‘Before the Windrush: race relations in 20th century Liverpool’
7:00pm - 8:00pm /
Thursday 24th November 2016
/ Venue: Seminar Room 6 Rendall Building
- Dr Alex Balch
- Suitable for: All Staff, Students and members of the public with an interest in this area.
Add this event to my calendar
Click on "Create a calendar file" and your browser will download a .ics file for this event.
Microsoft Outlook: Download the file, double-click it to open it in Outlook, then click on "Save & Close" to save it to your calendar. If that doesn't work go into Outlook, click on the File tab, then on Open & Export, then Open Calendar. Select your .ics file then click on "Save & Close".
Google Calendar: download the file, then go into your calendar. On the left where it says "Other calendars" click on the arrow icon and then click on Import calendar. Click on Browse and select the .ics file, then click on Import.
Apple Calendar: The file may open automatically with an option to save it to your calendar. If not, download the file, then you can either drag it to Calendar or import the file by going to File >Import > Import and choosing the .ics file.
Speaker: Professor John Belchem
Based on extensive primary sources, my book attempts to bring historical perspective and context to debate about race and immigration in Britain. As the gateway of empire, the great seaport of Liverpool attracted significant numbers of ‘coloured’ colonials long before the arrival of West Indian migrants on the ‘Empire Windrush’ in 1948. Their legal status as British subjects in the ‘motherland’ notwithstanding, Liverpool’s ‘coloured’ community of transients, sojourners and settlers were the first to discover that ‘There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack’. Their struggle against prejudice and discrimination serves as foundation narrative in the making of the black British, an identity obscured and misunderstood by conventional concentration on recent immigration.
The warnings emanating from Liverpool’s troubled pattern of race relations went unheeded in Britain’s uneasy transition to a multi-cultural society, as the empire ‘came home’ following decolonisation. Instead of serving as object lesson, Liverpool was by this time marginalised and denigrated, condemned as an internal ‘other’ at odds with positive developments elsewhere in enterprise Britain. For agencies seeking to regenerate and rehabilitate the city, measures to address racial discrimination and disadvantage were seldom a priority (or even included) in a succession of ill-fated projects to tackle multiple deprivation. In the aftermath of the Toxteth riots of 1981, once proud ‘cosmopolitan’ Liverpool stood condemned for its ‘uniquely horrific’ racism.
About the Speaker: Having published extensively on 19th century British popular protest and working-class radicalism, John Belchem changed focus a couple of decades or so ago to concentrate on the history of Liverpool. His books on the city include, Merseypride: essays in Liverpool exceptionalism; Liverpool 800: culture, character and history which he edited to mark the 800th anniversary in 2007 of the granting of letters patent; Irish, Catholic and Scouse: The history of the Liverpool-Irish, 1800-1939; Liverpool: City of Radicals which he co-edited with Bryan Biggs; and most recently Before the Windrush: race relations in 20th century Liverpool. He retired from the University of Liverpool after 33 years at the end of 2012, having completed a term of office as Pro-Vice Chancellor, and is now Emeritus Professor of History. He is currently working with Bryan Biggs on a book to mark the 300the anniversary of the Bluecoat in Liverpool in 2017.
Based on extensive primary sources, my book attempts to bring historical perspective and context to debate about race and immigration in Britain. As the gateway of empire, the great seaport of Liverpool attracted significant numbers of ‘coloured’ colonials long before the arrival of West Indian migrants on the ‘Empire Windrush’ in 1948. Their legal status as British subjects in the ‘motherland’ notwithstanding, Liverpool’s ‘coloured’ community of transients, sojourners and settlers were the first to discover that ‘There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack’. Their struggle against prejudice and discrimination serves as foundation narrative in the making of the black British, an identity obscured and misunderstood by conventional concentration on recent immigration.
The warnings emanating from Liverpool’s troubled pattern of race relations went unheeded in Britain’s uneasy transition to a multi-cultural society, as the empire ‘came home’ following decolonisation. Instead of serving as object lesson, Liverpool was by this time marginalised and denigrated, condemned as an internal ‘other’ at odds with positive developments elsewhere in enterprise Britain. For agencies seeking to regenerate and rehabilitate the city, measures to address racial discrimination and disadvantage were seldom a priority (or even included) in a succession of ill-fated projects to tackle multiple deprivation. In the aftermath of the Toxteth riots of 1981, once proud ‘cosmopolitan’ Liverpool stood condemned for its ‘uniquely horrific’ racism.
About the Speaker: Having published extensively on 19th century British popular protest and working-class radicalism, John Belchem changed focus a couple of decades or so ago to concentrate on the history of Liverpool. His books on the city include, Merseypride: essays in Liverpool exceptionalism; Liverpool 800: culture, character and history which he edited to mark the 800th anniversary in 2007 of the granting of letters patent; Irish, Catholic and Scouse: The history of the Liverpool-Irish, 1800-1939; Liverpool: City of Radicals which he co-edited with Bryan Biggs; and most recently Before the Windrush: race relations in 20th century Liverpool. He retired from the University of Liverpool after 33 years at the end of 2012, having completed a term of office as Pro-Vice Chancellor, and is now Emeritus Professor of History. He is currently working with Bryan Biggs on a book to mark the 300the anniversary of the Bluecoat in Liverpool in 2017.