Profile on Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, better known as Mahatma Gandhi, was the leader of India’s non-violent independence movement against British rule. Gandhi is often referred to as Mahatma, which is a Sanskrit …
Moments in Time - A look at history to inform the present
Moments in time is an archive of historical events, people and places.
The colonisation of India
India was one of the largest and wealthiest empires in the world before the arrival of the British East India Company in the late 16th century. The East India Company …
Who Was Crispus Attucks?
Crispus Attucks was the first American and African American to be killed in the Revolutionary War. Born into slavery around 1723, Attucks was said to be the son of Prince …
James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw
Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, also known as James Albert, is said to be the first published black author in Britain. His autobiography, A Narrative of the Most Remarkable Particulars in the Life of …
The 1963 Bristol Bus Boycott
The Bristol Bus Boycott helped to raise awareness of racial discrimination in Britain and influenced the passing of the Race Relations Act 1965, which made “racial discrimination in public places” …
His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I
Emperor Haile Selassie ruled Ethiopia between 1930 and 1974. He steered his country into mainstream post-World War II African politics through his modernisation efforts. Ethiopia was admitted to the League …
The Zong Massacre
In 1781 over 100 enslaved Africans were thrown overboard the Zong slave ship to allow the slave owners to collect insurance money on their human commodities. This is one of …
Birth of the Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is an American white supremacist terrorist hate group founded after the American Civil War to suppress and victimise newly freed African American slaves. Over the …
The Commonwealth Immigration Act 1962
On 1 July 1962, the Commonwealth Immigrants Act came into effect, ending the automatic right of people of the British Commonwealth and Colonies to settle in the United Kingdom. The …
Sir Francis Kerr-Jarrett – Jamaican landowner
Francis Kerr-Jarrett was a landowner and sugar manufacturer in Jamaica. He served as Custos Rotulorum of Saint James Parish, Jamaica from 1933–1965. Custos rotulorum is Latin for ‘keeper of the …
Emmett Till – Life and death
The brutal abduction and murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till on 28 August 1955, brought nationwide attention to the racial violence and injustice prevalent in Mississippi. It also spurred the emerging …
Black and Asian Soldiers in World War One
It is often thought that World War I (WW1) was a European War, fought exclusively by Europeans but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Not often mentioned is the …
Madam C J Walker
Madam C J Walker was an entrepreneur best known for inventing Black haircare products. She was a political social activist, philanthropist and the first female self-made millionaire. Early years Born …
Constance Mark – Caribbean Women in WW2 Britain
We often think of the British Armed Forces as exclusively male, but it may surprise you to know that many Caribbean women served in World War II. Historically, most Armed …
Lilian Bader – One of the first black women to join the British Armed Forces
Lilian Bader was born in 1918 in Liverpool’s Toxteth Park neighbourhood to Marcus Bailey, a merchant seaman from Barbados who fought for the British in the First World War, and …
Onesimus – the slave who helped quell the Boston smallpox outbreak
Onesimus was an enslaved West African man whose African teachings helped to reduce the impact of the smallpox outbreak in Boston, Massachusetts. Little is known about Onesimus before he was …
Claudette Colvin – the teenager that inspired Rosa Parks
You’ve heard of Rosa Parks but what do you know of Claudette Colvin? Nine months before Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, …
Juneteenth
What is Juneteenth? Juneteenth is a holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. It is observed annually on 19 June. It is also called Emancipation Day, or …
Tacky’s Rebellion
When the English took over the colonisation of Jamaica from the Spanish, they imported thousands of Africans as slaves to work on plantations of wealthy Englishmen. Like other colonised islands, …
Early Jamaican Maroons
Jamaican Maroons were escaped African slaves who had run away from Spanish owned plantations when the British took the Caribbean Island of Jamaica from Spain in 1655. They fled to …
The partition of India
The partition of India on 15 August 1947 resulted in the creation of India and Pakistan, two separate states divided along religious lines. This decision was made by the British …
Bloody Sunday – Selma to Montgomery
The Selma to Montgomery march was part of a series of civil rights protests that occurred in 1965 in Alabama, a Southern state with deeply entrenched racist policies. Death and …
Abolitionists and revolutionaries – 7 Black women you should know about
Here are seven Caribbean and American women who were abolitionists, revolutionaries and activists. These women fought to free their people from the chains of slavery, discrimination and the lasting effects …
Flore Bois Gaillard – Saint Lucian revolutionary
Flore Bois Gaillard was a St Lucian runaway slave who led a band of free slaves called ‘Armée Française Dans Les Bois (French Army in the Woods). The life of …
