Black History

The Windrush was the encouragement of migration within the commonwealth especially from the Caribbean between 1948-1973. Many of these people set up lives and got jobs in the UK. Since these people were from the commonwealth they were automatically British subjects and free to live and work permanently in the UK without any formal documents. The Windrush scandal came to light in 2017 which showed that hundreds of those from the commonwealth had been wrongly detained, deported and denied their rights as they had no official paperwork, which when they arrived they did not need. This started with the 2012 hostile environment legislation which made it impossible for undocumented migrants to live in the UK. This had a negative impact on the children of the Windrush generation who were seen as illegal immigrants.

The Black Lives Matter movement started in 2013 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman who was a police officer that murdered 17 year old Treyvon Martin in 2012. It is a non-violent civil disobedience movement which protests police brutality. There have been countless deaths of black people at the hands of the police in America and throughout Europe. The protests in Ferguson in 2014 were started due to the shooting of Michael Brown in Missouri. The murder of George Floyd in 2020 has reignited the movement across the world. It is likely that the pandemic has enabled more people to make the time to educate themselves and act on the continuous injustice that black lives face. It is important that we remember police brutality is not just an American story but one that is also prevalent in the UK. Stephen Lawrence was murdered in London in 1993 because he was black, at the time suspects were arrested but not charged due to the police being compromised due to racism within the police.

The Slave Trade was an exchange of 'goods' across the Atlantic, this included buying and selling people. Britain first became involved in the 16th century but this had increased by the 18th century. Between 1532-1832 over 12 million slaves had been take to the Americas. The section of the journey where the slaves travelled is referred to as the 'Middle Passage'. This journey was traumatic for many as they were chained and tightly packed onto ships. Many people died before they even made it to America. The slave trade was finally abolished in Britain in 1772 ; nonetheless, slavery still continued in both Britain (as slaves had to serve 4-6 years after they had been freed) and America in which it was not abolished until 1865.

The Civil Rights movement began in the 1950s as a movement which intended to end the widespread discrimination of Black people in America. Segregation separated black and white people in America, they were not allowed to go to the same schools, use the same drinking fountains and had to stand on the bus if a white person wished to take a seat. This idea was founded on Plessy v Ferguson 1896 which said that they would be separate but equal. When in reality by being separate they could never be equal. This time recognises a huge list of important historical figures such as Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X and Rosa Parks. The movement led to universal suffrage for black people, the end of segregation and the fair housing act. In southern states oppression still ensued after the civil war with the implementation of Jim Crow laws and reactivation of the Klu Klux Klan.