1919. Race, riots and the Black British intelligentsia

In 1919 after thousands of African/Caribbean people had loyally fought for Britain in World War 1, they were viciously attacked by racist whites, denied jobs and told to ‘go home’. However in Liverpool, London and Cardiff the Black community fought back by any means necessary. The resistance was co-ordinated between Black soldiers and militant activists who lobbied, protested, fund-raised, punched, kicked and shot their way to self-determination. This presentation will cover:

• What were Black people doing here in the early 1900’s ?
• Unsung Black British Civil rights leaders of 1919
• The Black ‘James Bond’ who raised funds in the Caribbean to fund the revolution
• Black Butetown: where (and why) white people feared to tread
• British West Indian soldiers, how they defended their communities
• Suppressing the facts,why this information is not better known
• Plus Q&A

This is an online event.The Zoom link will be sent 90 minutes before the event starts.Please check your junk mail as some email servers mark our content as spam.

About the Speaker:

S.I Martin has worked as a journalist for The Voice and Bulletin. He is the author of a novel, Incomparable World (1996), which tells the story of three African-American fighters living in 18th-century London; and a non-fiction title, Britain’s Slave Trade (1999), published to accompany a television series screened on Channel 4.

Mr Martin has spent the last eleven years trawling through archives at the National Maritime Museum and the Black Cultural Archives. He has uncovered some amazing stories.

In 2007 his children’s novel, Jupiter Williams, was published. It tells the tale of a wealthy black boy who studies at the African Academy in 1800s London. He has various adventures while tracking down his younger brother who has vanished into the seedy backwaters of East London, where human traffickers abound. The second novel in this unusual black teenage boy adventure series, is Jupiter Amidships (2009) This story follows Jupiter as he graduates only to get involved in further escapades but this time on the high seas. On his way back home to his loving family in Sierra Leone, Jupiter has to deal with the vicious predations of the Royal Navy,secret cargos,high tech and murder.

The novels though fiction, contain lots of accurate historical detail and are a refreshing read for anyone interested in the story of free African people at the time of British mass murder and kidnap.

His thrilling action novel. Incomparable World is currently being made into a TV series by Ridley Scotts (Alien,Gladiator,Blade Runner) production company.

Other coming Black History Walks online events

• African Women Resistance Leaders: Political and Spiritual. (Course)
• Titian Sex ,Race and Murder, the Black image in art
• Inter-generational trauma in Haiti and Louisiana
• Science Fiction and Fantasy in the Caribbean: Barbados
• Black British Race Riots of 1919 and current relevance
• Medical Apartheid: European experiments on Black Bodies Part 1 and 2
• What were Black people doing in World War 1 ?
• The Black History of video games
• Hidden History of the Real McCoy
• African Superheroes Day

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