23, 1962 at the Arden Hotel, New Street, Birmingham, England, as a result of a notice placed in a newsletter of the Ethical Union, forerunner of the British Humanist Association (BHA), by Dr Anthony Brierley. It changed its name to Birmingham Humanists (Brum Hums) in 2000 and voted to become a Partner Group of the BHA. It holds most of its meetings at the rooms of the Community Development trust in Moseley, Birmingham.

The group's first chairman was 22-year-old Colin Campbell, who later became Emeritus Professor of Sociology at York University. In its early years, under the leadership of Fred Lyne, the group was active in the campaign to allow parents the legal right to remove their children from collective worship in schools. In 1980 it held a joint public meeting with the newly formed Humanist group for homosexuals at which one of its members, Dr Martin Cole, was the main speaker. Later that decade it started producing a newsletter variously titled Bir-Hug, Hub, Birmingham Humanist and, most recently, News and Views. Most years since 1990 the group has organised an annual day school or conference on a subject of topical interest, in addition to the regular monthly programme with speakers, discussions and visits. The group was involved in devising the content of the 1975 Birmingham Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education, which was the first to abandon the aim of Christian nurture and to require that a multi-faith approach, including non-religious 'stances for living' such as Humanism, should begin in primary schools. However, the group is still not allowed representation on Birmingham SACRE, whose most recent syllabus makes no reference to secular humanism in spite of the recommendations of the QCDA. The group celebrated its fiftieth anniversary by holding a day conference: "Humanism: the Way Forward" on 7 June 2014 at which Colin Campbell, Tony Brierley, Pavan Dhaliwal, David Pollock & Kate Smurthwaite were the main speakers. The group launched its first website in 2003 and is currently affiliated to the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA) and the National Secular Society (NSS). It also has close links with Skeptics in the Pub (Birmingham), the Asian Rationalist Society (Britain), Lichfield Walsall and South Staffordshire Humanist Group LWASS, Aston University Atheist & Humanist Group and University of Birmingham Atheist, Secular & Humanist Society (UBASH)

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