I Rise
Like the phoenix rising from the ashes
Actor Janelle Monaé (Hidden Figures) is set to star as the iconic entertainer Josephine Baker in a new TV series titled De La Resistance. So who was Josephine Baker? Exotic cabaret dancer, operatic singer, comedienne, first black movie star, and bisexual celebrity. Although all these titles frequently appear in searches connected to entertainer Josephine Baker, …
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. The slave trade brought vast wealth to British ports and merchants but conditions were horrific. Enslaved people were transported on the ‘Middle Passage’ of the triangular trade route. Many …
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 Act applied stringent restrictions on the entry of Commonwealth citizens into Britain. Only those with work permits (which were typically only for high-skilled workers, such …
Windrush Day is observed in the UK on 22 June to mark the arrival of the Empire Windrush and to honour the contribution of the Windrush Generation and their descendants. Windrush Day was introduced in June 2018 on the 70th anniversary of the Windrush migration following a successful campaign led by Patrick Vernon. The arrival …
In 1990 Justin Fashanu stunned the football world as the first professional footballer to come out as gay. At this time racism and homophobia were endemic in football. Justin’s early years Justinus Soni “Justin” Fashanu was born on 19 February 1961. He was raised in the London area of Hackney, where his Nigerian father was …
The Notting Hill Race riots were the result of a campaign of attacks on the Caribbean residents in a bid to drive them out of their homes and ultimately out of Britain. Much like the 1919 race riots, the growing Black presence in Britain was a major factor in these events. Although dubbed the Notting Hill race …
What is Black Lives Matter? The Black Lives Matter movement started as a hashtag on social networks and officially began in the United States in 2013 after George Zimmerman was found not guilty of murdering Trayvon Martin in Florida. The movement grew to protest not just the justice system in America but police brutality against …
What is the Windrush scandal? The Windrush scandal mainly affected UK citizens originally from the Caribbean. It came to light in 2018 after it emerged that hundreds of Commonwealth citizens, many of whom were from the Windrush Generation, had been wrongly detained, deported and denied legal rights. Who are the Windrush generation? The Windrush Generation …
In February 1965 civil rights campaigner, Malcolm X was in Britain to speak at the London School of Economics. Avtar Singh Jouhl, general secretary of the Indian Workers Association, invited him to speak at Birmingham University and visit Smethwick, a small town in the West Midlands, UK. Smethwick was a hotbed of racial tension. Just …
On Sunday 18 January 1981 a fire broke out in a house in New Cross Road, Deptford, South East London, killing 13 young people and marking a massive change for black people in Britain. Thirteen people died in the New Cross fire and another, committed suicide 18 months later in July 1983, aged 20, having …
Sybil Phoenix is a community leader who has devoted her life to helping other people, especially in Lewisham, the town she made home. Early years She was born Sybil Theodora Marshall on 21 June 1927 in Georgetown, British Guiana (now Guyana). Sybil’s mother died when she was nine, and, as her father worked in the …
Most people believe that black people came to Britain after the Second World War with the arrival of the Empire Windrush in 1948. But Black people have had a presence in Britain for as far back as Roman times. Even closer in history, there were Blacks in Britain during and after slavery. If white British …
Britain’s 1919 race riots started at the end of the First World War starting with an outbreak of violence in Glasgow in January, race riots happened around the United Kingdom until late in the summer, including in Liverpool, Hull, Cardiff, Salford, Newport and South Shields. There were several outbreaks in the East End of London, …
Charles Wotten was a 24-year-old ship’s fireman from Bermuda who was murdered by an angry white mob during the Liverpool race riots of 1919. What led to Charles Wotten’s murder? Since the 16th century, the Black presence in London and Liverpool had been noticeable but Liverpool’s Black population grew dramatically during the war as Black …
Olaudah Equiano (c.1745-1797) was an eighteenth-century African writer whose experiences as a slave prompted him to become involved in the British abolition movement. Early years Equiano was born in c1745 in what is now Nigeria to an Ibo chief. He was captured by slave traders and sold into slavery at the age of 11. He …
What is Notting Hill Carnival? Notting Hill Carnival is a 3-day annual event that takes place on the streets of Notting Hill during late August bank holiday weekend. It’s a huge tourist attraction and an opportunity for everyone to come together and enjoy music, parades, food and other aspects of black culture. The carnival follows …
Claudia Jones was a feminist, political activist, pioneering journalist, and visionary. She is known for being the ‘Mother of Caribbean Carnival in Britain’. Early years Claudia Jones was born on 21 February 1915 in Belmont, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. At the age of eight, her family emigrated to Harlem, New York following the post-war cocoa price crash …
The London Borough of Lewisham is a multicultural borough with a large Black and Asian community as many of the Windrush generation settled in Lewisham from the late 40s onwards. Just like Brixton and Notting Hill, Lewisham has experienced its share of racism and fascist uprisings. It was in Lewisham, that British fascism suffered …
Walter Tull was one of Britain’s first black footballers and a First World War hero. Walter Tull was born in Folkestone, Kent on 28 April 1888. His father Daniel Tull, the son of a slave had arrived in Britain from Barbados in 1876 and found work as a carpenter. Daniel Tull married Alice Elizabeth Palmer. …
After the riots in August 2011, David Starkey appeared on Newsnight and ranted about white people becoming black as they spoke the same language as black people. Back then we called him a clueless racist fart (you know how we do when we get tongue-tied). Luckily there are professional people like Paul Kerswill who can teach …
Sarah Forbes Bonetta was the princess, born into the Egbado royal family of south-western Nigeria, who became a favourite of Queen Victoria and a regular visitor to Windsor Castle. Sarah was captured in 1848 during a slave-hunt war by the infamous King Ghezo of Dahomey when she was just eight years old. Her tribe was …
This video details the “Remembering the New Cross Fire” Celebration gathering on the 14 January 2010, at the Albany Theatre in Deptford. On Sunday 18 January 1981 a fire broke out in a house in New Cross South East London killing 13 young people. Another teenager committed suicide shortly after, having been traumatised by the …
When 20-year-old Sarah (also spelt Sara) Baartman got on a boat that was to take her from Cape Town to London in 1810, she could not have known that she would never see her home again. Nor, as she stood on the deck and saw her homeland disappear behind her could she have known that …
The 1985 Brixton riots, started on 28 September in Lambeth in South London. It was the second major riot that the area had witnessed in the space of four years, the last in 1981. It was sparked by the shooting of Dorothy ‘Cherry’ Groce by police, while they sought her son Michael Groce in relation to …
