Concepts of ‘race’ and racism are central to British history. They have shaped, and been shaped by, British identities, economies and societies for centuries, from seventeenth-century enslavement in the Caribbean to the ‘hostile environment’ of the 2010’s. Yet state and societal racism has always been met with resistance. Britain has been home to anti-slavery societies, Pan-African Congresses, and antifascist organisations. At a more quotidian level, even those who might not have identified as anti-racist have challenged the racism of their peers, bosses and friends in informal ways. People have challenged and reshaped notions of ‘Britishness’ through dress, art and staking their claim to British identity. This conference will explore the trends and patterns of British anti-racism — its continuities and discontinuities, its fusions and fissions — in order to understand how anti-racism has shaped Britain, and the possibilities for the anti-racist struggles of today and tomorrow.

Keynote lecture: Professor Hakim Adi (University of Chichester)

Organising committee: Saffron East (University College London); Grace Redhead (University College London); Theo Williams (King’s College London)

PROGRAMME:

Day 1 – Friday 24th April 2020

• 09:00-09.45 AM – Registration
• 09:45-11:15 AM – Panel 1: Exploring Transnational Politics of Anti-racism, 1880-1960: Chances, Limits and Legacies

Alison Holland, ‘Constant dripping wears away a stone’: The British Legacy of Anti-Slavery in Australia. Towards an Anti-racism History.

David Killingray, Action to counter race discrimination in Britain from the 1880’s to 1913

Felix Lösing, False empathy: The British Congo reform movement and white saviourism

• 11:15-11:30 AM  – Break
• 11:30-13:00 PM – Panel 2: The State and Citizenship

Christopher Fevre, ‘There is no justice here for the coloured man’: Challenging Racist Policing in Britain, 1919-1959

Amy Grant, A Strange Sanctuary: State, Hate, and God in Late Twentieth Century Britain

Virgillo Hunter, The Windrush Scandal: Migration, Citizenship, Family and Belonging

• 13:00-14:00 PM – Lunch
• 14:00-15:30 – Panel 3: Anti-racism and Identity

Talat Ahmed, Tartan Inclusivity or Workers Internationalism: The origins of St Andrew’s Day Anti-racism March and Rally

Joseph Finlay, Jewish Anti-racists in Post-war Britain

Aleema Gray, Rastafari Women Speak: Resistance, Self-reliance and Unity ina Babylon

15:30-15:45 PM – Break

15:45-17:15 PM – Panel 4: London and Anti-racism

Martin Evans, Fires in two post-colonial Babylons: Some reflections on a comparative and connected history of anti-racist movements in London and Paris 1976-1985

Finnian Gleeson, Stories from the riverside: Narratives of race, class, and loss in London’s Docklands, c.1997-2003

Gil Shohat, ‘Allyship’ of Equals? London Encounters of British Leftists and Anticolonial Activists from the Colonies in the Struggle for Decolonisation, c. 1930’s-1960’s

18:00-19:30 – Hakim Adi’s keynote lecture

Day 2 – Saturday 25th April 2020

09:00-10:00 AM – Registration

10:00-11:30 AM – Panel 5: Music and Culture

Benjamin Bland, Finding the Groove: “Jah Punk”, Anti-racism, and (Flawed?) Constructions of Multiculturalism in the Late 1970’s British Music Press

Jessica Chow, Black Against the Stave: Black Modern Girls in British Interwar Jazz

Vanessa Mongey, Student on the move: Showcasing African culture in the North

11:30-11:45 AM – Break

11:45-13:15 PM – Panel 6: Stop the Seventy Tour: 50 Years On

Geoff Brown, Tony Collins, Christabel Gurney, Christian Høgsbjerg, Pete Loewenstein and Anna Paczuska

13:15-14:00 PM – Lunch

14:00-15:00 PM – Archives session (details TBC)

15:00-15:15 PM – Break

15:15-16:45 PM  – Panel 7: The Spatial and Gendered Dimensions of Anti-racist Activism during the Black Power Era in Britain

Zalirah Cooper, The Black British North: Establishing Space and Forming Resistance in the North (1970’s-80’s)

Jessica White, ‘One of the best days of my life was when I met Olive’: Olive Morris in Manchester, 1975-1978

Kerry Pimblott, “To visit and meet, learn and observe”: Black British Women and Activist Travel to the People’s Republic of China, 1964-1979

16:45-17:00 PM – Break

17:00-18:30 PM – Panel 8: Memory and Engaging with the Past

Megan Hunt, ‘An American-centric understanding of black history and identity.’ Martin Luther King, Jr. and the African American Freedom Struggle in British schools

Sophia Siddiqui, Anti-racist feminism: engaging with the past in the present

Patrick Soulsby, ‘History has to be reckoned with…’: Anti-racist memory cultures of British colonialism and the Holocaust, c. 1980-2001

PLEASE NOTE: Attendance is free, but please register in advance. Registration is separated into three sections: 1. Friday (not including the keynote lecture); 2. The keynote lecture; 3. Saturday. This is to help us gauge numbers on each day.

Register here

For more information visit the website