Black bookshops in 1970/80s Britain were few and far between. Those that did exist were subject to continued racist attacks including firebombing. Spaces where Black people could meet and learn were few and far between so bookshops were often packed out and people would travel long distances to get books. While in the bookshop, advice would be sought, information shared, change and campaigns initiated at a time when many people did not have their own phone far less a computer.
This one-off series of lectures will interview several of these booksellers/activists. With personal testimony, photos and video clips we will tell this powerful story of resistance by reading and retail.
In the first two sessions (16th and 23rd )we will cover the incredible Walter Rodney bookshop founded by the legendary 90 year old Eric Huntley and his late wife Jessica Huntley. In session three on the 30th April ,we visit Michael La Rose of New Beacon Books, the oldest black bookshop in Britain. We end with the famous Centerprise and Emmanuel Amevor on Wednesday 5th May at 6.30pm
We will cover:
- The dangers of selling Black books
- The multi purpose role of the book shop space
- Black business and education
- The fight for premises, how white institutions block Black progress
- The link into self -publishing
- International speakers in odd places
- The Saturday School connection
- Bookshops and political campaigns: Scrap Sus, Racism on the buses, Anti Apartheid, The Grenada revolution, school banding
This is an online event at 6.30pm UK/GMT time. The link will be sent 45 minutes before the start please check your JUNK MAIL . Look out for our new book Black History Walks in London Volume 1 from Jacaranda Books
Other coming events from Black History Walks www.blackhistorywalks.co.uk
- Black History River Cruise
- Anti Racism as Politics with Professor Paul Gilroy
- The Amazing true story of Sarah Parker Remond
- Fibroids and reproductive health: new research from the Caribbean
- Jim Kelly, Kung Fu and Black British Civil Rights
- 1968 Race Relations Act and the legacy of Black Lawyers
- Prince the Black History Breakdown
- Is Britain responsible for America’s Race Relations ?
- Coded Bias: Racism disguised in computer programming
- The Gentrification of Peckham and Black Urban removal worldwide
- The British Black Panther Movement
About the Speaker
Eric and Jessica Huntley, pioneering Black political and social activists and radical book publishers born in what then was, British Guiana arrived in England in the 1950’s and wasted no time before becoming active in political and social issues relating to the British African-Caribbean community’s in and around London. For over 50 years the Huntley’s participated in many significant grassroots campaigns. These included:
• Founder member of the Caribbean Education and Community Workers Association (CECWA), the first specialist Black education group to have been established in the UK.
• The Black Parents Movement (BPM) formed in 1975 following the arrest and assault by Haringey police of a Black schoolboy named Cliff McDaniel outside his school. This organisation built up alliances with similar organisations nationally and internationally going on to participate in campaigns involving political crises in South Africa, Grenada and Guyana.
• Involvement with the Anti-Banding protest movement organised by the North London West Indian Association (NLWIA) that played an important part in challenging Haringey Council’s plans to assess all pupils in its schools using the now discredited IQ tests and to teach children in “bands” according to their performance.
• Organisers of the 1981 Black People’s Day of Action march that attracted 20,000 black Britons from all over the country and was the largest protest march of black people.
• The Supplementary School Movement, created to supplement the shortcomings of an education system that was failing Black children.
• The establishment of Bogle-L’Ouverture Publications, to promote radical Black writing. Bogle-L’Ouverture went on to publish texts by Walter Rodney, Bernard Coard, Lemn Sissay and Valerie Bloom
In 1974 the Huntley’s opened their, Bookshop, at that time called ‘The Bookshop’, in West Ealing, London. The bookshop was later renamed as the ‘Walter Rodney Bookshop’ and quickly became a place of importance for Britain’s Black community. https://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/article/gallery/test-diane-julie-abbott-politician/
About the Sarah Parker Remond Centre at U.C.L
The University College London Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism and Racialisation explores the impact of racism – scientific, metaphysical and cultural. Part of the UCL Institute of Advanced Studies, they work closely with many partners on-site to provide a focal point for scholarship, teaching and public engagement activities that are addressed to various problems of racial inequality and hierarchy.