A Journey into Archiving

Rhoda Boateng

(BCA Reference: BCA/6/11/6- an early exhibition at Black Cultural Archives)

My entry into the archives profession intertwines with my time at Black Cultural Archives (BCA). I started as a volunteer in the reading room with limited knowledge about the archives sector, but I instantly gravitated toward the materials held in the collections. I had recently finished undertaking a Fine Art (BA), and like many of my peers at the time, found art school to be a psychically draining experience. It was rare that Black social and historical realities were considered important enough to examine or discuss during my time on the course, even though we were encouraged to flesh out the contextual surroundings of the artworks, artists, and movements we were studying. In particular, Black life in Britain seemed to be completely invisibilised. Where waves of politicized Black art movements (most famously in the early 1980s) had transformed the possibilities for Black artists in the UK, within the art school, there was silence. Against this backdrop, archival work and its importance shone out to me as a world of evidence.  

This evidential impulse is a key driver of the collecting approach at Black Cultural Archives. Our founders sought to redress the distortions surrounding the Black presence in the UK, creating a ‘monument’ to Black history in the tradition of African American revolutionary activist Queen Mother Moore’s ‘African People’s Historical Monument Foundation’ (still BCA’s official charity title). ‘Black Cultural Archives’ was originally the name of the collecting project to gather these materials to be housed within the ‘monument’. The collections (which are all acquired via donation) center the activities and contributions of African descended people through a lens of self-determination whilst also highlighting that they are inseparable from British history at large. My understanding of the liberatory potential of archives stems from entering the profession through BCA, whose mission is dedicated to preserving and celebrating the lives of African and African Caribbean people in Britain. Unfortunately, although there are incredible Black archives and initiatives across the country which also undertake this work, the UK archives sector at large is still a space of gaps and silences where Black life in Britain is concerned.

(BCA Reference- PHOTOS/83, early photo of Black Cultural Archives founders with activist Queen Mother Moore)

I am currently finishing my archival training. Whilst studying formally has been crucial for my understanding of what is a particularly theoretical profession, being a Black archivist, there is always a tension at play while I learn. When studying, I try to sit with what does not sit well with me. The training is crucial, but also, as American archivist and academic Michelle Caswell states: "feelings are epistemologically valuable" (too). I use my discomfort to orientate me toward a more multiple understanding of what archives can do, which my role as Collections Assistant at BCA informs. Understanding the roots of the formal profession and the hierarchies implicit in the standardised ways of working with archive materials means that as I learn best practice, I must supplement my studying. I do this by seeking out counter-knowledge, which can allow me to rethink and reimagine the role of the archivist and archival spaces. I find a lot of guidance within the materials themselves at BCA.

(BCA Reference: GUTZMORE/1/7/2)

The majority of our records (and some of the most frequently accessed) were generated in the latter half of the 20th century, which coincides with the fact our organisation was founded in the early 1980s, a particular pressure point for Black communities in the UK – a result of the compounding effects of systemic racism in housing, employment, and education, amidst the continued criminalisation of Black people by the police. Due to this, the material is rich in the counter-knowledge it provides on how to preserve Black life against the backdrop of white supremacy. This has a bearing on archival practice as the material quite literally tells us how we might re-order the world differently! I think attending to the archive also means thinking of preservation as extending past the physical material itself and encompassing the people, ideas and worlds through which the material was created. As I continue my training it is this wider notion of preservation that anchors me, and my hope for my practice is to lean more deeply into this work. I have been lucky enough to contribute to projects at BCA which I think encapsulate this approach. One example is our series on the 40th anniversary of the 1981 uprisings across the UK. It brought together researchers, writers, activists, and artists to think about the legacy of the events, with a particular focus on the response from the community in Brixton, in the form of the Brixton Defence Campaign (BDC). BDC was a support group formed after the (April) 1981 uprisings in Brixton to advocate against the criminalisation of Black communities and provide legal aid for those arrested. The group also worked in solidarity with other defensive campaigns formed across the country.

(Screenshot from Uprisings! 40 years on panel, available here: Uprisings! 40 years on: Media, Terminology & Representation

Another project which uses the material to create new possibilities is our current project Undaunted: The Melba Wilson Collection. This year we are cataloguing the papers of mental health activist and writer, Melba Wilson, as part of a Wellcome Trust-funded project which, seeks to utilise archives to disrupt dominant categorisations and narratives in health research. The collection spans over 40 years of Melba Wilson’s work in national and regional mental health programmes, policy units, and services, including grassroots and community activism alongside formal policy work and leadership.

As part of the project, we are collaborating with our creative residents, Decolonising The Archive (DTA), to present a public programme, delving further into the stories and legacies of Black mental health initiatives in the UK. We recently programmed a roundtable event looking at contemporary initiatives and research into Black mental health. The event bought together Melba Wilson, Dr Jacquie Dyer, Connie Bell, Kariima Ali, and Jonas for an inter-generational conversation about mental health provisions for Black communities in the UK, taking Melba Wilson's collection as a starting point. I was struck by how often Melba stated that she did not see herself as the owner of the material and that it did not feel like her collection - her role as the collector of the material was one of many. These simple statements of co-production allow new entry points into what archives can be outside the singular models of ownership that the profession was historically built upon. The material is living and lives through multiple people.

 One aspect of the job I find really nourishing is participating in this wider social life of archives. There are worlds around the material: the multiple caretakers a collection will have before it reaches the archives, the communities and groups who produced the material, and the people who re-activate it through research. There are desires for the collections outside of what archival institutions and their workers can imagine/think is possible – this drives the profession forward.

On the Brixton Uprising: 40 Years On

This year marks the 40th Anniversary of the publication of the Scarman Inquiry, which examined the Brixton Uprisings of 1981 and acknowledged, for the first time, the discriminatory policing of Black people.

Over the spring of 2021, Ph.D. Student Virgillo Amando Hunter was Black Cultural Archives’ Researcher in Residence, who worked on updating our ‘Uprisings’ subject guide: https://blackculturalarchives.org/subject-guides

Virgillo Hunter is a History Doctoral Candidate of Modern British History at the University of East Anglia (UEA), with interests in British-Caribbean families, oral history, and Caribbean migratory cultures in the Twentieth-century. He is currently writing his dissertation on post-war British-Caribbean families in England between 1948 and 1998 and is one of UEA’s Decolonising Humanities interns for 2021. He also volunteers at the George Padmore Institute--Finsbury Park, London.

In this essay, Virgillo discusses the Brixton Uprisings in more detail and reflects on his research. Read Virgillo's essay here.

Remembering the Mangrove 9

Join us on 20th August 2020, at 7pm BST where a panel of esteemed activists including Ansel Wong, Leroy Logan and Ife Thompson will discuss why the case of the Mangrove 9 remains crucial to our understanding of and engagement with the British justice system and the future effectiveness of campaigning.

Response by Dr. Adam Elliott-Cooper, Research Associate, University of Greenwich, August 2020

In 1966, civil rights activist Stokely Carmichael delivered a rousing speech which pushed the movement against segregation forward: ‘What we gonna start sayin' now is Black Power!’ Carmichael refused to confine the black freedom struggle to the US; he understood that the oppression of black people in America was connected to the liberation of black and oppressed people globally. Racism is not a tool of prejudice and hatred, it is a system of exploitation, control and violence. Black Power thus became the call of anti-colonial and anti-imperial movements, activists and thinkers across the world. Black Power stood against racism, imperialism and capitalism, with black power movements internationally, including Britain, taking on this fateful triangle. Through community programmes, radical organising and mass protests, international networks of solidarity shared a revolutionary vision of a world free from racial violence, exploitation and control, making Black Power both a powerful slogan and a political necessity. 

Dr. Cooper’s book Black Resistance to British Policing, will be published by Manchester University Press in Spring 2021. His recent articles include ‘“Defund the police” is not nonsense. Here's what it really means’ and ‘When did we come to Britain? You must be mistaken, Britain came to us’.

Response by Dr. Rob Waters, Lecturer in Modern British History, Queen Mary, University of London, August 2020

‘The trial at the Old Bailey on October 4th will take the struggle against Police Brutality into a new arena’, writes Ansel Wong in this report for the Black People’s Information Centre, published just days before the Mangrove Nine were due to stand trial. This was a struggle that had been conducted previously on the streets—as black activists intervened to question and try to prevent wrongful arrests and intimidation. It was a struggle conducted at police stations and magistrates’ courts, where defence advice was handed out, and lawyers drafted in. It was a struggle that had been conducted in the black press, where a growing catalogue of police racism was amassing. It was a struggle conducted, also, in appeals to local councils, to MPs and government ministers, to police chiefs. The repeated exposure of police racism and brutality, however, appeared to make little impact. It would surely feel like banging one’s head against a brick wall. The Home Secretary, as Wong notes, promised an inquiry to find out what had happened at the Mangrove demonstration. The inquiry, however, was into Black Power—not into police racism. ‘A cursory glance at his files’, Wong writes of the Home Secretary, would have revealed the ‘irrefutable evidence of police corruption in the Grove, lodged by thousands of individual black people’.

The Mangrove Nine trial was used to bring the struggles of black activists against police racism into the highest court in the country, in a highly public trial that gathered big media interest. The defendants played to the theatricality of the occasion, and they formed alliances with others who, in the polarizing time of the early 1970s, also found themselves the target of state discipline. For their efforts, they won a landmark success. Judge Edward Clarke, in his closing statement to the court, admitted that the police had demonstrated ‘evidence of racial bitterness’. It was the first such admission, and it made waves. It was to be a long time, however, before this racial bitterness was admitted to be endemic. And it is a problem that is yet to go away. The Mangrove trial marks an early, historic victory in the long struggle against police racism in Britain—one to be remembered.

Dr. Waters’ monograph Thinking Black: Britain, 1964-1985, was published in 2019 by the University of California Press.

A Celebration: Patrick Vernon Interviews Dame Jocelyn Barrow OBE

As we celebrate the legacy of Dame Jocelyn Barrow, we share this fantastic interview done by BCA friend and supporter Patrick Vernon, which is re-posted with his kind permission.

Dame Jocelyn Barrow has had a long distinguished career covering 59 years in Britain with her tremendous achievements and her long term commitment and passion for race and gender equality, education and promoting the heritage of the Caribbean community.

She was born in Trinidad on the 15th of April in 1929 of mixed race heritage her father was from Barbados (grandparents were Scottish and French). Dame Jocelyn was the eldest out of fourteen siblings with only six still live. As the matriarch along with her education and training this has shaped her to be feisty, maverick and astute which eventually held in good stead as a lifelong campaigner for race equality and social injustice. Dame Jocelyn went to St Joseph Covenant School and at the age of sixteen became one of the early members of the People National Movement working with the late Dr Eric William who became the first Prime Minster of Trinidad. She completed her training as a teacher but was still involved in politics and supporting the development of the West Indian Federation and her political party.

Windrush Generation

After working for several years she decided to move to Britain to complete her postgraduate teaching qualification at the Institute of Education. On the 1st of September 1959 she moved to London and thus became part of the Windrush Generation migration to Britain.

When the West Indies Federation was dissolved in 1962 she was disappointed in a similar way to her current feelings about Brexit that nations were not working together for the common good. One of her mantra… ‘You can achieve more if we work collectively’. This is what Dame Jocelyn believed that Britain did with its Empire through colonisation using all the talent and resources of its former colonies for the good of Britain. Thus she found it disappointing that people are not aware of this history and thus failed to understand why the Windrush Generation were here along with other parts of the Commonwealth. She talked in great detailed about the level of racism that she and others experienced in the 1950/60s in terms of jobs, housing and then the emotional and physical abuse. Although a lot of Caribbean people were educated and skilled they were treated at the bottom of the pile.

Whilst she was studying for her postgraduate qualification in teaching she got involved in a project called ‘Each One Teach One’ in helping children of Caribbean heritage to do their homework and to provide advice to parents on the education system. She said white teachers did not know how to support the learning of the pupils and that parents were ignorant of the education system as they assumed the teachers had the best interest at heart like teachers in the Caribbean. However, instead the children were being left behind and also classed as educationally subnormal. A few years later Jocelyn was involved in another initiative called the ‘Caribbean Communication Project’ which was aimed at improving literacy for Caribbean adults based on the national literacy programme called ‘On The Move’.

Fighting for Race Equality and Against the Colour Bar

Dame Jocelyn life changed when she and a number of activists arrange a roundtable meeting with Martin Luther King in December 1964. He did a stop over to London as he was going to Norway to pick up his Nobel Peace Prize.

King shared his strategies and tactics around non violence and holding the government to account around on race discrimination under Jim Crow in America. This meeting inspired Jocelyn and other activists to establish in 1965 Campaign against Racial Discrimination (CARD) with the main focus to establish race relations legislation against the colour bar and racism against African, Caribbean and Asian people in Britain. Dame Jocelyn became a founding member and General Secretary and later Vice Chair of the organisation. She was involved right up to 1970. CARD had a national committee with Anthony Lester, David Pitt, C. L. R. James, Dipak Nandy and Hamza Alavi. The organisation also had local branches around the country. Dame Jocelyn reflects on the hard work and campaigning particularly around the period between1965 and 1970 in lobbying for the two Race Relation Acts with additional work of helping individuals to exercise their rights for racism discrimination claims.

The 1965 Act had no real power as it did not look at employment or housing which was the biggest areas of discrimination. Thus the organisation working in partnership with The Observer newspaper undertook an employment survey one to capture the level of discrimination. A follow up survey was done for London Transport which provided further evidence of systematic racism in the labour market. The lobbying and evidence was critical to influence MPs that the 1968 Act should be more robust.

Despite her activism she was still working full time in teaching at a senior level and also as a teacher trainer in various roles at Furzedown College and at the Institute of Education London University in the ’60s, she pioneered the introduction of multi-cultural education, stressing the needs of the various ethnic groups in the UK.

In her interview she talked about managing open and covert racism and the strategy of self-care which people had to adopt for their mental wellbeing. This often meant at times not going key promotions or roles in public life as you got exposed with hate mail, verbal abuse, rejection and lack of respect. The glass ceiling was always present to you as black person she recounts. Other black women had similar experiences such as Beryl Gilroy who became one of the first Head Teachers in UK. Dame Jocelyn said: ‘maintaining my private life was critical to my self-care. However the more discrimination I faced the more determined and feisty I became’.

Rivers of Blood

Dame Jocelyn was strongly against Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech in 1968 which she believes gave the permission to far right organisations like National Front and Combat 18 to continued its campaign hate crime and violence against Black and Asian people In Britain. She also believes that Powell was a racist but he did this in sophisticated way.

Dame Jocelyn states: ‘He did not mine us coming to Britain but only do to low skill jobs only as he did not want to us to be in positions of authority.’

The expression in his speech the “The Blackman having the upper hand of over the white man” reflected his attitude towards Black people and the use of immigrations control’.

Dame Jocelyn recounts an experience with Powell which confirmed his racism and arrogance. She states:

I was invited by the late Sir Robin Day the broadcaster for a television magazine TV programme after the main news in Birmingham to talk about the 1968 Race Relations Bill going through Parliament along with an Asian Psychiatrist and Enoch Powell MP. We found out that Powell refused to be in the same studio as us and the BBC arrange for him to be a neighbouring studio in the same building so we would not be allowed have a direct conversation with even though he could hear our responses through the radio mics. This clearly showed him a racist, coward and he knew that he lose any arguments on why he was wrong regarding the Bill and his speech’.

When Dame Jocelyn became Governor at the BBC she made sure that the BBC journalism policy and practice would not allow for future racial segregation in television interviews in the future. Also she played a role ensure more Black talent had roles as news reporters, presenters and more opportunities in light entertainment and drama.

A Career in Public Life

Despite all the above challenges she was successful in developing a career in public life with a number of appointments made by Conservative and Labour governments between 1965 to the 1990s.She was the first black woman Governor of the BBC and Founder and Deputy Chair of the Broadcasting Standards Council. Her equal opportunities and educational expertise is reflected in her many Government appointments to a variety of organisations and statutory bodies. Governor of the Commonwealth Institute for eight years, Camden Communing Housing, Council Member of Goldsmith’s College, University of London, Vice-president of the United Nations Association in the UK and Northern Ireland and Trustee to the Irene Taylor Trust providing Music in Prisons. She is National Vice-President of the Townswomen’s Guild and was instrumental in the establishment of the North Atlantic Slavery Gallery and the Maritime Museum in Liverpool. She was a Trustee of the National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside and a Governor of the British Film Institute. In 1972 she was awarded the OBE for work in the field of education and community relations. In 1992 she received the DBE for her work in broadcasting and her contribution to the work of the European Union as the UK Member of the Social Economic Committee.

Windrush Scandal

With regards to the Windrush Scandal she feels very angry how the government has treated people of Caribbean heritage and sees this as another example of racism based on her 59 years of activism in Britain. However, she also feels that as a community we should have done more around leadership and mobilisation. She was aware back in 2014 when the Immigration Act was passed that this could be an issue in the future. She asked a number of key people that they needed to help the community to sort out their paper work and educate the community based on her experience of CARD. She was concerned that organisations that supported or represented the Caribbean community including the High Commissioners should have done more around lobbying and campaigning prior to the scandal compared to fallout now that we are dealing with like deportations and no financial support to the victims.

Dame Jocelyn stated ‘if I was still active I will be putting pressure on the government to speed up the compensation payments and get people to do a sit in various governments departments and offices demanding where is our cheque?’

She believes that Theresa May was ill advised but her officials and political advisers were keen to develop and implement the hostile immigration environment which she probably now regrets. Sajid Javid is probably doing a better job as Home Secretary but he has no interest in support and protecting the Black community especially with the compensation scheme and not giving citizenship to the Windrush Generation who have a criminal record or ‘poor character’.

Top Tips for Leadership and Activism

Dame Jocelyn believes the Windrush Generation could have done more especially around economic and business development as a legacy compared to their peers from other parts of the Commonwealth who probably have more respect from the government because of wealth and economic influence. However she is very optimistic of third and fourth generation of young people of African and Caribbean heritage in Britain who are now learning some of the lessons of the Windrush Generation to become more business focus and self reliant. Her instincts as a teacher and educator are still present and strong and in our interview as she shared the following tips around activism and leadership for young people:

• Stick to your brief and agenda on area of expertise Write this down so you reflect this on a regular basis
• Learn from your mistakes and others as this will empower you
• Have a conviction and strong belief in whatever you do as there will be times you need to stand alone
• Be wary of gifts and or opportunities you are given as make you obligated or comprise your agenda
• Find a couple of people that you can trust who can give your advice and help you out when required.

Although Dame Jocelyn Barrow has mobility problems her mind is still active and she will be celebrating her 90th birthday on the 15th of April in 2019. She is still happy to share her experience and wealth of knowledge to the next generation of activist and leaders. I am looking forward to reading her memoirs as a champion of the Windrush Generation and to support engage more with young people.

The article was originally published on blackhistorymonth.org.uk

"I was the first person of African heritage to become a professor of history in Britain, which shows that we have a long way to go"

Acclaimed Academic and Historian, Hakim Adi, has dedicated his life to make sure our stories are told. He is currently a Professor of History at the University of Chichester and specialises in Africa and the African diaspora. He’s written a number of books including West Africans in Britain , Pan-Africanism and even a book for you people entitled, The History of the African and Caribbean Communities in Britain. His latest work, Black British History, are a series of essays from a number of academics charting our history right up until the modern day.

We had a chance to speak to Hakim about how Black British History came about ahead of his sold out launch event at BCA.

What did you want to be as a young man? What drew you into academia and history? 

I started reading history books as a very young child. Indeed the first books I remember reading were about history. So that was my first love. However, it was not until I was about 14 that I was able to find my first books about the history of Africa and Africans.

From that time I wanted to be a history teacher in a school. So I went to study African History at university. Unfortunately when I left university I was rejected by all the teacher training colleges I applied to, including the Institute of Education. That led to unemployment and various part-time jobs. It became clear that the only way I could get to teach African History was to take a PhD and do so at university level.

I then spent 7 years studying for my PhD part-time and eventually manged to find a job. In short I was unable to pursue my career choice but as a failed teacher I then became a university lecturer. I was the first person of African heritage to become a professor of history in Britain, which shows that we have a long way to go

How did Black British History come into being? What do you hope people will learn from the book? 

The book highlights some of the latest research from young and emerging scholars, most of them of African and Caribbean heritage. It includes research focusing on some four hundred years of Britain’s history from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. 

So it includes a variety of topics from Africans in Tudor times to recent migrants from Zimbabwe. I also hope that it will show people how much there is to learn and research and encourage others, especially young people to study and research history. 

Why was this work important to you? 

It was important to have the book published for all the reasons in my previous answer. The chapters were originally presented a conference and so this publication makes this research available to a much wider audience. We need to do much more to develop this history and to engage and involve young people. 

What would you say to someone interested in following your path in documenting our history? 

Go for it! There are now many opportunities. We have established the Young Historians Project to train young people as historians https://www.younghistoriansproject.org/     There is also now a new online Masters Degree for those who want to train as historians https://www.chi.ac.uk/humanities/postgraduate/mres-history-africa-and-african-diaspora and many other opportunities. I’m always happy to give advice to anyone who wants to become a historian. 

What's next for you and the book? 

For the book, we will continue with the promotion and encourage people to read it. For example, it will be launched in Leicester when I give the Stephen Lawrence Research Centre’s Distinguished Lecture in October. I am sure that there will be many other such events. 

For me the next thing is to complete the writing of my next book which presents the history of African and Caribbean people in Britain from the earliest times until the 21st century. That is a very important project that I’m working on at the moment. It will present all the latest research on the subject and be published by Penguin as soon as I’ve finished writing it. So look out for that. 

Where can people find out more about you? 
I’m very easy to find on social media or https://www.hakimadi.org/