I Rise
Like the phoenix rising from the ashes
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 …
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 decades their targets have grown to include Native Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, Catholics, Jews, atheists and Muslims as well as immigrants and homosexuals. On 24 …
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 …
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 Juneteenth Independence Day or Freedom Day. The term Juneteenth is a combination of the words June and nineteenth. History of Juneteenth During the American Civil …
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, the slaves rebelled regularly. The most well-known Jamaican slave rebellions are the 1831 Christmas rebellion, led by Samuel Sharpe and the Maroon Wars led …
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 …
A 32-year-old black man from Antigua named Kelso Cochrane was brutally murdered in a racist attack in the early hours of 17 May 1959. After receiving treatment at Paddington Hospital for a fractured thumb, Kelso Cochrane was walking home shortly after midnight when a gang of white youths surrounded him, called him derogatory names, beat …
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 discrimination Even after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination in voting based on race, efforts by civil rights organisations such as the Student …
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 …
0n 5 December 1492, European navigator Christopher Columbus came upon an island in the Caribbean that he claimed for Spain and called La Isla Española (“The Spanish Island”, later Anglicised as Hispaniola). Haiti colonised by Spain Spain colonised the island and enslaved the native Taino and Ciboney people. Forced to mine gold under brutal working …
Samuel Sharpe instigates a rebellion On 27 December 1831, the Christmas Rebellion began at the Kensington Estate in St James, Jamaica. Samuel Sharpe was the main instigator of the 1831 Slave Rebellion. Although he was a slave, he was also a leader of the native Baptists in Montego Bay. This enabled him to travel and …
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 …
Zionism is a term that has been used in many different ways over the years. At its core, Zionism is the belief that Judaism is a nationality as well as a religion, and Jews have a right to self-determination in their own homeland. The political and historical aspects of Zionism are complex, and there are …
Israel’s control of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza has been referred to as an “occupation” for decades. Yet until recently, many people have not fully understood the significance of the historical event that led to Israel occupying Palestinian territory since 1967. The history of this conflict is long and complex, but understanding it …
Sandra Bland is another black life lost under hinky police circumstances. The 28-year-old’s death in a Texas county jail on 13 July, three days after a routine traffic stop turned into a confrontation has attracted scepticism and disbelief from many who have been following the case. Whilst concerned American’s continue to keep a tally of …
Greenwood, Tulsa was once a prosperous, modern, cultured Black community known as Black Wall Street until it was burned down by envious racists.
Jamaica Welfare was founded by Norman Manley in 1937. It was the first large scale social welfare organisation on the island. It was formed from suggestions Manley made to United Fruit Company President Samuel Zemurray, while acting as a lawyer for the Jamaica Banana Producers Association. In the 1930s a plant disease killed off the …
Fred Hampton was a political activist born August 30, 1948. He was killed as he lay in bed in his apartment by a tactical unit of the Cook County, Illinois State’s Attorney’s Office (SAO), in conjunction with the Chicago Police Department (CPD) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The Murder of Fred Hampton is …
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 …
The 1981 UK riots were spurred by police handling into the investigation of the New Cross fire where 13 young black people lost their lives as well as serious social and economic problems affecting Britain’s inner cities. Following the New Cross Fire and Black People’s Day of Action march, and after several years of blatant …
The arrival of the SS Empire Windrush at Tilbury Dicks, Essex in June, 1948 was a pivotal moment in British History. The ship carried 1,027 passengers from several Caribbean countries. The Empire Windrush was on its way from Australia to Britain when it docked in Kingston, Jamaica, to pick up servicemen who were on leave. …
On Sunday 18 January 1981 a fire broke out in a house in New Cross Road, Deptford, South East London, killing 13 people and marking a massive change for black people in Britain. On Sunday 18 January 1981 a fire broke out in a house in New Cross Road, Deptford, South East London, killing 13 …
