BLOG
4 Black Trailblazers That Have Shaped British Culture
JB Simmons, Guest Contributor
The history of Black people in Britain is a long and storied one, since the days of the Roman Empire and the impact on British culture has been profound.
Learning about Black culture is one way to understand deeper the dynamics and attitudes in today's society. Looking into the most notable Black figures in UK history is one way to start, as their stories are deeply intertwined with the country's history.
Today, we'll look into four Black trailblazers that have shaped British culture:
1. Paul Stephenson
Image @ vintageblackbritain
Paul Stephenson is an activist who has dedicated his life to fighting for social justice. He is most famous for being one of the lead organisers of the 1963 Bristol Bus Boycott, a response to the bus company's discriminatory colour bar policy. Inspired by Rosa Parks' example in Alabama, USA, Stephenson rallied the entire community to speak out against the prevailing racist culture in Britain at that time. The boycott was influential in passing the Race Relations Act, which made discrimination on the basis of race unlawful in public places, employment, and housing. Stephen's actions paved the way for the more inclusive British culture we see today.
Read our subject guide on Protest and Campaigns.
2. Margaret Busby
Image @ mockingbirdwestend
Margaret Busby is most known as the first Black female book publisher in Britain. Her work challenged the publishing world, which white men have traditionally dominated. Across many traditional fields, leadership is becoming more demanding, and the principles associated with diversity and inclusion are now expected of business leaders across the country. Through the work of industry leaders like Busby, UK society gets exposed to various published work across gender, nationality, and ethnic origins. Her literary activism stems from her belief that the dominant white male community has controlled book circulations, schools, libraries, and publishing houses. For her, creating a demand for books celebrating society's heterogeneity will make the publishing industry reflect the true diversity of British culture.
Read our subject guide on Publishing.
3. Diane Abbott
Image @ newnham_associates
British society has come a long way from the uprisings of forty years ago, in response to the discriminatory policing of Black people. Now, there are Black people that hold positions of power in government. Diane Abbott, a British politician, has made her mark on British history by becoming the first Black woman elected to the Parliament and the longest-serving Black MP in the House of Commons. Abbott graduated from Newnham College, Cambridge, and then rose from her city council to national politics. Her distinguished career as a politician and broadcaster inspires young Black women across the country who want to fight modern racism and make their indelible mark in British culture.
Read our subject guide on Uprisings.
4. Harold Moody
Image @ msrcleeds
Harold Moody was a Jamaican-born physician. He went to London to study medicine in 1904 and started his practice in Peckham in 1913. Despite having a successful medical practice, he delved into civil rights after experiencing racial prejudice as a student and immigrant in the UK. He poured much time and energy into campaigning for the rights of Black people and is even dubbed the Martin Luther King Jr. of the country. In 1931, Moody founded the League of Coloured Peoples, which focused on Black rights in the UK. The work of civil rights pioneers like Moody has brought on lasting changes in British culture, particularly in the area of civil liberties.
Black people have and continue to shape British culture in countless ways, and collecting and preserving these stories is one way to honour the struggles and continue building better futures. These four Black trailblazers are only some of the figures that contributed to the formation of modern Britain and its contemporary culture and development.
Check out our ‘Black Britons in the Archive’ online exhibit on Google Arts and Culture.
BCA Pathways 2022 Career Event
BCA Seeing Ourselves Project Administrator, Rachel Haase reflects on the BCA Pathways 2022 Career Event.
On Thursday, 15th September 2022, Black Cultural Archives delivered our annual career event at the prestigious Museum of London. Joined by renowned individuals and exhibitors from leading organisations, the aim was to illuminate pathways into the arts and heritage sector – a field where Black and global majority individuals are typically underrepresented. We discussed the best ways to navigate our careers in spaces that are often not diverse, inclusive, or equitable.
After assembling for refreshments, we directed attendees to the Weston Theatre. First on the agenda was an honest panel discussion on racial equity in Arts and Heritage institutions with Dr. Yvonne Thompson CBE | DL, chair of trustees at BCA; Roshni Hirani, recruitment manager at Serpentine; and Samuel Kasumu, co-founder of Inclusive Boards.
Some of the questions that our panellists answered were:
If and how organisations can foster safe spaces for their employees to discuss race.
Whether there has been a shift in organisational commitments to racial equity in the two years since George Floyd's murder.
What can we do to ensure 2020 is not just a moment in history but an ongoing movement.
Samuel Kasumu highlighted the difference between surface-level change like Twitter blackouts and issuing statements. He also explored the intentional and structural processes of better representation on board and senior leadership teams, fair and open recruitment practices, and the integration of diversity and inclusion into business plans and strategies as the basis to question whether there has been an overall change.
Roshni Hirani was more convinced of a shift towards racial equity but questioned the extent to which individuals and organisations understand why changes are needed and hopes to cultivate more conversations around this in the future.
Tips Roshni proffered to those wanting to propel the movement for racial equality and equity forward were:
Patience – something often at odds with our human tendency to desire change overnight.
Open-mindedness in regards to allyship – the consideration of nuance, intersectionality, and that changemakers won’t always look like you do or how you expect them to.
Advice from Samuel regarding the navigation of career journeys in the sector included:
The ability to be knowledgeable and give your opinions in a room full of people.
Confidence to be yourself in spaces where you are alone representationally.
Commitment to sustaining relationships and clarity on how you want others to view you.
Dr Yvonne Thompson CBE|DL – Chair of Trustees, Black Cultural Archives, Roshni Hirani – Recruitment Manager, Serpentine, and Samuel Kasumu - Co-Founder, Inclusive Boards
Following this was a conversation between BCA's interim Managing Director, Lisa Anderson, and writer, actor, and director, Gbolahan Obisesan. The aim was to explore and examine his trajectory to Artistic Director and Joint CEO of Brixton House Theatre and to elicit advice for those wishing to follow in his footsteps. Lisa disclosed that one of her favourite parts of leading BCA is the opportunity it affords her to discover local leaders in Brixton's cultural landscape and beyond – a description that fits Gbolahan perfectly.
How did a 'shy, introverted immigrant boy with an accent' not only sit with the biggest and brightest stars in the world of theatre but surpass them?
He credits his first tread into performing arts to his drama teacher at his second secondary school (his mum moved him from his first due to him getting into constant trouble). His drama teacher facilitated a space to discover and explore what he was good at and encouraged and empowered him to audition for the National Youth Theatre, which accepted him. Gbolahan – the young black African, working-class boy from a housing estate – commends himself for being brave enough to stay in the predominantly white middle-class world his peers did not yet know was his to inhabit.
This strong sense of self permeates his story. It is evident when he avoided the places in life his friends wanted him to travel to, knowing it wasn’t for him. You can also see it in his ability to initiate and work hard for his professional desires, such as his appointment as deputy for renowned director Richard Wilson, which stemmed from a conversation he initiated. He applied these attributes, alongside a hefty dose of perseverance, and was knocked back from eight Artistic Director roles before securing the one at Brixton House – demonstrating how he has successfully navigated his way up his career mountain.
Though excited about his appointment at Brixton House, he is conscious of the ‘weight of responsibility’ that comes with this leadership role and is busy considering ways he can foster an environment and provide pathways that will enable young adults to thrive and accompany him to the mountaintop. He wants Brixton House to emit a culture of inclusivity from the top down and, through his platform, would like to foster conversations for the community and proffer a safe space for them to partake in such discussions. As the writer of Roadside, a play centred on mental health and self-medication, Gbolahan has a history of bringing our community’s struggles to the fore. We are sure he will continue to do so.
Gbolahan Obisesan – Artistic Director & Joint CEO, Brixton House Theatre
Lisa Anderson – Interim Managing Director, Black Cultural Archives
For lunch, attendees chose between delectable Nigerian street cuisine from Jollof Mama or delicious Korean Mexican hybrid fare from Komex Kitchen. We then had breakaway workshops on CV, interviewing, freelancing, and navigating work in museum spaces (which we will spotlight in a follow-up blog post). Following this, we returned to the theatre to receive our keynote address.
Senior Commissioning Editor at Merky Books, joint Editor-in-Chief of independent literary journal Plantain Papers, and 'the biggest game changer of all time in publishing' as designated by Elle magazine in 2020, are just some of Lemara Lindsay-Prince’s industry accomplishments and accolades. Just as important are her self-designated identifications:
‘kid of diaspora’
‘custodian of our culture’
‘chronicler of our history’
and her 'impassioned quest to foster a link between the past and present, and empower the community to make for a better future.'
Balancing her ‘colour and culture with commercialism’, Lemara emphasised that she did not always scale her current heights and failed at many firsts, including jobs, internships, interactions, and impressions. She spoke of her willingness to try things no matter the outcome and implored the audience to afford themselves the space and grace to fail, a vital takeaway and nod to black excellence and counteracts the pressure we often feel to be amazing from the jump.
Lemara assured us that our ‘presence, opinions, and worldviews matter’ and that we too can and must take up space in the industry, not just for our current selves but so those following behind us can see themselves in the arts and heritage sectors and realise they belong. Top tips on how to do so include:
Ask questions and learn from those who have been before you.
Build something such as a blog for yourself, which will enable you to master creative and production processes.
Explore the unseen and often un-glamorous aspects of the creative industries so you can gain an insight into how things work and where different power lies.
The end of the keynote concluded the conference with Lemara’s call to action ringing in our ears as we stepped out into the September sun.
Lemara Lindsay-Prince – Senior Commissioning Editor, Merky Books
Through its mission to educate, inspire and create access to the arts and heritage sector for young people of Black and Minority Ethnic descent throughout the UK, this years annual BCA Pathways career event, Seeing Ourselves, Hearing Our Voices shone a light on a variety of career paths, whilst supporting sustainable representation and leadership within the arts.
*Other speakers included: Jean Campbell – Arts Educator and Greg Bunbury – Graphic Designer, Creative Consultant, Diversity & Inclusion Consultant
Keep up to date with the Seeing Ourselves project by clicking the button below:
Photos courtesy of Lewis Patrick Photography (PALAssociates)
Transforming Legacies with Pacheanne Anderson
Interview with Transforming Legacies curator, Pacheanne Anderson (He/They)
Photo: Ryan Adrian Prince
Tell us a bit about this exhibition…
The exhibition is about looking into what Black British art has meant over the past 40 or 50 years. As it is still in its infancy, there are so many stories and visual representations of our past(s) and present to display or review. Through showing a diverse range of works with different forms such as sculpture, moving image, collage and painting I wanted to make a note of the diversity of black talent based here in London and South London specifically.
Why did you want to do this at BCA?
When asked to curate the exhibition, I wanted first and foremost for the exhibition to present an opportunity for Black people to learn about fine art in a black space, run and ,managed by black people - to give the opportunity to my community to see a calibre of works and artists they would usually have to travel into central and east London to see. Part of my curatorial practice is to fill gaps of art exposure, education on the sides of viewership and the inclusivity of artists in spaces that welcome their intersections.
Who should visit the exhibition?
Everyone. Everyone who cares about being Black and feeling seen in the art space. Potential artists and curators to understand how space can be used and transformed to include varied experiences of blackness. People who are not part of the creative space and want a new understanding of exposure to fine art in a place made for and by them. Older or conservative folx who may be confronted by conversations of queerness and/or complete artistic expression in a way they had never been interrogated before. Young people who never felt they had a place to be heard or feel seen. The community around BCA who need something exciting to see that they can afford to walk to and bring their friends to.
What impact do you want the exhibition to have on visitors?
To see something new, to learn about black existence in a Black space, to see themselves in the work or even the opportunity to curate and have that job as a Black person. To bring queer Black commentary into a space which might have usually rejected it. To use the archives to show that Black artists have been expressing themselves through art and performance for a very long time.
What legacy do you want it to leave?
Good vibes, authentic representation and fair pay and treatment of Black artists, art professionals and creatives when working with institutions. I want to show people the importance of working and collaborating with black spaces and institutions where we control our own voices and narratives and are treated with respect from start to finish.
Pacheanne Anderson
***
Transforming Legacies is on at Black Cultural Archives until 29 January 2023.
Visit the exhibition: Black Cultural Archives, 1 Windrush Square, Brixton SW2 1EF
Times: Thursdays - Saturdays, 10:00-18:00, Sundays, 12:00-17:00
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, 1926-2022
The Trustees and staff of Black Cultural Archives are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth II. We fondly remember visits to Black Cultural Archives from His Royal Highness Prince Charles during Her Majesty’s reign and our thoughts are with him now, as King Charles III, and his family during this time of national mourning for Her Majesty The Queen.
Black Cultural Archives-hosted events will be closed on the day of Her Majesty’s funeral.
Dr Yvonne Thompson CBE | DL
Chair, Black Cultural Archives
Meet the Trustees: Marie-Claire Amuah
Marie-Claire Amuah
My decision to apply for a position as a Trustee of Black Cultural Archives (BCA) was inspired by the mission, vision and work of the organisation: to collect, preserve and celebrate the histories of people of African and Caribbean descent in the UK and to inspire and give strength to individuals, communities, and society.
In April 2021, I found myself looking at a black and white photograph of Brixton 40 years earlier. The photograph is centered by an upside down police car. The car’s back windows are smashed and flames spill from its insides. At the back, the flames mix with heavy black smoke which billows from the tyres and out of the left side of the frame. There are people in the distance - black people. I cannot read the expressions on their faces. There are traffic lights that indicate no right turn and a railway bridge which spans the width of the photograph. To the right is an advert for hand rolling tobacco which boldly encourages people to ‘get the economy rolling’. The photograph was taken during the Brixton Uprising in 1981. It is just one example from the 50 sq meters of archival material in BCA’s archive which is one of the most comprehensive collections of material that documents the history and cultural heritage of Black Britain.
I don’t need the road sign underneath the advert in the photograph to tell me that it’s a photograph of the junction where Atlantic Road meets Brixton High Street; I know it instinctively. I know the building that is now Marks & Spencer. I know the clock under which H Samuel stood for many years. And I know that Bon Marché was once a busy department store on Brixton High Street. I know this because I was born and raised on Dalberg Road, SW2. I attended Corpus Christi primary school on Trent Road and I was baptized in the adjoining church. I am a British Ghanaian South Londoner. My heart and life and identity is rooted in all: Brixton, South London and Ghana. If you walk in the direction of Morleys and cross the road at the traffic lights, you will come to the Ritzy and the library next to which you will find the home of BCA at 1 Windrush Square.
It is an honour to sit on the Board of BCA and to contribute to the vision and strategy of the organisation. To compliment my professional career with meaningful voluntary work is a means of personal fulfillment that I have always enjoyed and prioritised. As a criminal barrister, I am a trained advocate with prosecution and defence experience in the Magistrates’ Court and Crown Court. As a Trustee, I am able to lend my skills as an advocate and litigator to provide legal advice to the Board and operational team. An example of this might be in relation to the ongoing response and action of the Home Office to the Windrush scandal; or establishing a partnership between BCA and a law firm to provide pro bono assistance and support to the organisation.
One for Sorrow, Two for Joy
I am also an author, whose debut novel One for Sorrow, Two for Joy was published by Oneworld Publications in Autumn 2022. One for Sorrow, Two for Joy tells the story of Stella, a child of Ghanaian parents, born and raised in Brixton. Stella is born into the chaos of domestic violence and struggles to make sense of the world around her. She touches wood so that bad things won’t happen to her or her family - until she learns a poem about magpies, ‘one for sorrow…’ In my writing, I draw on my experience as a British Ghanaian South Londoner to explore the identity of Brixton, the myriad ways it has changed over the years and the impact on the community while offering a sensitive portrayal of the ripple effects of domestic violence, and a defiant story of friendship, resilience and hope.
As a Trustee of BCA, I am proud to share that there is a wealth of talent, knowledge and ambition across the organisation’s operational team and Board. There are a multitude of educational opportunities available at, and through, BCA via its archives, workshops, events and exhibitions. I hope that people inside, and outside, the local community are inspired to get involved with BCA, support its mission and take advantage of all its offerings. I am particularly looking forward to seeing our young people (I think that makes me ‘old’?!) at the BCA Pathways career event: 'Seeing Ourselves, Hearing Our Voices' at the Museum of London on 15 September 2022.
Trinidad & Tobago 60
To commemorate 60 years of independence for Trinidad & Tobago, musician Winston Albert, (Sobriquet) De Alberto Calypsonian has put together a selection of his top Calypso songs to celebrate this historical day.
De Alberto, began his career in Trinidad in 1985 at the spectacular forum calypso tent, spearheaded by the mighty Chalkdust, The Mighty Duke and many of the greats like David Rudder, Ras Iley and Arrow. He had a few hits like Rambo, Macho belly, Pan woman and Granny Lucas.
At the time, he was in the calypso circuit preparing shows on New York, Washington, Jamaica, Grenada, St Martin, St Vincent, and more. His most memorable performance then was at Broadway with the Mighty Sparrow.
Since De Alberto arrived in the UK in 1990, he has been teaching and singing all over. He has performed at the House of Lords, Lord’s Cricket Ground, Hackney Empire, the Carnival Village at Notting Hill, as well as events in Switzerland and France.
Winston Albert
De Alberto’s top Calypso songs to celebrate Trinidad & Tobago independence:
-
A beautiful composition celebrating women in calypso which is loved throughout the nation
-
Celebrating Trinidad as a Nation.
-
Acknowledging the history of Slavery.
-
Questioning the progress mankind has made.
-
A classic song on the dangerous of cocaine which started to plague the streets of Trinidad and Tobago.
-
One of the best Calypso songs composed by the grand master, Lord Kitchener.
-
Written by Winsford DeVines, acknowledging women who play the steel pan and sung by De Alberto.
-
This number advises our children on the importance of education.
-
This song advises the nation on how to be successful after we achieved independence.
-
This was a national anthem for most Trinidadians.
-
One of the great Calypso love songs.
The Windrush Scandal in a Transnational and Commonwealth Context
Dr. Juanita Cox
Caribbean migrants who came to the United Kingdom after World War II and before 1st January 1973 shared the status of Citizens of the UK and Colonies (CUKCs) and came to be known by the late 1990s as the Windrush Generation. Between 1962 and 1973 hugely complex layers of immigration and citizenship legislation gradually removed the right of CUKCs and Commonwealth citizens to enter and settle in Britain. Although those who had been settled in the UK prior to 1st January 1973 - the date when the 1971 Act came into force - were granted indefinite leave to remain (ILR) or in some cases right of abode, official records were not systematically kept of those who had rights to such status. Further to that, the onus to prove they were legally entitled to remain in the UK was placed on individual claimants rather than the Home Office, as one would ordinarily expect, by Section 3(8) of the 1971 Act. Many, who’d arrived as British subjects, were unaware that changing legislation had affected their settled status. And while they were entitled to register or naturalise as British citizens, at the time, there were no far-reaching or foreseeable implications for not doing so.
BCA collection name: Black Activists Against Rising Cuts (BARAC) Material
As Whitehall enforced a ‘hostile environment’ in the mid-2000s on those suspected of being illegal immigrants, Windrush generation migrants and descendants who lacked documentary evidence of their settled status encountered seemingly inexplicable difficulties. Some were forced out of work and/or from their homes. With the introduction of the 2014 and 2016 Immigration Acts, growing numbers were threatened with or subject to detention and, or deportation. Caribbean diplomats had contacted the Foreign Office as early as 2013 to express concern that some members of the Black-British Caribbean community were being wrongfully accused of illegal immigration status. While the Windrush Scandal finally came to a head during the Caribbean Heads of Government Meeting (16-18 April 2018), it is clear the British state had been alerted over a long period of time to the devastating impact of the policies not just from senior diplomats but also from MPs and different quarters of civil society including from Windrush victims and their advocates; charities, lawyers, trade unionists, the media, community activists, and religious organisations.
The Black Cultural Archives (BCA), responded to news of the Windrush injustice with a public meeting on Saturday, 28th April 2018 and offered regular on-going free legal surgeries – led by immigration specialist legal firm, McKenzie, Beute, and Pope – for people affected by the scandal. Paul Reid, the former director of BCA had noted that while they were responsible for ‘collecting, conserving and exhibiting’ histories of African and Caribbean people in Britain, they had also emerged out of a symbiotic relationship between culture and activism. This tradition of self-help continues and has been central to the approach of his successors, Arike Oke and the current Interim Managing Director, Lisa Anderson. The Institute of Commonwealth Studies, like Reid, recognised that the Windrush Scandal marked an ‘important moment in British history’.
*****
The changing nature of the legal definitions of Commonwealth, colonial and British citizenship are of key interest to the Institute of Commonwealth Studies (ICwS), as are the histories and contemporary concerns of the Commonwealth diaspora communities in the UK. The 3-year AHRC-funded project, The Windrush Scandal in a Transnational and Commonwealth Context which commenced in July 2021 thereby aims to produce a scholarly examination of the so-called Windrush Scandal within a fully transnational framework and give proper consideration to the agency of a wide variety of official and non-official actors from both sides of the Atlantic and the role of the post-colonial and Commonwealth contexts of international relations. The project speaks to a strong academic interest in oral history as a means of recording the perspectives and experiences of the Black-British Caribbean and wider Commonwealth communities. The key outputs of the project will include 60 major interviews, 30 with members of the Caribbean heritage community and their advocates, and 30 with Caribbean politicians and diplomats. It aims furthermore to enhance the University’s engagement with the British-Caribbean and wider Commonwealth communities in the UK by bringing academics, community activists and Windrush survivors together in an atmosphere of dialogue, exchange and sharing.
This means in addition to the extensive original research conducted by Dr Juanita Cox and her colleagues – Professor Philip Murphy, Dr Rob Waters and Dr Eve Hayes De Kalaf – Dr Cox has been provided with the opportunity to work an average of one day a week over the project’s three-year duration at BCA. This enables her to benefit from BCA’s invaluable research facilities including oral history collections and the expertise of the staff. It also provides the University with the means of ensuring the broadest possible dissemination of the project’s findings, with a special seminar – ‘History and Community Activism’ – which will be co-hosted by BCA. Dr Cox’s research also involves the identification of existing but disparate country-wide oral history sources: an initial survey conducted by the ICwS in 2019 had confirmed the existence of personal histories on the ‘Windrush Generations’, deposited in a wide variety of academic, community and personal holdings. A catalogue of this material – to be listed on the project website – will significantly help to contextualise and support community histories, and to highlight the wealth of the material being gathered outside the academy. We hope the accessible catalogue will contribute to the work already being done by the BCA while providing an important bridge between the academic world and the many researchers outside the academy who have been active in this field for decades.
Excerpts from the 60 oral history recordings will be hosted on a dedicated section of the Institute's website, and preserved in their original form on SAS Space, with additional copies in the University's Senate House Library (SHL). The audio recordings will be accompanied on the project’s web presence by a selection of primary documents from British government archives and individual Caribbean country repositories, expressly to underline the interplay of the domestic and international dimensions of the unfolding Windrush scandal. The oral history interviews themselves will be of immense value as primary source material to academics seeking to decolonize the curriculum in fields as diverse as political science, international relations, sociology, public policy, and public health research. We hope too that it will be of key interest to the diverse users of the Black Cultural Archives and the communities that it supports.
*****
Juanita Cox gained her PhD in 2013 from the Department of African Studies and Anthropology, University of Birmingham, and is a winner of the prestigious RE Bradbury Memorial Prize. She was a former Associate Fellow of the London Metropolitan University, where she lectured for three years in Caribbean Studies and Black British History. She co-founded the ground-breaking series Guyana SPEAKS in 2017, an education and networking forum, which has become a key monthly event in the calendar of the London-based Guyanese diaspora.
In 2019 she worked on the ‘Nationality, Identity and Belonging: An Oral History of the Windrush Generation and their Relationship to the British State, 1948-2018’ project at the University of London’s Institute of Commonwealth Studies and is currently working within the same institute on a three-year AHRC-funded oral history project, ‘The Windrush Scandal in a Transnational and Commonwealth Context’.
She is also a trustee on the board of the Oral History Society and a proud contributor of poetry to the international anthology of writing by women of African descent, New Daughters of Africa (2019).
Jamaica 60
Dr Ayshah Johnston
This year’s independence theme, ‘Reigniting the Country for Greatness,’ has generated a year-long programme of cultural events in Jamaica, including street parade, music, film and a grand gala in the national stadium. The theme has been followed in the diaspora, with events taking place around the Commonwealth games in Birmingham, UK. But as ever, while we celebrate with national pride the activities of the last 60 years that have placed our small island firmly on the world map through the achievements of our cultural icons, Independence Day is also a time for sober reflection.
Reverend Father Sean Major-Campbell, Anglican priest and human rights advocate, asks ‘Greatness for Whom?’ in an article in the Gleaner 31 July 2022. He mixes patriotic celebration of national and individual acts of citizenship with concern over the stifling of economic hopes, ‘the elusive goal of transformational development.’
As a historian with no expertise in contemporary global economic and political processes, I fall back on the historical record to relate the evolving sentiments of Jamaicans around Independence.
A selection of BCA’s archived material on Jamaica Independence, dating from 1971 to 2002.
At the 25th anniversary in 1987, Prime Minister Edward Seaga’s Independence message honoured the citizens of the diaspora and highlighted that it was also the centenary of the birth of Marcus Garvey, ‘foremost in kindling the flame of a national identity.’ In 1971, the African Caribbean Committee, a New York-based Pan-African organisation, produced a pamphlet Truth, Jamaica Independence which started with the pre-independence history of enslavement and exploitation for profit, and lamented the ongoing control of banks, factories, housing, etc. by colonial elites after Emancipation. Since Independence, the country was transferred to the hands of the USA and Canada economically, with some politicians amassing great wealth.
Black people made up 90% of the population but owned only 10% of the island’s wealth. Meanwhile the tourist industry was promoting Jamaica as a place of ‘fun and sun’ while Black living conditions remained poor and the government was not controlling the island’s resources for the benefit of the people. Thus, Black people remained ‘in service’ as waiters, maids, cooks and drivers. True independence, according to the Committee, was to be achieved through African unity. They called on people to dispel the negative view of Africa implanted in our minds by colonisers, and likewise refrain from identifying as Jamaicans, Trinidadians, Dominicans, etc. and come together as one race with a common heritage and common experience of racial discrimination ‘so that a united Caribbean would be ensured of the protection of the richest continent in the world.’
*****
The heyday of Garveyism may be in the past, and the Pan-African ideal may seem far from realisation. However, at the annual Emancipation Day celebrations in Brixton the tone is one of Pan-African unity and Reparations. While Emancipation and Jamaican Independence are two separate commemorations, the sentiments expressed at this time of year are common to both: Reparations and Development.
The 25th anniversary of Independence coincided with the silver jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, and the Association of Jamaicans (UK) produced a programme of joint celebration. This year also marks the Queen’s platinum jubilee, but the contrast is self-evident. The future of the Caribbean in the Commonwealth is speculative, following Barbados’s exit in November 2021, and 2022 royal tours marked by protests during which the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda raised the question of Reparations directly with the royal visitors. Though African unity as envisioned by Garvey is as yet unattainable, Reparations is very much on the political agenda and cannot be dismissed as a pipe dream. Sir Hilary Beckles, vice-chancellor of the University of the West Indies and chair of the CARICOM Reparations Commission, makes a twofold call: firstly, for the British state to acknowledge its debt, and secondly for Britain to return to the Caribbean as a development partner. Beckles’s book, How Britain Underdeveloped the Caribbean: A Reparation Response to Europe’s Legacy of Plunder and Poverty, was launched to coincide with the 60th anniversary of Independence of both Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.
*****
At BCA, the material we hold in our library and archives speaks to the evolving views and opinions of activists, academics and cultural leaders. We continue to archive key moments in our histories, and encourage people to make appointments to visit our reading room and research the fascinating materials for themselves.
A new dawn for Ms Dawn
Dr Yvonne Thompson’s CBE | DL tribute to Ms Dawn Hill CBE, as she steps down from BCA’s Board of Trustees and becomes BCA’s first Lifetime Patron
The late John Lewis, American politician and civil rights activists once famously said when describing his work in 2020, “You are the light, never let anyone, any person or any force, dampen or diminish your light”. Those words could easily be used to embody the spirit and the force majeure that is the focus of this tribute, the indomitable, Dawn Hill CBE. Ms Dawn, as she is affectionately known, has a body of work in the public realm in the UK that spans over four decades and as we use this article to pay homage to her civic industry – we also show our respects to the new day that is dawning for our Ms Dawn, in her transition towards a more ceremonial role in the advancement of Black Cultural Archives.
Ms Dawn arrived in the UK from Jamaica at the tender age of 17 to join an NHS Nursing Cadet recruitment scheme to train as a nurse. (with aspirations of getting into the nursing profession.) Having completed her training as a State Registered Nurse (1960) Ms Dawn went on to the London School of Economics gaining Diplomas in Social Policy and Administration and Personnel Management. She has held senior management positions in the NHS, Social Services, Education community and health organisations and in management consultancy gaining Chartered Member of the Institute for Personnel Development (CIPD).
At that point even though she was not aware at the time, Ms Dawn was ready to take on her real life’s mission. Being central to a group of young radicals whose mission was to record the history of black people arriving and making history in the UK, and make it available for all to access locally, nationally, and internationally for generations to come.
Envisioned by archivist, historian, academic and lecturer Len Garrison, Black Cultural Archives, a repository, and custodian of Black history in the UK was born 40 years ago. Through Len Garrison’s leadership, Ms Dawn, along with other visionaries, friends, supporters and colleagues were central to bringing the archives from its inception to its physical, and permanent site at the iconic building, appropriately addressed as 1 Windrush Square, in Brixton.
Their chief aim, to make the Black Cultural Archive eponymous with Black British Culture here in the UK in all its forms.
From her career path as a State Registered Nurse with a background in social policy and administration through to her inspirational work in shaping the Black Cultural Archives, Ms Dawn’s body of work in the public space has been impressive to say the least:
Trustee, Mary Seacole Memorial Statue Appeal and President Mary Seacole (Legacy) Trust
Governor (elected patient representative) at Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospital NHS Foundation Trust from 2009 to 2015 and a non-executive director from 1999 to 2007
Governor, Evelina Children’s Hospital School, St Thomas’ Hospital to present
Panel member, Lambeth education appeals – admissions, exclusions and employee dismissals
Member of the Lambeth library commission, 2011
Chair of management board, Blackliners HIV & AIDS and Sexual Health Services
Chair of Governors, Norwood Girls School, Lambeth, 1992 to 2000
Board member, African and Caribbean Family Mediation Service
Founder (1972) and management advisor, Rainbow Community Nursery, Hackney
Ms Dawn was awarded Prime Minister Theresa May’s Points of Light in 2017 for her 30 years of voluntary service and labelled a cultural activist.
The pinnacle of her glittering public life occurred in 2018 when our Ms Dawn was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s 2018 New Year’s Honours list for services to culture.
After being the Chairperson of Black Cultural Archives for 12 years, in June 2022, Ms Dawn stepped back from the Board frontline duties and day-to-day hustle of the leadership to become BCA’s first Lifetime Patron.
As she steps back from the Board, Ms Dawn certainly remains a light and a force of energy for all that is positive in the fight for racial equality and social justice in the UK.
She left the BCA Board with these parting words
“I am immensely proud to be associated with Black Cultural Archives, a major accomplishment for the Caribbean and African communities in the UK. I was determined to see the archive collection properly housed and in a quality building that people would love to visit. This achievement has been against a back drop of discrimination, uprisings and a lack of funding over the last 40 years. Today the archives are being utilised by research scholars, teachers, historians, film makers, poets and the general public of all ethnicities. Black people say they feel at home when they visit us. My daughter, son and husband now past and family have been amazing in their support. I would like to thank The Mayor’s Commission on Black and Minority heritage and culture, Lambeth Council and the Heritage Lottery Fund for their support and in believing we had a product that would be of benefit to this country”.
Dr Yvonne Thompson CBE|DL, BCA’s current Chair, says to Ms Dawn Hill CBE “As you hand the leadership baton to us, on behalf of all those who have worked with BCA, our Trustees, staff and stakeholders past and present, we pay tribute and send every good wish to you for your transition to quieter times and knowing your bright light, will continue to shine at BCA.
Dr Yvonne Thompson CBE|DL: Chair BCA
At HOME with Tony Fairweather
Interview with Tony Fairweather
Tony Fairweather, curator of BCA’s latest exhibition - HOME: Remembering the Windrush Generation - gives us an insight into this nostalgic recreation of the iconic Caribbean front room, kitchen and bedroom.
Tell us a bit about this exhibition…
The aim is to save the original artefacts from the Windrush era. The Windrush collection is a touring exhibition with all original artefacts that includes the legendary Caribbean Front Room/ Living Room. The Caribbean bedroom and kitchen are now part of the collection. The Exhibition has a smaller collection that can tour Schools and Colleges. This collection is for past and future generations to enjoy and learn about the brave young people who came from the Caribbean and Africa to the “Mother Country” that they only knew through books (no Google map, no satnav) many were aged between 18 - 25 years old.
Why did you want to do this at BCA?
BCA is the home of Caribbean history, so it’s the perfect place to hold this exhibition!
Which object in the collection has the most interesting story?
A rare vintage 1950’s Aladdin Blue Flame heater used all over the house. There was no central heating back in the day. The heater was used for cooking, heating the hot comb, heating water and the room. Many Windrush generation people have the burn marks from this heater either on their legs or arms from trying to keep warm.
What’s the most popular item in your collection?
The glass fish that every home had. It was originally the sign of a Christian home but became a fashion item in the ‘50s-’60s.
What’s your favourite object?
The Pall, it was a toilet used at night if you could not get to the outside toilet, it always get an emotional response from people.
Who do you want to come to this exhibition?
Anyone who is interested in history, all the Windrush Generation people and the young people so they can see how we use to live.
What classic item do you wish you had most in the Windrush Collection?
The front room drinks bar, not just any drinks bar but the moon shape one, cream in colour, with matching stools.
What are your thoughts on the Windrush scandal?
Disgusting… you pay your taxes, have a family then one day there’s a knock at the door?! Some of the Windrush people had to live on the streets, they lost their jobs, their house, their lives.
What is your hope for this exhibition?
To be placed in a museum on permanent display.
***
HOME: Remembering the Windrush Generation is on at Black Cultural Archives until 10 September 2022.
Visit the exhibition: Black Cultural Archives, 1 Windrush Square, Brixton SW2 1EF
Times: Thursdays - Saturdays, 11:30am-5:00pm
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
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.
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"
BCA sits down with Professor Hakim Adi to talk about his latest editorial project, Black British History, ahead of his sell out event.
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/