Black British Reader

Introducing CULTURE SHOCK™, a Black British history quiz card game.

This is something I’ve been working on over the last few months and I’m really excited to share it with you all. 

Culture Shock is a fun and educational quiz card game that inspires learning about the history of Black people in Britain spanning over a hundred years. 

With 52 question cards, you will learn about key figures in history, key dates and events. 

For ages 11+, teens, adults, parents, grandparents, friends - see what you can learn together!

Pocket-sized and easy to play.

I’ve got some copies left, and with Black History Month here, I’d rather see them in use than sitting in storage. If you’ve wanted one for a games night, event, or just your shelf, now’s the time: https://designrevolution.bigcartel.com

Photo credit: Liz Obi with Olive Morris ©Neil Kenlock, 1973

“Within the [Black Panther] Movement itself I was most inspired by Olive Morris. I’d never met anyone like her before and haven’t met anyone like her since. She was fearless, bold, and outspoken, and during the Movement days we became good friends.

The first time Olive made a real impression on me was during my early days in the Movement. It was on a demonstration of residents from the Ferndale Road flats. Beverley Bryan and Olive had been working with the tenants concerning housing conditions - there had been a lot of fires in the flats caused by the use of paraffin heaters and the tenants were demanding that the Council install some form of heating. A demonstration of about 30 tenants made up mainly of women and children, together with members of the Movement set off one weekday morning from the flats in Ferndale Road* to the Housing Office on Brixton Hill. It was the first demonstration I’d been on.

When we reached the Housing Office the tenants demanded to see the Head of Housing to discuss the issue and were told by the housing office staff that this would not be possible and we were to leave the premises or they would call the police. The tenants were unsure about what to do next until Olive spoke to the women and told them that yes we would leave the premises but that they should leave the children behind saying that if the Council would not meet wit them then the Council had better look after their children because it was not safe to take them back home. The women were naturally nervous about this course of action as they feared the Council would take their children into care but after further persuasion from Olive they agreed to do so and all the adults left the building leaving the children in care of the Housing Office staff. We were not outside the office for more than ten minutes before the head of the housing office agreed to come and meet with the demonstrators and the outcome was that the issue of heating provision would be looked into as a priority.

So yes Olive was definitely an inspiration.”

“The British Black Panthers and Black Power Movement: an oral history and photography project” Organised Youth, 2013

OLIVE MORRIS (26 June 1952 – 12 July 1979)

THANKS TO Remember Olive Collective (R.O.C. 2.0) AND ALL CONTRIBUTORS FOR THE ANTHOLOGY

Now available for download, Do You Remember Olive Morris is an anthology of personal and archival writings about Morris’ intellectual and activist engagements in London, Manchester and internationally. 

The publication was one of the outcomes of the project Do you remember Olive Morris?, alongside with this blog and a public collection comprising documents, photographs and over 30 oral history interviews (available at Lambeth Archives.

Marlon, now 45, was 18 at the time of the racist attack in March 1994 and is still described by family and supporters as Bristol’s Stephen Lawrence.

20 fairground workers attacked young Black people at Bob Wilson’s Fair at the Downs in Bristol. Five people were hospitalised, more were injured and Marlon was left for dead. Marlon’s head injuries were so severe that he was in a coma and was unable to move or speak and he now communicates yes or no through blinking.

Today we remember Winifred Atwell, who died on this day at the age of 69 in 1983. 

Winifred was a Trinidadian pianist known for her boogie-woogie and ragtime hits. In 1954 she became the first black person to reach #1 in the UK.

“Between 1952 when she reached number five with Britannia Rag, and 1959 when Piano Party reached number ten, she had eleven top-ten hits and is still the most successful female instrumentalist to have ever featured in the British pop charts.”

In 1956, Winifred opened a hair salon for Black women on Railton Road in Brixton. It was called The Winifred Atwell Salon.

“The Winifred Atwell Show was a British TV series which aired 1956 to 1957. It spent part of its run on the BBC, and part of its run on ITV. Atwell did a later series in the early 1960s called The Amazing Miss A. She was likely the first black woman to have her own series on British television.”

You might have seen Winifred Atwell featured in this artwork as part of the LDN WMN series for the #BehindEveryGreatCity campaign in 2018. (Artist: Carleen De Sözer)

Just some of Winifred’s achievements:

First black person to have a hit in the UK single charts.

Only female instrumentalist to have had a hit in the UK singles charts.

Sold over 20 million records.

First female pianist to be awarded the Royal Academy of music’s highest grading for musicianship.

An accomplished classical musician, she made one of the first stereo recordings: Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

John La Rose

(December 27, 1927 - February 28, 2006)

John La Rose was a Trinidadian-born publisher, cultural activist and pioneer with an incredible legacy.

Before making his home in London, La Rose organised with workers and trade unions in Trinidad: “The encounter with white racism and the manoeuvres of the British capitalist power did not begin in England but in the Caribbean.”

In 1966, La Rose founded New Beacon Books, one of Britain’s first black publishing houses. He co-founded the Black Parents Movement (1969-1993), the George Padmore Institute (1991-), the Caribbean Artists Movement (1966-72) and organised the International Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World Books with Race Today Publications and Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications (1982-95).

“I saw publishing as a vehicle which gave an independent validation of one’s own culture, history, politics - a sense of one’s self - a break with discontinuity.”

In 1981, La Rose was the chair of the New Cross Massacre Action Committee (NCMAC) which led to the coordination of the Black People’s Day of Action (March 2, 1981).

John La Rose died of a heart attack on 28 February 2006.

Obituary: John La Rose https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/mar/04/guardianobituaries.socialexclusion

Darcus Howe 

(February 26, 1943 - April 1, 2017)

Today we celebrate the life of Rhett Radford Leighton “Darcus” Howe. 

We remember his work as a television broadcaster, organiser, civil rights activist, member of the British Black Panther Movement and editor of Race Today.

Darcus Howe’s Political Biography by Robin Bunce and Paul Field is open access on Bloomsbury Collections: