by LAURENCE BROWN
The bus boycott of 1963, Bristol
As we approach the 800th aniversary of Magna Carta, let us recall other important anniversaries which mark the struggle for black and minority ethnic rights in the UK.
This year will mark 800 years since the signing of Magna Carta, the charter guaranteeing for the first time the rule of law between the monarch and nobility. It is often described as the first of many steps in England to increasing political, civil and social rights. This gathered pace during the 19th century with the Great Reform Acts and culminated in 1928 with universal female suffrage and the 1945 vision of the Welfare State.
But notably absent in this broad narrative of gradual liberal reform are the discordant experiences of Britain’s ethnic minorities, their rapid and repeated exclusions from ‘the rights of freeborn Englishmen’, and how their own activism and agency has enriched British politics.
During the second half of the 20th century, Britain experienced a civil rights movement that was arguably as profound as that which reshaped the USA. However, unlike the American civil rights movement which has been memorialised in documentaries, films, museums and monuments and extensively taught in universities and schools (including in Britain), the British civil rights struggle is largely excluded from the curriculum, cultural institutions and public debate.
2015 also marks:
– The 60th anniversary of strikes and demonstrations against the colour bar that excluded non-white workers from the transport industry.
– The 50th anniversary of the formation of the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination (CARD) which was a coalition to challenge racism in employment, housing and public life.
– The 40th anniversary of the conference that resulted in a new national Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) to give meaning to legislation against discrimination.
– The 30th anniversary of urban riots reacting to racial profiling and police violence.
– These are not events that occurred in Alabama, Georgia, Chicago or Oakland; they took place in Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester and London.
Open Democracy for more