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Sociology in the Archives Project 2019-20 SOCIOLOGY INTHE ARCHIVES 2019 - 2020 PROJECT RACE AND ETHNICITY A PROJECT IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE BRITISH LIBRARY BY EMMA ABOTSI SOCIOLOGY I N T H E ARCHIVES Race and Ethnicity INTRODUCTION TO THE COLLECTIONS SOCIOLOGY IN R A C E A N D THE ARCHIVES EDUCATION: A PROJECT 2019 - VIEW FROM THE 20: RACE AND BRITISH ETHNICITY LIBRARY'S COLLECTIONS This collection of documents presents a sample of the British Racism has a significant impact on Library’s archival material from different aspects of the lives of African, Caribbean, and Asian immigrants and racialised minority communities in the UK to trace communities in Britain. Alongside the impact of race and racism on anti-immigrant rhetoric and young people’s educational policies, demands for ‘assimilation’ experiences from the 1960s - and ‘integration’, and 1980s. It is part of the British criminalisation and securitisation of Sociological Association’s (BSA) particular communities, inequalities initiative to highlight the in terms of access to education benefits of archival research in among other public services sociology. As a result, the BSA disproportionately affect youth has partnered with the British from African, Caribbean, Asian and Library (BL) to establish the other immigrant, and racialised ‘Sociology in the archives’ minority groups. However, in the project. face of these challenges, members of African, Caribbean and Asian communities have a rich tradition of activism and community-led programmes in order to provide support and advocate for better conditions and social justice for SOCIOLOGY IN THE ARCHIVES young people. This collection among other White residents which presents examples of such included protests over the initiatives. concentration of children of immigrants at local schools. Citizens of the Commonwealth were Documents like the article encouraged to come to the UK after ‘Immigrant classes Fill – Outside the second world war (late 1940s help called for’ published in and 1950s) to fill the demand for Middlesex County Times and West labour. The majority of Middlesex Gazette, Southall edition people came from the Caribbean, in 1964 and the British government’s Asia, and Africa to work and build a policy on the education of children life in the UK. Most of the of Commonwealth immigrants Commonwealth immigrants settled (1965) reflect public anxieties over in cities like London, Manchester, children of immigrants bringing and Bradford where there was work down the standards at schools or and, in some cases, existing not assimilating into British society. communities of people of African They also show how the authorities and Asian descent dating back to sought to limit the numbers. The the 18th century. Immigrants from government proposed the dispersal the Caribbean, Asia, and Africa policy to ensure that there were faced racial discrimination in their no more than 33% of children of daily lives such as lack of access to immigrants at schools. decent housing, unfavourable work conditions, and racial violence. A dozen Local Education Authorities adopted this policy and bussed By the 1960s, White residents children of immigrants (particularly began to move out of areas where those of non-European heritage) to Caribbean, Asian, and African spread them out between local people settled. This contributed to schools. The photograph of protests growing anti-immigrant sentiment against Dispersal (or 'bussing’ as it SOCIOLOGY IN THE ARCHIVES was known) in Southall is an in Samaj (1976), a London-based, example of Asian communities Black politics journal. The activist challenging racism in the group linked racism in the UK to educational system as bussing was British imperialism, anti-colonial discriminatory and had harmful and anti-apartheid struggles in consequences for the children southern Africa. involved. In this piece, as with documents in Extracts from oral history this collection, ‘Black’ is used as a interviews with academics and political term. Many African, activists Gail Lewis and Nadira Caribbean and Asian activists Mirza, and the essay Afterthoughts groups in the 1960s – 1980s were by Sonia Hammond provide organised under a collective notion personal accounts of schooling in of blackness which reflected their 1960s/1970s England. They capture views on shared struggles in the UK young people of Asian and and solidarity with movements such Caribbean heritage having to deal as the Black Panthers in the US as with teachers' stereotypes and low well as anti-colonial, anti- evaluations of their capabilities (as imperialist liberation movements Mirza discusses), feeling inferior around the world (e.g Africa and (Hammond), and learning about Latin America). However, 'political Black struggles and developing their blackness', the use of the term Black awareness of politics (Hammond by people of African descent and and Lewis). Asians as a label for non-White, has declined in usage by activist groups. Connections to the international It has also been critiqued by Black struggle can also be seen academics since the late 1980s, in the example taken from the early 1990s for not capturing the leaflet by Blackburn Asian youth complexities of the needs and organisation which was published priorities of different groups. It is SOCIOLOGY IN THE ARCHIVES still a contentious term as recent of anti-racist campaigns and articles in the Guardian and protests in schools in the 1980s. Gal-dem show. Dadzie, who is a well-known figure of the Black Women’s Movement in Since the 1970s, people from the UK, talks about her experiences African, Caribbean, and Asian of teaching in Haringey, London and communities set up educational fighting the marginalisation of Black initiatives to address the alienation (African and Caribbean) children in young people felt from being taught schools who were expelled and a curriculum based on Britain’s placed in 'sin bin' (pupil referral colonial legacies units). Young Asians' activism is which perpetuated racist views. captured in Rehman’s article which History, language, and culture were covers the 1982 Newham protests central to these community-led against racial violence at school and educational programmes (e.g. the harassment from the police. Black politics reading groups mentioned in Lewis’ clip). This While the collection of documents collection contains documents from presented here concerns events the archive of British-Caribbean from the 1960s to the 1980s, the poet and educator, James Berry, issues explored are not things of the who is celebrated for championing past. Institutional racism and racial Caribbean English and literature, inequalities are still prevalent in and his work with young people many sectors of society. For both in Black community education instance, Black children are still programmes and within the British more likely to be excluded from education system. school, young people of colour are disproportionately targeted by the The extracts from Stella Dadzie’s police, racist and Islamophobic oral history interview and Gulshan bullying in schools persists, and Rehman's article provide examples even healthcare inequalities SOCIOLOGY IN THE ARCHIVES affect communities of colour. Black Cultural Archives Communities continue to fight George Padmore Institute these struggles through Huntley Archives (London organisations and activist groups Metropolitan Archives) like Black Lives Matter UK, Institute of Race Relations No More Exclusions, Kids of Colour, Indian Workers Association and many more. With these examples of oral history interviews, news media, independent community publications, and documents from personal archives, this collection aims to offer an insight to the types of community responses to the challenges African, Caribbean and Asian youths faced around access to quality education and encourage further exploration of the topic through the rich materials at the British Library, and Black and Asian community archives. Here are a few archives with documents relating to African, Caribbean, and Asian communities in the UK: The Ahmed Iqbal Ullah RACE (Race Archives and Community Engagement) Centre SOCIOLOGY IN THE ARCHIVES EDUCATION large numbers of children of POLICY immigrants at two primary schools. The Minister of Education, Edward Boyle, visited Southall and, like the parents, saw the numbers as a problem. Boyle was against segregated schools as he was a firm believer in the role of schools to assimilate children of immigrants into the ‘British ways of life’. When reporting on his visit to the House of Commons, he suggested limiting the proportion of children of immigrants to one-third of the school's population. Immigration from the Commonwealth (1965) In 1964, the government’s This section consists of three Commonwealth Immigration documents relating to the dispersal Advisory Council (CIAC) also policy in the British education produced a report recommending system from the 1960s to late 1970s. spreading out children of immigrants to keep the numbers Fears over the concentration of down. minority groups in inner-city areas have been part of the general anti- Reports in newspapers like immigrant rhetoric in the UK Middlesex County Times and West following the arrival of immigrants Middlesex Gazette, Southall edition, from the Commonwealth in the show public panic about children of early 1950s. In 1963, White parents immigrants at local schools. For in Southall, London protested about SOCIOLOGY IN THE ARCHIVES instance, in the extract from an article published in the 11th April 1964 issue, the journalist used
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