The Black Flower Seller

Uncovering the story of the Black Flower Seller of Hastings.

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In 2013, Playing the Race Card founder Claudine Eccleston came across a striking image in the East Sussex archives. It showed a Black woman selling flowers on the streets of St Leonards in the early 1900s. Her name wasn’t recorded. Claudine set out to find out who she was.

 

In 2024, Playing the Race Card partnered with We Out Here, curators of the African Caribbean Seaside Memories exhibition at Hastings Museum & Art Gallery.
 

At a sold-out event at the museum, Claudine shared the story of the person behind the photograph and, for the first time, revealed the woman’s identity: Margaret Sullivan. She had also traced Margaret’s great-great-granddaughters - who were in the audience, having travelled from Canada to be there. A powerful moment of connection between past and present.
 

Since then, Claudine has continued to share Margaret’s life and legacy through talks and workshops. What began with a single photograph has sparked a much wider conversation about visibility, heritage and belonging.
 

Thanks to this project, Margaret Sullivan’s image (above) is now on permanent display at Hastings Museum & Art Gallery, Hastings Library and the Isobel Blackman Centre - the place she once called home.

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