Windrush generation’s battle for civil rights

By Vic Motune

WHEN YOU mention the civil rights movement, what comes to mind for most people is the struggle for equal rights under the law that took place in America and saw its leaders such as Dr Martin Luther King Jnr and Medgar Evers rise to world prominence.

But the racism and discrimination faced by African Americans was echoed in post-war Britain.

The new arrivals frequently faced housing discrimination, being forced to pay landlords high rents for overcrowded and unsanitary living conditions. And signs like “No blacks, no Irish, no dogs” were not uncommon in 1960s Britain.

The Windrush generation’s struggles sparked the birth of a grassroots activist movement aimed at achieving racial equality and civil rights.

It was a movement that led to huge changes in society, among them the passing of landmark race relations legislation and the election of Black and minority ethnic members of parliament.

Among those who made a significant impact in the early years of that movement was Claudia Jones, an activist and journalist born in Trinidad and Tobago.

In her youth, she migrated to the United States, where she became a Communist political activist, feminist, and Black nationalist. But facing persecution by the US authorities she was deported in 1955, later finding refuge in Britain.

Arriving in London at a time when the Black community was steadily growing, Jones recognised its need to get organised if racism was to be effectively tackled.

She was the driving force behind the launch of the West Indian Gazette in March 1958, the first major Black newspaper in Britain, located above a Brixton barbershop.

Four months after the newspaper’s launch, riots erupted in Notting Hill, west London. The area’s large Caribbean community had become a target for the open hostility of white working-class youth, commonly referred to as ‘Teddy Boys’.

Racial tensions were also fuelled by right-wing political groups such as the British Union of Fascists who tried to rally locals with the slogan ‘Keep Britain White.’

The riots, which followed an earlier outbreak of racial violence in Nottingham, led to the hospitalisation of three Black men for several weeks.

The Notting Hill “racial riots” as the media referred to them at the time shocked the country into realising that the racial tensions that existed in Britain equate as it failed to address discrimination in housing and employment. Pressure groups emerged with a determination to amend the legislation. nation. were not so different from those in the American South. Determined to find solutions, Jones began launching events that emphasised the richness of Caribbean culture and history in direct response to the hostility displayed by white racists.

The West Indian Association was formed to try to address these challenges. One of its primary concerns was the Bristol Omnibus Company’s colour bar policy, which denied employment to Black and Asian workers.

The events she organised are widely seen as the forerunners of the first Notting Hill Carnival in 1964.

Another person who played a key role in campaigning for the rights of Black people in the 1960s is Paul Stephenson.

In 1963, Stephenson, then a 26-year-old teacher, led a boycott against the Bristol Omnibus Company.

Black Bristolians, largely based in the St Pauls area of the city, faced discrimination in housing, employment, and violence from white British Teddy Boy gangs.

Inspired by the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955, Stephenson organised a 60-day bus boycott that gained national media exposure and substantial public support.

Politicians and church groups were among those who backed the campaign.

On August 28, 1963, the company finally lifted its employment colour ban, a decision which was announced on the same day as Martin Luther King Jr’s iconic “I have a dream” speech.

The Bristol Bus Boycott is widely credited with influencing the introduction of the Race Relations Act in 1965, which prohibited racial discrimination in public spaces.

Stephenson continued to make headlines when he faced trial for his refusal to leave a pub until he was served a beer.

However, activists found the 1965 Race Relations Act inad-

Among them was the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination (CARD), a group inspired by Martin Luther King Jr.’s visit to Britain in December 1964.

CARD also arose from the frustration over the major political parties’ seeming lack of action against racial discrimi-

Among its founding members were the Trinidadian historian CLR James, Dame Jocelyn Barrow who became CARD’s General Secretary, and its chair Dr David Pitt, a doctor who had moved to Britain from Grenada.

In 1959, Pitt had become the first person of African Caribbean heritage to stand as a parliamentary candidate, representing Labour in Hampstead.

Under Pitt’s leadership, CARD

DRIVING FORCE:

The campaigning efforts of Claudia Jones, an activist and journalist from Trinidad and Tobago, had a significant impact in the 1950s and early 60s adopted the lobbying techniques of America’s NAACP which involved urging CARD members to write to their local MPs in an effort to raise awareness about ongoing discrimination.

CARD’s 1966 ‘Summer Project’ exposed the weaknesses of the 1965 Race Relations Act. The initiative involved sending students to test housing and job opportunities, revealing widespread racial bias. Over 150 complaints were filed, highlighting the need for additional legislation.

Several national newspapers covered CARD’s testing campaign and published editorials in favour of extending the Race Relations Act.

The campaign led to the 1968 Race Relations Act, banning discrimination in housing, employment, and public services.

Pitt went on to become the first Black chair of the Greater London Council. He later became a life peer in the House of Lords where he played a leading role in campaigning for the introduction of the 1976 Race Relations Act.

Dame Barrow became a prominent figure in the fields her work, including an OBE in 1972. However, despite its success CARD was short-lived. Its emphasis on including white liberals and establishment figures as part of its efforts to mobilise the community alienated an emerging generation of radicalised activists.

In the late 1960s, a shift occurred as young people, inspired by the Black Power movement in the US, challenged discrimination more overtly.

The movement was fuelled by increasing racism in Britain. Politicians like Wolverhampton South MP Enoch Powell blamed immigrants for a range of social and economic issues and attracted controversy with his Rivers of Blood speech in 1968. Although not a member