Black British people are a multi-ethnic group of British citizens of either African or Afro-Caribbean descent.Gadsby, Meredith (2006), ''Sucking Salt: Caribbean Women Writers, Migration, and Survival'',
University of Missouri Press
The University of Missouri Press is a university press operated by the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri and London, England; it was founded in 1958 primarily through the efforts of English professor William Peden. Many publications a ...
, pp. 76–77. The term ''Black British'' developed in the 1950s, referring to the Black British West Indian people from the former Caribbean
British colonies
A Crown colony or royal colony was a colony administered by The Crown within the British Empire. There was usually a Governor, appointed by the British monarch on the advice of the UK Government, with or without the assistance of a local Coun ...
in the
West Indies
The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...
(ie, the
New Commonwealth
The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the Co ...
) now referred to as the
Windrush Generation
British African-Caribbean people are an ethnic group in the United Kingdom. They are British citizens whose ancestry originates from the Caribbean or they are nationals of the Caribbean who reside in the UK. There are some self-identified Afro-C ...
and people from
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
, who are residents of the United Kingdom and are British.
The term ''black'' has historically had a number of applications as a racial and political label and may be used in a wider sociopolitical context to encompass a broader range of non-European ethnic minority populations in Britain. This has become a controversial definition. ''Black British'' is one of various self-designation entries used in official UK ethnicity classifications.
Black residents constituted around 3 per cent of the United Kingdom's population in 2011. The figures have increased from the 1991 census when 1.63 per cent of the population were recorded as Black or Black British to 1.15 million residents in 2001, or 2 per cent of the population, this further increased to just over 1.9 million in 2011. Almost 97 per cent of Black Britons live in England, particularly in England's larger urban areas, with most (over a million) Black British living in Greater London.
Terminology
The term ''Black British'' has most commonly been used to refer to Black people of
New Commonwealth
The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the Co ...
origin, of African descent. For example,
Southall Black Sisters
Southall Black Sisters (SBS) is a non-profit organisation based in Southall, West London, England. This women's group was established in August 1979 in the aftermath of the death of anti-fascist activist Blair Peach, who had taken part in a de ...
was established in 1979 "to meet the needs of black (Afro-Caribbean and African) women" as well as to support the needs of Asian women. Note that "Asian" in the British context usually refers to people of South Asian ancestry. ''Black'' was at the time inappropriately used to mean "non-
white British
White British is an ethnicity classification used for the native white population identifying as English, Scottish, Welsh, Cornish, Northern Irish, or British in the United Kingdom Census. In the 2011 census, the White British population ...
".
In the 1970s, a time of rising activism against racial discrimination, the main communities so described were from the
British West Indies
The British West Indies (BWI) were colonized British territories in the West Indies: Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Montserrat, the British Virgin Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grena ...
and the
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...
. Solidarity against
racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonis ...
and discrimination sometimes extended the term at that time to the Irish population of Britain as well.
Several organisations continue to use the term to be inclusive even though Black people find it offensive, such as the Black Arts Alliance, who extend their use of the term to Latin Americans and all refugees, and the National Black Police Association. The official
UK Census
Coincident full censuses have taken place in the different jurisdictions of the United Kingdom every ten years since 1801, with the exceptions of 1941 (during the Second World War), Ireland in 1921/Northern Ireland in 1931,https://www.nisra.gov. ...
has separate self-designation entries for respondents to identify as "Asian British", "Black British" and "Other ethnic group". Due to the
Indian diaspora
Overseas Indians (IAST: ), officially Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs) are Indians who live outside of the Republic of India. According to the Government of India, ''Non-Resident Indians'' are citizens of Indi ...
and in particular
Idi Amin
Idi Amin Dada Oumee (, ; 16 August 2003) was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. He ruled as a military dictator and is considered one of the most brutal despots in modern w ...
's
expulsion of Asians from Uganda
In early August 1972, the President of Uganda, Idi Amin, ordered the expulsion of his country's Indian minority, giving them 90 days to leave the country. At the time of the expulsion, there were about 80,000 individuals of Indian descent in Ugand ...
in 1972, many
British Asians
British Asians (also referred to as Asian Britons) are British citizens of Asian descent. They constitute a significant and growing minority of the people living in the United Kingdom, with 6.9% of the population identifying as Asian/Asian Bri ...
are from families that had previously lived for several generations in the
British West Indies
The British West Indies (BWI) were colonized British territories in the West Indies: Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Montserrat, the British Virgin Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grena ...
1991 UK census
A nationwide census, commonly known as Census 1991, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday 21 April 1991. This was the 19th UK census.
''Census 1991'' was organised by the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys in England and Wales, t ...
Office for National Statistics
The Office for National Statistics (ONS; cy, Swyddfa Ystadegau Gwladol) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the UK Parliament.
Overview
The ONS is responsible for t ...
(ONS) and the
Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency
The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA, ga, Gníomhaireacht Thuaisceart Éireann um Staitisticí agus Taighde, links=no) is an executive agency within the Department of Finance in Northern Ireland. The organisation is resp ...
(NISRA) allow people in
England and Wales
England and Wales () is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is Eng ...
and
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
who self-identify as "Black" to select "Black African", "Black Caribbean" or "Any other Black/African/Caribbean background" tick boxes. For the 2011 Scottish census, the
General Register Office for Scotland
The General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) ( gd, Oifis Choitcheann a' Chlàraidh na h-Alba) was a non-ministerial directorate of the Scottish Government that administered the registration of births, deaths, marriages, divorces and adopti ...
(GOS) also established new, separate "African, African Scottish or African British" and "Caribbean, Caribbean Scottish or Caribbean British" tick boxes for individuals in
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
from Africa and the Caribbean, respectively, who do not identify as "Black, Black Scottish or Black British". In all of the UK censuses, persons with multiple familial ancestries can write in their respective ethnicities under a "Mixed or multiple ethnic groups" option, which includes additional "White and Black Caribbean" or "White and Black African" tick boxes in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
Historical usage
''Black British'' was also a term for those Black and
mixed-race
Mixed race people are people of more than one race or ethnicity. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed race people in a variety of contexts, including ''multiethnic'', ''polyethnic'', occasionally ''bi-eth ...
people in
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...
(known as the Sierra Leone Krio people, Krio) who were descendants of migrants from England and Canada and identified as British. They are generally the descendants of black people who lived in England in the 18th century and freed Black American slaves who fought for the Crown in the
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
lascars
A lascar was a sailor or militiaman from the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, the Arab world, British Somaliland, or other land east of the Cape of Good Hope, who was employed on European ships from the 16th century until the middle of the ...
) agreed to go to this West African colony on the condition that they would retain the status of British subjects, live in freedom under the protection of the British Crown, and be defended by the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
. Making this fresh start with them were some white people (see also
Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor
A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...
), including lovers, wives, and widows of the black men. In addition, nearly 1200 Black Loyalists, former American slaves who had been freed and resettled in
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland".
Most of the population are native Eng ...
, and 550
Jamaican Maroons
Jamaican Maroons descend from Africans who freed themselves from slavery on the Colony of Jamaica and established communities of free black people in the island's mountainous interior, primarily in the eastern parishes. Africans who were ensl ...
also chose to join the new colony.
History
Antiquity
There is evidence of people with African (largely
North Africa
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...
n) ancestry in Roman Britain. A craniometric study of 22 individuals from Southwark, Roman London, found that four of them appeared to be of likely African ancestry, and isotopic analysis of their bones suggested childhoods spent in a climate warmer than Roman Britain. Analysis of autosomal DNA from four individuals from Roman London found that one had North African ancestry, with brown eyes and dark brown or black hair. Bone isotopes suggested that this individual, a male aged over 45 years, had spent his childhood in the London region. The
Ivory Bangle Lady
The Ivory Bangle Lady is a skeleton found in Sycamore Terrace, York in 1901. She was a high-status adult female, potentially of North African descent, who died in York in the 4th century AD. Her skeleton was found with bracelets, pendants, ear ...
whose rich burial was found in York also had cranial features that hinted at an admixed white/black ancestry. Her sarcophagus was made of stone and also contained a jet bracelet and an ivory bangle, indicating great wealth for the time."Africans in Roman York?" , University of Reading, 26 February 2010. Retrieved 26 April 2015.
There is written evidence of the presence in
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the period in classical antiquity when large parts of the island of Great Britain were under occupation by the Roman Empire. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410. During that time, the territory conquered wa ...
of residents from Romanised North Africa, a region on the coast of modern Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia. The inscriptions suggest that most of these inhabitants were involved with the military. Some were in the upper echelons of society, however the population of these regions were largely
Berber people
, image = File:Berber_flag.svg
, caption = The Berber flag, Berber ethnic flag
, population = 36 million
, region1 = Morocco
, pop1 = 14 million to 18 million
, region2 = Algeria
, p ...
, rather than black Sub-Saharan Africans.
According to the '' Augustan History'', North African Roman emperor
Septimus Severus
Lucius Septimius Severus (; 11 April 145 – 4 February 211) was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna (present-day Al-Khums, Libya) in the Roman province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through the customary succe ...
supposedly visited Hadrian's Wall in 210 AD. While returning from an inspection of the wall, he was said to have been mocked by an "Ethiope" soldier holding a garland of cypress-boughs. Severus ordered him away, reportedly being "frightened" by his dark skin colour and seeing his act and appearance as an omen. The "Ethiope" is written to have said: "You have been all things, you have conquered all things, now, O conqueror, be a god."
Anglo-Saxon England
In 2013, a skeleton was discovered in
Fairford
Fairford is a town in Gloucestershire, England. The town lies in the Cotswold hills on the River Coln, east of Cirencester, west of Lechlade and north of Swindon. Nearby are RAF Fairford and the Cotswold Water Park.
History
Evidence of ...
,
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean.
The county town is the city of Gl ...
, which
forensic anthropology
Forensic anthropology is the application of the anatomical science of anthropology and its various subfields, including forensic archaeology and forensic taphonomy, in a legal setting. A forensic anthropologist can assist in the identification ...
revealed to be that of a Sub-Saharan African woman. Her remains have been dated between the years 896 and 1025. Local historians believe she was likely either a slave or a bonded servant.
16th century
Early in the 16th century, Catherine of Aragon likely brought servants from Africa among her retinue when she travelled to England to marry Arthur, Prince of Wales; she would go on to marry his younger brother Henry VIII. A black musician is among the six trumpeters depicted in the royal retinue of Henry VIII in the Westminster Tournament Roll, an illuminated manuscript dating from 1511. He wears the royal livery and is mounted on horseback. The man is generally identified as the "
John Blanke
John Blanke (also rendered Blancke or Blak) ( fl. 1501–1511) was a musician of African descent in London in the early 16th century, who probably came to England as one of the African attendants of Catherine of Aragon in 1501. He is one of the ...
, the blacke trumpeter," who is listed in the payment accounts of both Henry VIII and his father, Henry VII."John Blanke-A Trumpeter in the court of King Henry VIII" . Blackpresence, 12 March 2009. Retrieved 17 March 2011. A group of Africans at the court of James IV of Scotland, included
Ellen More
Ellen or Elen More () was an African servant at the Scottish royal court. There are records of clothing and gifts given to her, although her roles and status are unclear. Some recent scholarship suggests she was enslaved. She is associated with a ...
and a drummer referred to as the "
More taubronar The More Taubronar (died 1507) was a musician of African origin at the court of James IV of Scotland and his wife Margaret Tudor. His name is unknown. A "taubron" was a kind of drum, the word is related to the modern form "tabor". The word "More" or ...
". Both he and John Blanke were paid wages for their services. A small number of black Africans worked as independent business owners in London in the late 1500s, including the silk weaver Reasonable Blackman.
When trade lines began to open between London and West Africa, persons from this area began coming to Britain on board merchant and slaving ships. For example, merchant
John Lok
John Lok was the son of Sir William Lok, the great-great-great-grandfather of the philosopher John Locke (1632–1704). In 1554 he was captain of a slave trading voyage to Guinea. An account of his voyage was published in 1572 by Richard Eden.
...
brought several captives to London in 1555 from Guinea. The voyage account in Hakluyt reports that they: "were tall and strong men, and could wel agree with our meates and drinkes. The colde and moyst aire doth somewhat offend them."
During the later 16th century as well as into the first two decades of the 17th century, 25 people named in the records of the small parish of St. Botolph's in
Aldgate
Aldgate () was a gate in the former defensive wall around the City of London. It gives its name to Aldgate High Street, the first stretch of the A11 road, which included the site of the former gate.
The area of Aldgate, the most common use of ...
are identified as "blackamoors." In the period of the war with Spain, between 1588 and 1604, there was an increase in the number of people reaching England from Spanish colonial expeditions in parts of Africa. The English freed many of these captives from enslavement on Spanish ships. They arrived in England largely as a by-product of the slave trade; some were of mixed-race African and Spanish, and became interpreters or sailors. American historian
Ira Berlin
Ira Berlin (May 27, 1941 – June 5, 2018) was an American historian, professor of history at the University of Maryland, and former president of Organization of American Historians.
Berlin is the author of such books as ''Many Thousands Gone: ...
classified such persons as Atlantic Creoles or the Charter Generation of slaves and multi-racial workers in North America. Slaver
John Hawkins
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second ...
arrived in London with 300 captives from West Africa. However, the slave trade did not become entrenched until the 17th century and Hawkins only embarked on three expeditions.
Jacques Francis
Jacques Francis, also known as Jaques Frauncys, ( – after February 1548) was an African salvage diver who led the expedition to salvage King Henry VIII's guns from the ''Mary Rose''. He was the first African to give evidence in 1548 before a cou ...
, who has been described as a slave by some historians, but described himself in Latin as a "''famulus''", meaning servant, slave or attendant. Francis was born on an island off the coast of Guinea, likely Arguin Island, off the coast of Mauritania. He worked as a diver for Pietro Paulo Corsi in his salvage operations on the sunken ''St Mary'' and ''St Edward'' of
Southampton
Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...
and other ships, such as the ''
Mary Rose
The ''Mary Rose'' (launched 1511) is a carrack-type warship of the English Tudor navy of King Henry VIII. She served for 33 years in several wars against France, Scotland, and Brittany. After being substantially rebuilt in 1536, she saw her ...
'', which had sunk in
Portsmouth Harbour
Portsmouth Harbour is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest between Portsmouth and Gosport in Hampshire. It is a Ramsar site and a Special Protection Area.
It is a large natural harbour in Hampshire, England. Geographically it ...
. When Corsi was accused of theft, Francis stood by him in an English court. With help from an interpreter, he supported his master's claims of innocence. Some of the depositions in the case displayed negative attitudes towards slaves or black people as witnesses.
In March 2019 two of the skeletons found on the ''
Mary Rose
The ''Mary Rose'' (launched 1511) is a carrack-type warship of the English Tudor navy of King Henry VIII. She served for 33 years in several wars against France, Scotland, and Brittany. After being substantially rebuilt in 1536, she saw her ...
'' were found to have Southern European or North African ancestry; one found to be wearing a leather wrist-guard bearing the arms of Catherine of Aragon and royal arms of England is thought to possibly be Spanish or North African, the other, known as "Henry" was thought to also have similar genetic makeup. Henry’s mitochondrial DNA showed that his ancestry may have came from Southern Europe, the Near East, or North Africa, although Dr Sam Robson from the University of Portsmouth "ruled out" that Henry was black or that he was sub-Saharan African in origin. Dr Onyeka Nubia cautioned that the number of those on board the ''Mary Rose'' that had heritage beyond Britain was not necessarily representative of the whole of England at the time, although it definitely was not a "one-off". It is thought they are likely to have travelled through Spain or Portugal before arriving in Britain.
Blackamoor servants were perceived as a fashionable novelty and worked in the households of several prominent Elizabethans, including that of Queen Elizabeth I,
William Pole
William Pole FRS FRSE MICE (22 April 181430 December 1900) was an English engineer, astronomer, musician and an authority on Whist.
Life
He was born in Birmingham on 22 April 1814, the son of Thomas Pole.
Pole was apprenticed as an engineer t ...
, Francis Drake, and Anne of Denmark in Scotland. Among these servants was "John Come-quick, a blackemore", servant to Capt Thomas Love. Others included in parish registers include Domingo "a black neigro servaunt unto Sir William Winter", buried the xxviith daye of August
587
__NOTOC__
Year 587 ( DLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 587 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calenda ...
and "Frauncis a Blackamoor servant to Thomas Parker", buried in January 1591. Some were free workers, although most were employed as domestic servants and entertainers. Some worked in ports, but were invariably described as chattel labour.
The African population may have been several hundred during the Elizabethan period, and historian Michael Wood noted that Africans in England were "mostly free... ndboth men and women, married native English people." Archival evidence shows records of more than 360 African people between 1500 to 1640 in England and Scotland. Reacting to the darker complexion of people with biracial parentage,
George Best
George Best (22 May 1946 – 25 November 2005) was a Northern Irish professional footballer who played as a winger, spending most of his club career at Manchester United. A highly skilful dribbler, Best is regarded as one of the greatest p ...
argued in 1578 that black skin was not related to the heat of the sun (in
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
) but was instead caused by biblical damnation.
Reginald Scot
Reginald Scot (or Scott) ( – 9 October 1599) was an Englishman and Member of Parliament, the author of '' The Discoverie of Witchcraft'', which was published in 1584. It was written against the belief in witches, to show that witchcraft di ...
later associated black skin with witchcraft, describing (in his book ''Discoverie of Witchcraft'') an unprepossessing devil in 1584 as having "horns on his head, fire in his mouth, a tail, eyes like a bison, fangs like a dog, claws like a bear, ''a skin like a Niger'' and a voice roaring like a lion"; historian Ian Mortimer stated that such views "are to be noted at all levels of society". Views on Black people were "affected by preconceived notions of the Garden of Eden and the Fall from Grace." In addition, in this period, England had no concept of naturalization as a means of incorporating immigrants into the society. It conceived of English subjects as those people born on the island. Those who were not were considered by some to be incapable of becoming subjects or citizens.Taunya Lovell Banks "Dangerous Woman: Elizabeth Key's Freedom Suit – Subjecthood and Racialized Identity in Seventeenth Century Colonial Virginia" , 41 ''Akron Law Review'' 799 (2008), Digital Commons Law, University of Maryland Law School. Retrieved 21 April 2009.
In 1596,
Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen".
El ...
issued letters to the lord mayors of major cities asserting that "of late divers blackmoores brought into this realm, of which kind of people there are already here to manie...". While visiting the English court,
Casper Van Senden
Casper Van Senden was a German merchant who was active in Tudor-era England during the 16th century. Born in the German city of Lübeck, he eventually moved to the English capital of London, a major port at the time. Working as a merchant in H ...
, a German merchant from
Lübeck
Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the state ...
, requested the permission to transport "Blackamoores" living in England to Portugal or Spain, presumably to sell them there. Elizabeth subsequently issued a royal warrant to Van Senden, granting him the right to do so. However, Van Senden and Sherley did not succeed in this effort, as they acknowledged in correspondence with Sir Robert Cecil. In 1601, Elizabeth issued another proclamation expressing that she was "highly discontented to understand the great number of Negroes and blackamoors which (as she is informed) are carried into this realm", and again licensing van Senden to deport them. Her proclamation of 1601 stated that the blackamoors were "fostered and powered here, to the great annoyance of he queen'sown liege people, that covet the relief, which those people consume". It further stated that "most of them are infidels, having no understanding of Christ or his Gospel".
Studies of African people in
early modern Britain
Early modern Britain is the history of the island of Great Britain roughly corresponding to the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. Major historical events in early modern British history include numerous wars, especially with France, along with the E ...
indicate a minor continuing presence. Such studies include Imtiaz Habib's ''Black Lives in the English Archives, 1500–1677: Imprints of the Invisible'' (Ashgate, 2008), Onyeka's ''Blackamoores: Africans in Tudor England, Their Presence, Status and Origins'' (Narrative Eye, 2013), Miranda Kaufmann's Oxford DPhil thesis ''Africans in Britain, 1500–1640'', and ''Black Tudors: The Untold Story'' (Oneworld, 2017).
17th and 18th centuries
Slavery and the slave trade
Britain was involved in the tri-continental slave trade between Europe, Africa and the Americas. Many of those involved in British colonial activities, such as ship's captains, colonial officials, merchants, slave traders and plantation owners brought black slaves as servants back to Britain with them. This caused an increasing black presence in the northern, eastern, and southern areas of London. One of the most famous slaves to attend a sea captain was known as Sambo. He fell ill shortly after arriving in England and was consequently buried in Lancashire. His plaque and gravestone still stand to this day. There were also small numbers of free slaves and seamen from West Africa and South Asia. Many of these people were forced into beggary due to the lack of jobs and racial discrimination. In 1687, a "Moor" was given the freedom of the city of
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
. He is listed in the freemen's rolls as "John Moore – blacke". He is the only black person to have been found to date in the
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
rolls.
The involvement of merchants from
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...
in the
transatlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...
was the most important factor in the development of the Black British community. These communities flourished in port cities strongly involved in the slave trade, such as
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
and
Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
. Some Liverpudlians are able to trace their black heritage in the city back ten generations. Early black settlers in the city included seamen, the mixed-race children of traders sent to be educated in England, servants, and freed slaves. Mistaken references to slaves entering the country after 1722 being deemed to be free men are derived from a source in which 1722 is a misprint for 1772, in turn based on a misunderstanding of the results of the Somerset case referred to below. As a result, Liverpool is home to Britain's oldest black community, dating at least to the 1730s. By 1795, Liverpool had 62.5 per cent of the European Slave Trade.
During this era,
Lord Mansfield
William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, PC, SL (2 March 170520 March 1793) was a British barrister, politician and judge noted for his reform of English law. Born to Scottish nobility, he was educated in Perth, Scotland, before moving to Lond ...
declared that a slave who fled from his master could not be taken by force in England, nor sold abroad. However, Mansfield was at pains to point out that his ruling did not comment on the legality of slavery itself. This verdict fueled the numbers of Blacks who escaped slavery, and helped send slavery into decline. During this same period, many former American slave soldiers, who had fought on the side of the British in the
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
, were resettled as free men in London. They were never awarded pensions, and many of them became poverty-stricken and were reduced to begging on the streets. Reports at the time stated that they "had no prospect of subsisting in this country but by depredations on the public, or by common charity". A sympathetic observer wrote that "great numbers of Blacks and People of Colour, many of them refugees from America and others who have by land or sea been in his Majesty's service were... in great distress." Even towards white loyalists there was little good will to new arrivals from America.
Officially, slavery was not legal in England. The Cartwright decision of 1569 resolved that England was "too pure an air for a slave to breathe in". However, black African slaves continued to be bought and sold in England during the eighteenth century. The slavery issue was not legally contested until the Somerset case of 1772, which concerned James Somersett, a fugitive black slave from
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
. Lord Chief Justice
William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield
William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, PC, SL (2 March 170520 March 1793) was a British barrister, politician and judge noted for his reform of English law. Born to Scottish nobility, he was educated in Perth, Scotland, before moving to Lond ...
concluded that Somerset could not be forced to leave England against his will. He later reiterated: "The determinations go no further than that the master cannot by force compel him to go out of the kingdom." Despite the previous rulings, such as the 1706 declaration (which was clarified a year later) by Lord Chief Justice Holt on slavery not being legal in Britain, it was often ignored, with slaveowners arguing that the slaves were property and therefore could not be considered people. Slave owner Thomas Papillon was one of many who took his black servant "to be in the nature and quality of my goods and chattel".
Rise in population
Black people lived among whites in London in areas of
Mile End
Mile End is a district of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London, England, east-northeast of Charing Cross. Situated on the London-to-Colchester road, it was one of the earliest suburbs of London. It became part of the m ...
,
Stepney
Stepney is a district in the East End of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The district is no longer officially defined, and is usually used to refer to a relatively small area. However, for much of its history the place name appli ...
,
Paddington
Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Padd ...
, and
St Giles
Saint Giles (, la, Aegidius, french: Gilles), also known as Giles the Hermit, was a hermit or monk active in the lower Rhône most likely in the 6th century. Revered as a saint, his cult became widely diffused but his hagiography is mostly lege ...
. After Mansfield's ruling many former slaves continued to work for their old masters as paid employees. Between 14,000 and 15,000 (then contemporary estimates) slaves were immediately freed in England. Many of these emancipated individuals became labelled as the "black poor", the black poor were defined as former slave soldiers since emancipated, seafarers, such as South Asian lascars, former indentured servants and former indentured plantation workers.File, Nigel, and Chris Power (1981), ''Black Settlers in Britain 1555–1958'', Heinemann Educational. Around the 1750s, London became the home to many Blacks, as well as Jews, Irish, Germans and
Huguenot
The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...
s. According to
Gretchen Gerzina Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina (born 1950) is an American author and academic who has written mostly historically-grounded biographical studies. Her academic posts have included being the Kathe Tappe Vernon Professor of Biography at Dartmouth College, wo ...
in her ''Black London'', by the mid-18th century, Blacks accounted for somewhere between 1% to 3% of the London populace. Evidence of the number of Black residents in the city has been found through registered burials. Some black people in London resisted slavery through escape. Leading Black activists of this era included
Olaudah Equiano
Olaudah Equiano (; c. 1745 – 31 March 1797), known for most of his life as Gustavus Vassa (), was a writer and abolitionist from, according to his memoir, the Eboe (Igbo) region of the Kingdom of Benin (today southern Nigeria). Enslaved a ...
Dido Elizabeth Belle
Dido Elizabeth Belle (June 1761 – July 1804) was a British heiress and a member of the Lindsay family of Evelix. She was born into slavery and illegitimate; her mother, Maria Belle, was an enslaved African woman in the British West Indies. He ...
who was born a slave in the Caribbean moved to Britain with her white father in the 1760s. In 1764, ''
The Gentleman's Magazine
''The Gentleman's Magazine'' was a monthly magazine founded in London, England, by Edward Cave in January 1731. It ran uninterrupted for almost 200 years, until 1922. It was the first to use the term '' magazine'' (from the French ''magazine ...
'' reported that there was "supposed to be near 20,000 Negroe servants."
John Ystumllyn (c. 1738 - 1786) was the first well-recorded black person of
North Wales
North Wales ( cy, Gogledd Cymru) is a region of Wales, encompassing its northernmost areas. It borders Mid Wales to the south, England to the east, and the Irish Sea to the north and west. The area is highly mountainous and rural, with Snowdonia N ...
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, M ...
or the
West Indies
The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...
. He was taken by the Wynn family to their Ystumllyn estate in
Criccieth
Criccieth ( cy, Criccieth ) is a town and community on the Llŷn Peninsula in the Eifionydd area of Gwynedd in Wales. The town lies west of Porthmadog, east of Pwllheli and south of Caernarfon. It had a population of 1,826 in 2001, reducing ...
, and christened with the Welsh name John Ystumllyn. He was taught English and
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
by the locals, became a gardener at the estate and "grew into a handsome and vigorous young man". His portrait was painted in 1750s. He married local woman Margaret Gruffydd in 1768 and their descendants still live in the area.
It was reported in the Morning Gazette that there was 30,000 in the country as a whole, though the numbers were thought to be "alarmist" exaggerations. In the same year, a party for black men and women in a Fleet Street pub was sufficiently unusual to be written about in the newspapers. Their presence in the country was striking enough to start heated outbreaks of distaste for ''colonies of Hottentots''. Modern historians estimate, based on parish lists, baptismal and marriage registers as well as criminal and sales contracts, that about 10,000 black people lived in Britain during the 18th century. Other estimates put the number at 15,000. In 1772,
Lord Mansfield
William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, PC, SL (2 March 170520 March 1793) was a British barrister, politician and judge noted for his reform of English law. Born to Scottish nobility, he was educated in Perth, Scotland, before moving to Lond ...
put the number of black people in the country at as many as 15,000, though most modern historians consider 10,000 to be the most likely. The black population was estimated at around 10,000 in London, making black people approximately 1% of the overall London population. The black population constituted around 0.1% of the total population of Britain in 1780. The black female population is estimated to have barely reached 20% of the overall Afro-Caribbean population in the country. In the 1780s with the end of the American Revolutionary War, hundreds of black loyalists from America were resettled in Britain. Later some emigrated to
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...
, with help from
Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor
A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...
after suffering destitution, to form the
Sierra Leone Creole
The Sierra Leone Creole people ( kri, Krio people) are an ethnic group of Sierra Leone. The Sierra Leone Creole people are lineal descendant, descendants of freed African-American, Afro-Caribbean, and Sierra Leone Liberated African, Liberated Af ...
ethnic identity., originally published by Longman & Dalhousie University Press (1976).
Discrimination
In 1731 the Lord Mayor of London ruled that "no Negroes shall be bound apprentices to any Tradesman or Artificer of this City". Due to this ruling, most were forced into working as domestic servants and other menial professions. Those black Londoners who were unpaid servants were in effect slaves in anything but name. In 1787,
Thomas Clarkson
Thomas Clarkson (28 March 1760 – 26 September 1846) was an English abolitionist, and a leading campaigner against the slave trade in the British Empire. He helped found The Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade (also known ...
, an English abolitionist, noted at a speech in Manchester: "I was surprised also to find a great crowd of black people standing round the pulpit. There might be forty or fifty of them." There is evidence that black men and women were occasionally discriminated against when dealing with the law because of their skin colour. In 1737, George Scipio was accused of stealing Anne Godfrey's washing, the case rested entirely on whether or not Scipio was the only black man in Hackney at the time.
Ignatius Sancho
Charles Ignatius Sancho ( – 14 December 1780) was a British abolitionist, writer and composer. Born on a slave ship in the Atlantic, Sancho was sold into slavery in the Spanish colony of New Granada. After his parents died, Sancho's owner t ...
, black writer, composer, shopkeeper and voter in
Westminster
Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster.
The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...
wrote, that despite being in Britain since the age of two he felt he was "only a lodger, and hardly that." Sancho complained of "the national antipathy and prejudice" of native white Britons "towards their wooly headed brethren." Sancho was frustrated that many resorted to stereotyping their black neighbours. A financially independent householder, he became the first black person of African origin to vote in parliamentary elections in Britain, in a time when only 3% of the British population were allowed to vote.
Sailors of African descent experienced far less prejudice compared to blacks in the cities such as London. Black sailors would have shared the same quarters, duties and pay as their white shipmates. There are some disputes in the estimation of black sailors, conservative estimates put it between 6% and 8% of navy sailors of the time, this proportion is considerably larger than the population as a whole. Notable examples are Olaudah Equiano and
Francis Barber
Francis Barber ( – 13 January 1801), born Quashey, was the Jamaican manservant of Samuel Johnson in London from 1752 until Johnson's death in 1784. Johnson made him his residual heir, with £70 () a year to be given him by Trustees, express ...
.
Abolitionism
With the support of other Britons, these activists demanded that Blacks be freed from slavery. Supporters involved in these movements included workers and other nationalities of the urban poor. Black people in London who were supporters of the abolitionist movement include Cugoano and Equiano. At this time, slavery in Britain itself had no support from common law, but its definitive legal status was not clearly defined until the 19th century.
Oloudah Equiano
During the late 18th century, numerous publications and memoirs were written about the "black poor". One example is the writings of Equiano, a former slave who became an unofficial spokesman for Britain's Black community. His memoir about his life entitled ''
''.
In 1786, Olaudah Equiano became the first black person to be employed by the British government, when he was made Commissary of Provisions and Stores for the 350 black people suffering from poverty who had decided to accept the government's offer of an assisted passage to Sierra Leone. The following year, in 1787, encouraged by the
Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor
A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...
, about 400 black Londoners were aided in emigrating to
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...
in West Africa, founding the first British colony on the continent. They asked that their status as British subjects be recognized, along with requests that they be given military protection by the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
. However, even though the committee signed up about 700 members of the Black Poor, only 441 boarded the three ships that set sail from London to Portsmouth. Many black Londoners were no longer interested in the scheme, and the coercion employed by the committee and the government to recruit them only reinforced their opposition. Equiano, who was originally involved in the scheme, became one of its most vocal critics. Another prominent black Londoner,
Ottobah Cugoano
Ottobah Cugoano, also known as John Stuart (c. 1757 – after 1791), was an abolitionist, political activist, and natural rights philosopher from West Africa who was active in Britain in the latter half of the eighteenth century. Captured in t ...
, also criticised the scheme.
Ancestry
In 2007, scientists found the rare paternal haplogroup A1 in a few living British men with Yorkshire surnames. This clade is today almost exclusively found among males in
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, M ...
, where it is also rare. The haplogroup is thought to have been brought to Britain either through enlisted soldiers during Roman Britain, or much later via the modern
slave trade
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
. Turi King, a co-author on the study, noted the most probable "guess" was the West African slave trade. Some of the known individuals who arrived through the slave route, such as Ignatius Sancho and Olaudah Equiano, attained a very high social rank. Some married into the general population.
19th century
In the late 18th century, the British slave trade declined in response to changing popular opinion. Both Great Britain and the United States abolished the Atlantic slave trade in 1808, and cooperated in liberating slaves from illegal trading ships off the coast of West Africa. Many of these freed slaves were taken to Sierra Leone for settlement. Slavery was abolished completely in the British Empire by 1834, although it had been profitable on Caribbean plantations. Fewer blacks were brought into London from the West Indies and West Africa. The resident British black population, primarily male, was no longer growing from the trickle of slaves and servants from the West Indies and America. Abolition meant a virtual halt to the arrival of black people to Britain, just as immigration from Europe was increasing. The black population of Victorian Britain was so small that those living outside of larger trading ports were isolated from the black population. The mentioning of black people and descendants in parish registers declined markedly in the early 19th century. It is possible that researchers simply did not collect the data or that the mostly black male population of the late 18th century had married white women. Evidence of such marriages may still be found today with descendants of black servants such as Francis Barber, a Jamaican-born servant who lived in Britain during the 18th century. His descendants still live in England today and are white. Abolition of slavery in 1833, effectively ended the period of small-scale black immigration to London and Britain. Though, there were some exceptions, black and Chinese seamen began putting down the roots of small communities in British ports, not least because they were abandoned there by their employers.
By the late 19th century, race discrimination was furthered by theories of
scientific racism
Scientific racism, sometimes termed biological racism, is the pseudoscience, pseudoscientific belief that empirical evidence exists to support or justify racism (racial discrimination), racial inferiority, or racial superiority.. "Few tragedies ...
, which held that whites were the superior race and that blacks were less intelligent than whites. Attempts to support these theories cited 'scientific evidence', such as brain size. James Hunt, President of the London Anthropological Society, in 1863 in his paper "On the Negro's place in nature" wrote,"the Negro is inferior intellectually to the European... ndcan only be humanised and civilised by Europeans." In the 1880s, there was a build-up of small groups of black dockside communities in towns such as Canning Town, Liverpool and
Cardiff
Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...
.
Despite social prejudice and discrimination in Victorian England, some 19th-century black Britons achieved exceptional success.
Pablo Fanque
Pablo Fanque (born William Darby; 30 March 1810 – 4 May 1871) was a British equestrian performer and circus proprietor, becoming the first recorded Black circus owner in Britain. His circus was popular in Victorian Britain for 30 years, a p ...
, born poor as William Darby in
Norwich
Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...
, rose to become the proprietor of one of Britain's most successful Victorian circuses. He is immortalised in the lyrics of
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developmen ...
song "
Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
"Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" is a song recorded by the English rock band the Beatles for their 1967 album ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band''. It was written and composed primarily by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney.
...
" Thirty years after his 1871 death, the chaplain of the Showman's Guild said:
"In the great brotherhood of the equestrian world there is no colour line ar for, although Pablo Fanque was of African extraction, he speedily made his way to the top of his profession. The camaraderie of the ring has but one test – ability."
Another great
circus
A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclis ...
performer was equestrian Joseph Hillier, who took over and ran Andrew Ducrow's circus company after Ducrow died.
From the early part of the century, students of African descent were admitted to British Universities. One such student, for example, was the African American James McCune Smith who travelled from New York City to Glasgow University to study medicine. In 1837 he was awarded a medical doctorate and published two scientific articles in the ''London Medical Gazette''. These articles are the first known to be published by an African American medical doctor in a scientific journal.
An Indian Briton, Dadabhai Naoroji, stood for election to
parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
for the
Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left.
__TOC__ Active liberal parties
This is a li ...
Lord Salisbury
Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (; 3 February 183022 August 1903) was a British statesman and Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom three times for a total of over thirteen y ...
to remark that "however great the progress of mankind has been, and however far we have advanced in overcoming prejudices, I doubt if we have yet got to the point of view where a British constituency would elect a Blackman". Naoroji was elected to parliament in 1892, becoming the second Member of Parliament (MP) of Indian descent after David Ochterlony Dyce Sombre.
20th century
Early 20th century
According to the Sierra Leonean barrister and writer, Augustus Merriman-Labor, in his 1909 book ''Britons Through Negro Spectacles'', London's Black population at the time did "not much exceed one hundred" people and "To every one lack person in London there are over sixty thousand whites".
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
saw a small growth in the size of London's Black communities with the arrival of merchant seamen and soldiers. At that time, there were also small groups of students from Africa and the Caribbean migrating into London. These communities are now among the oldest black communities of London. The largest Black communities were to be found in the United Kingdom's great port cities: London's East End, Liverpool, Bristol and Cardiff's
Tiger Bay
Tiger Bay ( cy, Bae Teigr) was the local name for an area of Cardiff which covered Butetown and Cardiff Docks. Following the building of the Cardiff Barrage, which dams the tidal rivers, Ely and Taff, to create a body of water, it is re ...
Tyne & Wear
Tyne and Wear () is a metropolitan county in North East England, situated around the mouths of the rivers Tyne and Wear. It was created in 1974, by the Local Government Act 1972, along with five metropolitan boroughs of Gateshead, Newcas ...
and
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
. In 1914, the black population was estimated at 10,000 and centred largely in London. By 1918 there may have been as many as 20,000 or 30,000 black people living in Britain. However, the black population was much smaller relative to the total British population of 45 million and official documents were not adapted to record ethnicity. Black residents had for the most part emigrated from parts of the British Empire. The number of black soldiers serving in the British army, (rather than colonial regiments,) prior to World War I is unknown but was likely to have been negligibly low. One of the Black British soldiers during World War I was
Walter Tull
Walter Daniel John Tull (28 April 1888 – 25 March 1918) was an English professional footballer and British Army officer of Afro-Caribbean descent. He played as an inside forward and half back for Clapton, Tottenham Hotspur and Northampton Tow ...
, an English professional footballer, born to a Barbadian carpenter Daniel Tull and Kent-born Alice Elizabeth Palmer. His grandfather was a slave in
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate) ...
. Tull became the first British-born mixed-heritage infantry officer in a regular British Army regiment, despite the 1914 Manual of Military Law specifically excluding soldiers that were not "of pure European descent" from becoming commissioned officers.
Colonial soldiers and sailors of Afro-Caribbean descent served in the United Kingdom during the First World War and some settled in British cities. The South Shields community—which also included other "coloured" seamen known as lascars, who were from South Asia and the
Arab world
The Arab world ( ar, اَلْعَالَمُ الْعَرَبِيُّ '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, refers to a vast group of countries, mainly located in Western A ...
—were victims of the UK's first race riot in 1919. Soon eight other cities with significant non-white communities were also hit by race riots. Due to these disturbances, many of the residents from the Arab world as well as some other immigrants were evacuated to their homelands. In that first postwar summer, other racial riots of whites against "coloured" peoples also took place in numerous United States cities, towns in the Caribbean, and South Africa.Dr. Laura Tabili "Review of Jacqueline Jenkinson, ''Black 1919: Riots, Racism and Resistance in Imperial Britain'' , Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2009, ", ''Reviews in History'' website. Retrieved 13 April 2016. They were part of the social dislocation after the war as societies struggled to integrate veterans into the work forces again, and groups competed for jobs and housing. At Australian insistence, the British refused to accept the
Racial Equality Proposal
The was an amendment to the Treaty of Versailles that was considered at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. Proposed by Japan, it was never intended to have any universal implications, but one was attached to it anyway, which caused its controversy. ...
put forward by the Japanese at the
Paris Peace Conference, 1919
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
.
World War II
World War II marked another period of growth for the Black communities in London, Liverpool and elsewhere in Britain. Many Blacks from the Caribbean and West Africa arrived in small groups as wartime workers, merchant seamen, and servicemen from the army, navy, and air forces. For example, in February 1941, 345 West Indians came to work in factories in and around Liverpool, making munitions. By the end of 1943, there were 3,312 African-American GIs based at
Maghull
Maghull ( ) is a town and civil parish in Sefton, Merseyside (historically a part of Lancashire). The town is north of Liverpool and west of Kirkby. The area also contains Ashworth Hospital.
Maghull had a population of 20,444 at the 2011 Cens ...
and
Huyton
Huyton ( ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, Merseyside, England. Part of the Liverpool Urban Area, it borders the Liverpool suburbs of Dovecot, Knotty Ash and Belle Vale, and the neighbouring village of Roby, with which ...
, near Liverpool. The Black population in the summer of 1944 was estimated at 150,000, mostly Black GIs from the United States. However, by 1948 the Black population was estimated to have been less than 20,000 and did not reach the previous peak of 1944 until 1958.
Learie Constantine
Learie Nicholas Constantine, Baron Constantine, (21 September 19011 July 1971) was a West Indian cricketer, lawyer and politician who served as Trinidad and Tobago's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and became the UK's first black pee ...
, a West Indian cricketer, was a welfare officer with the
Ministry of Labour
The Ministry of Labour ('' UK''), or Labor ('' US''), also known as the Department of Labour, or Labor, is a government department responsible for setting labour standards, labour dispute mechanisms, employment, workforce participation, training, a ...
when he was refused service at a London hotel. He sued for breach of contract and was awarded damages. This particular example is used by some to illustrate the slow change from racism towards acceptance and equality of all citizens in London.
Post-war
In 1950, there were probably fewer than 20,000 non-White residents in Britain, almost all born overseas. After World War II, the largest influx of Black people occurred, mostly from the
British West Indies
The British West Indies (BWI) were colonized British territories in the West Indies: Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Montserrat, the British Virgin Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grena ...
. Over a quarter of a million West Indians, the overwhelming majority of them from
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
, settled in Britain in less than a decade. In 1951, the population of Caribbean and African-born people in Britain was estimated at 20,900. In the mid-1960s, Britain had become the centre of the largest overseas population of West Indians.Procter, James (ed.), ''Writing Black Britain 1948–1998: An Interdisciplinary Anthology'', Manchester University Press, 2000. This migration event is often labelled "Windrush", a reference to the , the ship that carried the first major group of Caribbean migrants to the United Kingdom in 1948.
"Caribbean" is itself not one ethnic or political identity; for example, some of this wave of immigrants were Indo-Caribbean. The most widely used term used at that time was ''
West Indian
A West Indian is a native or inhabitant of the West Indies (the Antilles and the Lucayan Archipelago). For more than 100 years the words ''West Indian'' specifically described natives of the West Indies, but by 1661 Europeans had begun to use it ...
'' (or sometimes ''coloured''). ''Black British'' did not come into widespread use until the second generation were born to these post-war migrants to the UK. Although British by nationality, due to friction between them and the White majority they were often born into communities that were relatively closed, creating the roots of what would become a distinct
Black British identity Black British identity is the objective or subjective state of perceiving oneself as a black British person and as relating to being black British. Researched and discussed across a wide variety of mediums; the identity usually interesects with, a ...
. By the 1950s, there was a consciousness of Black people as a separate group that had not been there between 1932-38. The increasing consciousness of Black British peoples was deeply informed by the influx of Black American culture imported by Black servicemen during and after World War II, music being a central example of what Jacqueline Nassy-Brown calls "diasporic resources". These close interactions between Americans and Black British were not only material but also inspired the expatriation of some Black British women to America after marrying servicemen (some of whom later repatriated to the UK).
Late 20th century
In 1961, the population of people born in Africa or the Caribbean was estimated at 191,600, just under 0.4% of the total UK population. The 1962 Commonwealth Immigrants Act was passed in Britain along with a succession of other laws in
1968
The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide.
Events January–February
* January 5 – " Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
* Janu ...
1981
Events January
* January 1
** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union.
** Palau becomes a self-governing territory.
* January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...
, which severely restricted the entry of Black immigrants into Britain. During this period it is widely argued that emergent blacks and Asians struggled in Britain against racism and prejudice. During the 1970s—and partly in response to both the rise in racial intolerance and the rise of the Black Power movement abroad—''black'' became detached from its negative connotations, and was reclaimed as a marker of pride: black is beautiful. In 1975, David Pitt was appointed to the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...
. He spoke against racism and for equality in regards to all residents of Britain. In the years that followed, several Black members were elected into the
British Parliament
The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprem ...
. By 1981, the black population in the United Kingdom was estimated at 1.2% of all countries of birth, being 0.8% Black-Caribbean, 0.3% Black-Other, and 0.1% Black-African residents.
Since the 1980s, the majority of black immigrants into the country have come directly from Africa, in particular,
Nigeria
Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
and
Ghana
Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
in West Africa,
Uganda
}), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...
and
Kenya
)
, national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Nairobi
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Nairobi
...
in East Africa,
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and ...
, and
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
in Southern Africa. Nigerians and Ghanaians have been especially quick to accustom themselves to British life, with young Nigerians and Ghanaians achieving some of the best results at GCSE and A-Level, often on a par or above the performance of white pupils. The rate of
inter-racial marriage
Interracial marriage is a marriage involving spouses who belong to different races or racialized ethnicities.
In the past, such marriages were outlawed in the United States, Nazi Germany and apartheid-era South Africa as miscegenation. In 19 ...
between British citizens born in Africa and native Britons is still fairly low, compared to those from the Caribbean.
By the end of the 20th century the number of black Londoners numbered half a million, according to the
1991 census
A nationwide census, commonly known as Census 1991, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday 21 April 1991. This was the 19th UK census.
''Census 1991'' was organised by the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys in England and Wales, t ...
. The 1991 census was the first to include a question on ethnicity, and the black population of Great Britain (i.e. the United Kingdom excluding Northern Ireland, where the question was not asked) was recorded as 890,727, or 1.6% of the total population. This figure included 499,964 people in the Black-Caribbean category (0.9%), 212,362 in the Black-African category (0.4%) and 178,401 in the Black-Other category (0.3%). An increasing number of black Londoners were London- or British-born. Even with this growing population and the first blacks elected to Parliament, many argue that there was still discrimination and a socio-economic imbalance in London among the blacks. In 1992, the number of blacks in Parliament increased to six, and in 1997, they increased their numbers to nine. There are still many problems that black Londoners face; the new global and high-tech information revolution is changing the urban economy and some argue that it is driving up unemployment rates among blacks relative to non-blacks, something, it is argued, that threatens to erode the progress made thus far. By 2001, the Black British population was recorded at 1,148,738 (2.0%) in the 2001 census.
Street conflicts and policing
The late 1950s through to the late 1980s saw a number of mass street conflicts involving young Afro-Caribbean men and British police officers in English cities, mostly as a result of tensions between members of local black communities and whites.
The first major incident occurred in 1958 in Notting Hill, when roaming gangs of between 300 and 400 white youths attacked Afro-Caribbeans and their houses across the neighbourhood, leading to a number of Afro-Caribbean men being left unconscious in the streets. The following year, Antigua-born Kelso Cochrane died after being set upon and stabbed by a gang of white youths while walking home to Notting Hill.
During the 1970s, police forces across England increasingly began to use the Sus law, provoking a sense that young black men were being discriminated against by the police The next newsworthy outbreak of street fighting occurred in 1976 at the Notting Hill Carnival when several hundred police officers and youths became involved in televised fights and scuffles, with stones thrown at police, baton charges and a number of minor injuries and arrests.
The
1980 St. Pauls riot
The St Pauls riot occurred in St Pauls, Bristol, England on 2 April 1980 when police raided the Black and White Café on Grosvenor Road in the heart of the area. After several hours of disturbance in which fire engines and police cars were dam ...
in Bristol saw fighting between local youths and police officers, resulting in numerous minor injuries, damage to property and arrests. In London, 1981 brought further conflict, with a perceived racist police force after the death of 13 black youngsters who were attending a birthday party that ended in the devastating
New Cross Fire
The New Cross house fire was a conflagration, fire that occurred during a party at a house in New Cross, south-east London, in the early hours of Sunday, 18 January 1981. The blaze killed 13 young black people aged between 14 and 22, and one su ...
. The fire was viewed by many as a racist massacre and a major political demonstration, known as the Black People's Day of Action was held to protest against the attacks themselves, a perceived rise in racism, and perceived hostility and indifference from the police, politicians and media. Tensions were further inflamed when, in nearby Brixton, police launched operation Swamp 81, a series of mass stop-and-searches of young black men. Anger erupted when up to 500 people were involved in street fighting between the Metropolitan Police and local Afro-Caribbean community, leading to a number of cars and shops being set on fire, stones thrown at police and hundreds of arrests and minor injuries. A similar pattern occurred further north in England that year, in
Toxteth
Toxteth is an inner-city area of Liverpool in the historic county of Lancashire and the ceremonial county of Merseyside.
Toxteth is located to the south of Liverpool city centre, bordered by Aigburth, Canning, Dingle, and Edge Hill.
The area ...
, Liverpool, and
Chapeltown, Leeds
Chapeltown is a suburb of north-east Leeds, in West Yorkshire, England. It is part of the Leeds City Council Ward of Chapel Allerton. It is approximately one mile north of Leeds city centre.
Location and boundaries
Chapeltown has no official ...
.
Despite the recommendations of the
Scarman Report
The Scarman report was commissioned by the UK Government following the 1981 Brixton riots. Lord Scarman was appointed by then Home Secretary William Whitelaw on 14 April 1981 (two days after the rioting ended) to hold the enquiry into the riots ...
(published in November 1981), relations between black youths and police did not significantly improve and a further wave of nationwide conflicts occurred in Handsworth, Birmingham, in 1985, when the local South Asian community also became involved. Following the police shooting of a black grandmother
Cherry Groce
The Brixton riot of 1985 started on 28 September in London Borough of Lambeth, Lambeth in South London. It was the second major riot that the area had witnessed in the space of four years, 1981 Brixton riot, the last in 1981. It was sparked by t ...
in Brixton, and the death of Cynthia Jarrett during a raid on her home in
Tottenham
Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Wal ...
, in north London, protests held at the local police stations did not end peacefully and further street battles with the police erupted, the disturbances later spreading to
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
's
Moss Side
Moss Side is an inner-city area of Manchester, England, south of the city centre, It had a population of 20,745 at the 2021 census. Moss Side is bounded by Hulme to the north, Chorlton-on-Medlock, Rusholme and Fallowfield to the east, W ...
. The street battles themselves (involving more stone-throwing, the discharge of one firearm, and several fires) led to two fatalities (in the
Broadwater Farm riot
The Broadwater Farm riot occurred on the Broadwater council estate in Tottenham, North London, on 6 October 1985.
The events of the day were dominated by two deaths. The first was that of Cynthia Jarrett, an Afro-Caribbean woman who died the p ...
) and Brixton.
In 1999, following the Macpherson Inquiry into the 1993 killing of
Stephen Lawrence
Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; ...
, Sir
Paul Condon
Paul Leslie Condon, Baron Condon, (born 10 March 1947) is a British retired police officer. He was the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police from 1993 to 2000.
Education
Condon read Jurisprudence at St Peter's College, Oxford and was made ...
, commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, accepted that his organisation was institutionally racist. Some members of the Black British community were involved in the
2001 Harehills race riot
The Harehills riot took place in the multi-ethnic Leeds district of Harehills (West Yorkshire, England) in 2001. The riot occurred after the alleged wrongful arrest of an Asian man by the West Yorkshire Police which was alleged to have been ...
and
2005 Birmingham race riots
The Birmingham riots of 2005 occurred on two consecutive nights on Saturday 22 October and Sunday 23 October 2005 in the Lozells and Handsworth area of Birmingham, England. The riots were derived from ethnic tensions between the Caribbean and ...
.
Early 21st century
In 2011, following the shooting of a mixed-race man, Mark Duggan, by police in Tottenham, a protest was held at the local police station. The protest ended with an outbreak of fighting between local youths and police officers leading to widespread disturbances across English cities.
Some analysts claimed that black people were disproportionally represented in the
2011 England riots
The 2011 England riots, more widely known as the London riots, were a series of riots between 6 and 11 August 2011. Thousands of people rioted in cities and towns across England, which saw looting, arson, as well as mass deployment of police ...
. Research suggests that race relations in Britain deteriorated in the period following the riots and that prejudice towards ethnic minorities increased. Groups such as the EDL and the BNP were said to be exploiting the situation. Racial tensions between blacks and Asians in Birmingham increased after the deaths of three Asian men at the hands of a black youth.
In a ''
Newsnight
''Newsnight'' (or ''BBC Newsnight'') is BBC Two's news and current affairs programme, providing in-depth investigation and analysis of the stories behind the day's headlines. The programme is broadcast on weekdays at 22:30. and is also availa ...
'' discussion on 12 August 2011, historian
David Starkey
David Robert Starkey (born 3 January 1945) is an English historian and radio and television presenter, with views that he describes as conservative. The only child of Quaker parents, he attended Kendal Grammar School before studying at Cambr ...
blamed black gangster and rap culture, saying that it had influenced youths of all races. Figures showed that 46 per cent of people brought before a courtroom for arrests related to the 2011 riots were black.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom the first ten healthcare workers to die from the virus came from Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, prompting the head of the British Medical Association to call on the government to begin investigating if and why minorities are being disproportionally affected. Early statistics found that black and Asian people were being affected worse than white people, with figures showing 35% of
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...
patients were non-white, and similar studies in the US had shown a clear racial disparity. The government announced that they will be launching an official inquiry into the disproportionate impact of coronavirus on Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities with Communities Minister
Robert Jenrick
Robert Edward Jenrick (born 9 January 1982) is a British politician serving as Minister of State for Immigration since October 2022. He served as Minister of State for Health from September to October 2022. He served as Secretary of State fo ...
acknowledging that ''"There does appear to be a disproportionate impact of the virus on BAME communities in the UK."'' A social media campaign in response to the Clap for our Carers campaign, highlighted the role Black & minority health and key workers and asking the public to continue their support after the pandemic gained over 12 million views online. 72 per cent of NHS Staff that died from Covid-19 were reported as being from Black & Minority Ethnic groups, far higher than the number of staff from BAME backgrounds working in the NHS which stood at 44%. Statistics did show that black people were significantly over-represented, but that as the pandemic progressed the disparity in these figures was reducing. Reports discussed a number of complex contributing factors including health and income inequality, social and environmental factors were exacerbating and contributing to the spread of the disease unequally. In April 2020 after his sister's partner died from the virus, Patrick Vernon set up a fundraising initiative called "The Majonzi Fund" which will provide families with access to small financial grants that can be used to access bereavement counselling and organise memorial events and tributes after the social lockdown has been lifted.
Demographics
Population
According to the 2021 United Kingdom census, those identifying as Black British in England & Wales enumerated 2,409,278, or 4.0% of the population
The 2011 UK Census recorded 1,904,684 residents who identified as "Black/African/Caribbean/Black British", accounting for 3 per cent of the total UK population. This was the first UK census where the number of self-reported Black African residents exceeded that of Black Caribbeans.
Within England and Wales, 989,628 individuals specified their ethnicity as "Black African", 594,825 as "Black Caribbean", and 280,437 as "Other Black". In Northern Ireland, 2,345 individuals self-reported as "Black African", 372 as "Black Caribbean", and 899 as "Other Black", totaling 3,616 "Black" residents. In Scotland, 29,638 persons identified themselves as "African", choosing either the "African, African Scottish or African British" tick box or the "Other African" tick box and write-in area. 6,540 individuals also self-reported as "Caribbean or Black", selecting either the "Caribbean, Caribbean Scottish or Caribbean British" tick box, the "Black, Black Scottish or Black British" tick box, or the "Other Caribbean or Black" tick box and write-in area. In order to compare UK-wide results, the Office for National Statistics combined the "African" and "Caribbean or Black" entries at the top-level, and reported a total of 36,178 "Black" residents in Scotland. According to the ONS, individuals in Scotland with "Other African", "White" and "Asian" ethnicities as well as "Black" identities could thus all potentially be captured within this combined output. The General Register Office for Scotland, which devised the categories and administers the Scotland census, does not combine the "African" and "Caribbean or Black" entries, maintaining them as separate for individuals who do not self-identify as "Black" (see census classification).
In the 2001 Census, 575,876 people in the United Kingdom had reported their ethnicity as "Black Caribbean", 485,277 as "Black African", and 97,585 as "Black Other", making a total of 1,148,738 "Black or Black British" residents. This was equivalent to 2 per cent of the UK population at the time.
Population distribution
Most Black Britons can be found in the large cities and metropolitan areas of the country. The 2011 census found that 1.85 million of a total Black population of 1.9 million lived in England, with 1.09 million of those in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, where they made up 13.3 per cent of the population, compared to 3.5 per cent of England's population and 3 per cent of the UK's population. The ten local authorities with the highest proportion of their populations describing themselves as Black in the census were all in London:
Lewisham
Lewisham () is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified in the London Plan as one of ...
(27.2 per cent), Southwark (26.9 per cent), Lambeth (25.9 per cent), Hackney (23.1 per cent),
Croydon
Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...
(20.2 per cent),
Barking and Dagenham
The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham () is a London borough in East London. It lies around 9 miles (14.4 km) east of Central London. It is an Outer London borough and the south is within the London Riverside section of the Thames Ga ...
(20.0 per cent),
Newham
The London Borough of Newham is a London borough created in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963. It covers an area previously administered by the Essex county boroughs of West Ham and East Ham, authorities that were both abolished by the ...
(19.6 per cent),
Greenwich
Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross.
Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...
(19.1 per cent),
Haringey
The London Borough of Haringey (pronounced , same as Harringay) is a London borough in North London, classified by some definitions as part of Inner London, and by others as part of Outer London. It was created in 1965 by the amalgamation of ...
(18.8 per cent) and Brent (18.8 per cent). More specifically, for Black Africans the highest local authority was Southwark (16.4 per cent) followed by Barking and Dagenham (15.4 per cent) and Greenwich (13.8 per cent), whereas for Black Caribbeans the highest was Lewisham (11.2 per cent) followed by Lambeth (9.5 per cent) and Croydon (8.6%).
Outside of London, the next largest populations are in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
(96,360, 9%) /
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunians ...
(17,309, 6.9%),
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
(43,484, 8.6%),
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...
(25,893, 3.5%),
Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
(25,734, 6%),
Reading, Berkshire
Reading ( ) is a town and borough in Berkshire, Southeast England, southeast England. Located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the rivers River Thames, Thames and River Kennet, Kennet, the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 mot ...
(22,921, 6.7%),
Nottingham
Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...
(20,082, 3.6%) and
Luton
Luton () is a town and unitary authority with borough status, in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 census, the Luton built-up area subdivision had a population of 211,228 and its built-up area, including the adjacent towns of Dunstable a ...
(19,909, 9.8%).
Mixed marriages
An academic journal article published in 2005, citing sources from 1997 and 2001, estimated that nearly half of British-born African-Caribbean men, a third of British-born African-Caribbean women, and a fifth of African men, have white partners. In 2014, ''
The Economist
''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...
'' reported that, according to the
Labour Force Survey
Labour Force Surveys are statistical surveys conducted in a number of countries designed to capture data about the labour market. All European Union member states are required to conduct a Labour Force Survey annually. Labour Force Surveys are als ...
, 48 per cent of black Caribbean men and 34 per cent of black Caribbean women in couples have partners from a different ethnic group. Moreover, mixed-race children under the age of ten with black Caribbean and white parents outnumber black Caribbean children by two-to-one.
Culture and community
Dialect
Multicultural London English is a variety of the English language spoken by a large number of the Black British population of Afro-Caribbean ancestry. British Black dialect has been influenced by
Jamaican Patois
Jamaican Patois (; locally rendered Patwah and called Jamaican Creole by linguists) is an English-based creole language with West African influences, spoken primarily in Jamaica and among the Jamaican diaspora. A majority of the non-English ...
owing to the large number of immigrants from Jamaica, but it is also spoken or imitated by those of different ancestry.
British Black speech is also heavily influenced by social class and regional dialect (
Cockney
Cockney is an accent and dialect of English, mainly spoken in London and its environs, particularly by working-class and lower middle-class Londoners. The term "Cockney" has traditionally been used to describe a person from the East End, or ...
Brummie
The Brummie dialect, or more formally the Birmingham dialect, is spoken by many people in Birmingham, England, and some of its surrounding areas. "Brummie" is also a demonym for people from Birmingham. It is often erroneously used in referring to ...
,
Scouse
Scouse (; formally known as Liverpool English or Merseyside English) is an accent and dialect of English associated with Liverpool and the surrounding county of Merseyside. The Scouse accent is highly distinctive; having been influenced he ...
, etc.).
African-born immigrants speak
African languages
The languages of Africa are divided into several major language families:
* Niger–Congo or perhaps Atlantic–Congo languages (includes Bantu and non-Bantu, and possibly Mande and others) are spoken in West, Central, Southeast and Souther ...
Black British music is a long-established and influential part of British music. Its presence in the United Kingdom stretches back to the 18th century, encompassing concert performers such as
George Bridgetower
George Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower (11 October 1778 – 29 February 1860) was a British musician, of African descent. He was a virtuoso violinist who lived in England for much of his life. His playing impressed Beethoven, who made Bridge ...
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (15 August 18751 September 1912) was a British composer and conductor.
Of mixed-race birth, Coleridge-Taylor achieved such success that he was referred to by white New York musicians as the "African Mahler" when ...
(1875–1912) achieved great success as a composer at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The Jazz Age also had taken an effect on the generation.
In the late 1970s and 1980s,
2 Tone
Two-tone, two tone, or 2 tone, etc., may refer to:
Audio and sound
* Two-tone analysis, in nonlinear system measurement
* Two-tone attention signal
* Two-tone chime, such as the "ding dong" sound of a doorbell
* Two-tone sequential paging, sel ...
became popular with the British youth; especially in the
West Midlands
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...
. A blend of
punk
Punk or punks may refer to:
Genres, subculture, and related aspects
* Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres
* Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
,
ska
Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walki ...
and pop made it a favourite among both white and black audiences. Famous bands in the genre include
the Selecter
The Selecter are an English 2 tone ska revival band, formed in Coventry, England, in 1979.
The Selecter featured a diverse line-up, both in terms of race and gender, initially consisting of Arthur 'Gaps' Hendrickson and Pauline Black on lead ...
,
the Specials
The Specials, also known as The Special AKA, are an English 2 tone and ska revival band formed in 1977 in Coventry. After some early changes, the first stable lineup of the group consisted of Terry Hall and Neville Staple on vocals, Lynval ...
Jungle
A jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past recent century.
Etymology
The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''ja ...
,
dubstep
Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken be ...
UK garage
UK garage, abbreviated as UKG, is a genre of electronic dance music which originated in England in the early to mid-1990s. The genre was most clearly inspired by garage house, but also incorporates elements from dance-pop, R&B, and jungle. It ...
and
grime
Grime may refer to:
* Dirt, in the form of black, ingrained dust
* Grime (music genre), a genre of music
* ''Grime'' (album), a 2001 album by Iniquity
* ''Grime'' (video game), a 2021 Metroidvania video game
* "Grime", a 2022 song by Dallas Woo ...
music originated in London and involve a number of artists from primarily Caribbean communities but recently Black Africans also, most notably of Ghanaian and Nigerian origin. Famous grime artists include
Dizzee Rascal
Dylan Kwabena Mills (born 18 September 1984), better known by his stage name Dizzee Rascal, is a British MC and rapper. A pioneer of grime music, his work has also incorporated elements of UK garage, bassline, British hip hop, and R&B.
D ...
,
Tinchy Stryder
Kwasi Esono Danquah III ( ; born 14 September 1986), known by the stage name Tinchy Stryder, is a Ghanaian-British rapper, singer, songwriter, entrepreneur and investor.
Stryder has released three solo studio albums, '' Star in the Hood'' (2 ...
,
Tinie Tempah
Patrick Chukwuemeka Okogwu (born 7 November 1988), better known by his stage name Tinie Tempah, is a British rapper. He has been signed to Parlophone Records since 2009, a subsidiary of Warner Music Group. He created his own entertainment compa ...
,
Chipmunk
Chipmunks are small, striped rodents of the family Sciuridae. Chipmunks are found in North America, with the exception of the Siberian chipmunk which is found primarily in Asia.
Taxonomy and systematics
Chipmunks may be classified either as ...
,
Kano
Kano may refer to:
Places
*Kano State, a state in Northern Nigeria
* Kano (city), a city in Nigeria, and the capital of Kano State
**Kingdom of Kano, a Hausa kingdom between the 10th and 14th centuries
**Sultanate of Kano, a Hausa kingdom between ...
,
Wiley
Wiley may refer to:
Locations
* Wiley, Colorado, a U.S. town
* Wiley, Pleasants County, West Virginia, U.S.
* Wiley-Kaserne, a district of the city of Neu-Ulm, Germany
People
* Wiley (musician), British grime MC, rapper, and producer
* Wiley Mil ...
and
Lethal Bizzle
Maxwell Owusu Ansah (born 14 September 1984), known by his stage name Lethal Bizzle, is a British rapper from Walthamstow, London, of Ghanaian origin. He emerged in 2002 as a grime MC as part of More Fire Crew, with their grime single "Oi!" ch ...
. It is now common to hear British MCs rapping in a strong London accent.
Niche
Niche may refer to:
Science
*Developmental niche, a concept for understanding the cultural context of child development
*Ecological niche, a term describing the relational position of an organism's species
*Niche differentiation, in ecology, the ...
, with its origin in
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...
and
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...
, has a much faster bassline and is often sung in a Northern accent. Famous niche artists include producer T2.
The
MOBO Awards
The MOBO Awards (Music of Black Origin, also known as the MOBOs) are an annual British music award presentation honouring achievements in " music of black origin", including hip hop, grime, UK Drill, R&B, soul, reggae, jazz, gospel, and ...
– recognizing performers of "Music of Black Origin" – are seen as a UK equivalent to the
BET Awards
The BET Awards is an American award show that was established in 2001 by the Black Entertainment Television network to celebrate black entertainers and other minorities in music, film, sports and philanthropy. The awards, which are presented annua ...
and
Soul Train Awards
The Soul Train Music Awards is an annual music awards show which previously aired in national broadcast syndication, and honors the best in African-American culture, music and entertainment. It is produced by the makers of '' Soul Train'', the ...
for being the main award show in Britain to focus on urban music.
Among Black British artists to have gained significant popularity in the U.S. are
Sade
Sade may refer to:
People
* Marquis de Sade (1740–1814), French aristocrat, writer, and libertine
* Sade (singer) (born 1959, Helen Folasade Adu), British Nigerian musician and lead singer of the eponymous band
* Sade Baderinwa (born 1969), WAB ...
("
Paradise
In religion, paradise is a place of exceptional happiness and delight. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical or eschatological or both, often compared to the miseries of human civilization: in parad ...
"),
Seal
Seal may refer to any of the following:
Common uses
* Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly:
** Earless seal, or "true seal"
** Fur seal
* Seal (emblem), a device to imp ...
("
Kiss from a Rose
"Kiss from a Rose" is a song from Seal's second eponymous album. The song was first released as a single in July 1994 and included in the film '' The NeverEnding Story III'' that year. It was re-released a year later in 1995 as part of the ' ...
"),
Soul II Soul
Soul II Soul are a British musical collective formed in London in 1988. They are best known for their two major hits; 1989's UK number five and US number eleven " Keep On Movin'", and its follow-up, the UK number one and US number four " Back to ...
Des'ree
Desirée Annette Weekes (born 30 November 1968), known by her stage name Des'ree (), is an English pop recording artist who rose to popularity during the 1990s. She is best known for her hits " Feel So High", " You Gotta Be", "Life", and " Kiss ...
("
You Gotta Be
"You Gotta Be" is an R&B/soul song by British singer and songwriter Des'ree, written by her with the producer, Ashley Ingram. It is the third track on the singer's second album, ''I Ain't Movin (1994), and the opening track on the US relea ...
The black community in Britain has a number of significant publications. The leading key publication is ''
The Voice
The Voice may refer to:
Fictional entities
* The Voice or Presence, a fictional representation of God in DC Comics
* The Voice (''Dune''), a fictional ability in the ''Dune'' universe
* The Voice, a character in the American TV series ''Cleo ...
'' newspaper, founded by Val McCalla in 1982, and Britain's only national Black weekly newspaper. ''The Voice'' primarily targets the Caribbean diaspora and has been printed for more than 35 years. Secondly, the ''Black History Month'' magazine is a central point of focus which leads the nationwide celebration of Black History, Arts and Culture throughout the UK. ''
Pride Magazine
''Pride Magazine'' is a magazine targeting Black British, mixed-race, African and African-Caribbean women in the United Kingdom. This lifestyle magazine has been in publication since 1991.
The magazine has a circulation of more than 30,000 copie ...
'', published since 1991, is the largest monthly magazine that targets black British, mixed-race, African and African-Caribbean women in the United Kingdom. In 2007, ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' reported that the magazine had dominated the black women's magazine market for over 15 years. ''Keep The Faith'' magazine is a multi-award winning Black and minority ethnic community magazine produced quarterly since 2005. ''Keep The Faith''s editorial contributors are some of the most powerful and influential movers and shakers, and successful entrepreneurs within BME communities.
Many major Black British publications are handled through Diverse Media Group, which specialises in helping organisations reach Britain's Black and minority ethnic community through the main media they consume. The senior leadership team is a composite of many CEO and owners from the publications listed above.
Social issues
Racism
The wave of black immigrants who arrived in Britain from the Caribbean in the 1950s faced significant amounts of
racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonis ...
. For many Caribbean immigrants, their first experience of discrimination came when trying to find private accommodation. They were generally ineligible for council housing because only people who had been resident in the UK for a minimum of five years qualified for it. At the time, there was no anti-discrimination legislation to prevent landlords from refusing to accept black tenants. A survey undertaken in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
in 1956 found that only 15 of a total of 1,000 white people surveyed would let a room to a black tenant. As a result, many black immigrants were forced to live in slum areas of cities, where the housing was of poor quality and there were problems of crime, violence and prostitution. One of the most notorious slum landlords was
Peter Rachman
Perec "Peter" Rachman (16 August 1919 – 29 November 1962) was a Polish-born landlord who operated in Notting Hill, London, England in the 1950s and early 1960s. He became notorious for his exploitation of his tenants, with the word "Rachmanism" ...
, who owned around 100 properties in the
Notting Hill
Notting Hill is a district of West London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Notting Hill is known for being a cosmopolitan and multicultural neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting Hill Carnival and Portobello Road Ma ...
area of London. Black tenants typically paid twice the rent of white tenants, and lived in conditions of extreme overcrowding.
Historian Winston James argues that the experience of racism in Britain was a major factor in the development of a shared Caribbean identity amongst black immigrants from a range of different island and class backgrounds.
In the 1970s and 1980s, black people in Britain were the victims of racist violence perpetrated by far-right groups such as the National Front. During this period, it was also common for Black
footballers
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...
to be subjected to racist chanting from crowd members.
Racism in Britain in general, including against black people, is considered to have declined over time. Academic Robert Ford demonstrates that
social distance
In sociology, social distance describes the distance between individuals or social groups in society, including dimensions such as social class, race/ethnicity, gender or sexuality. Members of different groups mix less than members of the same g ...
, measured using questions from the
British Social Attitudes
The British Social Attitudes Survey (BSA) is an annual statistical survey conducted in Great Britain by National Centre for Social Research since 1983. The BSA involves in-depth interviews with over 3,300 respondents, selected using random probabi ...
survey about whether people would mind having an ethnic minority boss or have a close relative marry an ethnic minority spouse, declined over the period 1983–1996. These declines were observed for attitudes towards Black and Asian ethnic minorities. Much of this change in attitudes happened in the 1990s. In the 1980s, opposition to interracial marriage were significant. Nonetheless, Ford argues that "Racism and racial discrimination remain a part of everyday life for Britain's ethnic minorities. Black and Asian Britons...are less likely to be employed and are more likely to work in worse jobs, live in worse houses and suffer worse health than White Britons". The
University of Maryland
The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...
's
Minorities at Risk
Minorities At Risk (MAR) is a university-based research project that monitors and analyzes the status and conflicts of 283 politically-active communal groups in many countries throughout the world from 1945 to 2006. Those minorities included have ...
(MAR) project noted in 2006 that while African-Caribbeans in the United Kingdom no longer face formal discrimination, they continue to be under-represented in politics, and to face discriminatory barriers in access to housing and in employment practices. The project also notes that the British school system "has been indicted on numerous occasions for racism, and for undermining the self-confidence of black children and maligning the culture of their parents". The MAR profile on African-Caribbeans in the United Kingdom notes "growing 'black on black' violence between people from the Caribbean and immigrants from Africa".
There is concern that murders using knives are given insufficient attention because most victims are black. Martin Hewitt of the Metropolitan Police said, "I do fear sometimes that because the majority of those that are injured or killed are coming from certain communities and very often the black communities in London, it doesn’t get the sense of collective outrage that it ought to do and really get everyone to a place where we are all doing everything we can to prevent this from happening. It’s an enormous effort on our part. We are putting enormous resources in to try and stem the flow of the violence and having some success at doing that. But collectively we all ought to be looking at this and seeing how we can prevent it."
Unemployment
According to the 2005 TUC report ''Black workers, jobs and poverty'', Black and minority ethnic people (BMEs) were more likely to be unemployed than the White population. The rate of unemployment among the White population was 5%, but among ethnic minority groups it was Bangladeshi 17%, Pakistani 15%, Mixed 15%, Black Britons 13%, Other ethnic 12% and Indian 7%. Of the different ethnic groups studied, Asians had the highest poverty rate of 45% (after housing costs), Black Britons 38% and Chinese/other 32% (compared to a poverty rate of 20% for the White population). However, the report did concede that things were slowly improving.
A 2014 study by the Black Training and Enterprise Group (BTEG), funded by
Trust for London {{Use dmy dates, date=April 2022
Trust for London is an independent charitable foundation which aims to tackle poverty and inequality in London and its root causes. It was established in 1891 as the City Parochial Foundation and changed its name to ...
, explored the views of young Black males in London on why their demographic have a higher unemployment rate than any other group of young people, finding that many young Black men in London believe that racism and negative stereotyping are the main reasons for their high unemployment rate.
In 2019, 69% of Black 16 to 64 year olds were employed, compared to 65% of Asians and 77% of White British. The number of Black Britons employed was therefore higher than the 66% average for all non-white ethnic minorities.
Crime
Both racist crime and gang-related crime continues to affect black communities, so much so that the Metropolitan Police launched Operation Trident to tackle black-on-black crimes. Numerous deaths in police custody of black men has generated a general distrust of police among urban blacks in the UK. According to the Metropolitan Police Authority in 2002–03 of the 17 deaths in police custody, 10 were black or Asian – black convicts have a disproportionately higher rate of incarceration than other ethnicities. The government reportsStatistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System – 2004 A Home Office publication under section 95 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991 Retrieved 17 March 2011. The overall number of racist incidents recorded by the police rose by 7 per cent from 49,078 in 2002/03 to 52,694 in 2003/04.
Media representation of young black British people has focused particularly on "gangs" with black members and violent crimes involving black victims and perpetrators. According to a Home Office report, 10 per cent of all murder victims between 2000 and 2004 were black. Of these, 56 per cent were murdered by other black people (with 44 per cent of black people murdered by whites and Asians – making black people disproportionately higher victims of killing by people from other ethnicities). In addition, a
Freedom of Information request
Freedom of information laws allow access by the general public to data held by national governments and, where applicable, by state and local governments. The emergence of freedom of information legislation was a response to increasing dissatisfa ...
made by ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was f ...
'' shows internal police data that provides a breakdown of the ethnicity of the 18,091 men and boys who police took action against for a range of offences in London in October 2009. Among those proceeded against for street crimes, 54 per cent were black; for robbery, 59 per cent; and for gun crimes, 67 per cent. According to the Office for National Statistics, 18.4% of homicide suspects in England and Wales over March 2019 - March 2021 were Black.
Black people, who according to government statistics make up 2 per cent of the population, are the principal suspects in 11.7 per cent of murders, i.e. in 252 out of 2163 murders committed 2001/2, 2002/3, and 2003/4. Judging on the basis of prison population, a substantial minority (about 35%) of black criminals in the United Kingdom are not British citizens but
foreign national
A foreign national is any person (including an organization) who is not a national of a specific country. ("The term 'person' means an individual or an organization.") For example, in the United States and in its territories, a foreign national ...
s. In November 2009, the Home Office published a study that showed that, once other variables had been accounted for, ethnicity was not a significant predictor of offending, anti-social behaviour or drug abuse among young people.
After several high-profile investigations such as that of the
murder of Stephen Lawrence
Stephen Lawrence (13 September 1974 – 22 April 1993) was a black British teenager from Plumstead, southeast London, who was murdered in a racially motivated attack while waiting for a bus in Well Hall Road, Eltham on the evening of 22 Apri ...
, the police have been accused of racism, from both within and outside the service.
Cressida Dick
Dame Cressida Rose Dick (born 16 October 1960) is a British retired senior police officer who served as Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis from 2017 to 2022. She is both the first female and first openly homosexual officer to lead the M ...
, head of the Metropolitan Police's anti-racism unit in 2003, remarked that it was "difficult to imagine a situation where we will say we are no longer institutionally racist". Black people were seven times more likely to be stopped and searched by police compared to white people, according to the Home Office, A separate study said blacks were more than nine times more likely to be searched.
Even though blacks are only 2 to 3% of the general UK population, black prisoners make up 15% of the British prison population, which experts say is "a result of decades of racial prejudice in the criminal justice system and an overly punitive approach to penal affairs." About 51% of boys in young offender institutions identified as being from a BME background.
Notable black Britons
Pre-20th century
Well-known black Britons living before the 20th century include the ChartistWilliam Cuffay;
William Davidson William or Bill Davidson may refer to:
Businessmen
* Bill Davidson (businessman) (1922–2009), Michigan businessman and sports team owner
** William Davidson Institute, University of Michigan, named in honor of Bill Davidson
* William Davidson ...
, who was executed as a
Cato Street
''Cato Street'' is a play by the British actor and writer Robert Shaw.
The play's subject matter is the Cato Street Conspiracy of 1820. It was first produced in London in November 1971 at the Young Vic, with a cast including Vanessa Redgrave, J ...
conspirator;
Olaudah Equiano
Olaudah Equiano (; c. 1745 – 31 March 1797), known for most of his life as Gustavus Vassa (), was a writer and abolitionist from, according to his memoir, the Eboe (Igbo) region of the Kingdom of Benin (today southern Nigeria). Enslaved a ...
(also called Gustavus Vassa), a former slave who bought his freedom, moved to England, and settled in
Soham
Soham ( ) is a town and civil parish in the district of East Cambridgeshire, in Cambridgeshire, England, just off the A142 between Ely and Newmarket. Its population was 10,860 at the 2011 census.
History Archaeology
The region between De ...
, Cambridgeshire, where he married and wrote an autobiography, dying in 1797;
Ukawsaw Gronniosaw
Ukawsaw Gronniosaw (c. 1705 – 28 September 1775),Chester Chronicle, ''The Chester Chronicle, or Commercial Intelligencer'', Monday 2 October 1775. also known as James Albert, was an Atlantic slave trade, enslaved African man who is conside ...
, pioneer of the
slave narrative
The slave narrative is a type of literary genre involving the (written) autobiographical accounts of enslaved Africans, particularly in the Americas. Over six thousand such narratives are estimated to exist; about 150 narratives were published as s ...
; and
Ignatius Sancho
Charles Ignatius Sancho ( – 14 December 1780) was a British abolitionist, writer and composer. Born on a slave ship in the Atlantic, Sancho was sold into slavery in the Spanish colony of New Granada. After his parents died, Sancho's owner t ...
, a grocer who also acquired a reputation as a man of letters.
In 2004, a poll found that people considered the
Crimean War
The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia.
Geopolitical causes of the war included the ...
heroine
Mary Seacole
Mary Jane Seacole (;Anionwu E.N. (2012) Mary Seacole: nursing care in many lands. ''British Journal of Healthcare Assistants'' 6(5), 244–248. 23 November 1805 – 14 May 1881) was a British-Jamaican nurse and businesswoman who set up t ...
to be the greatest Black Briton. Seacole was born in Jamaica in 1805 to a white father and black mother. A statue of her, designed by Martin Jennings, was unveiled in the grounds of St. Thomas' Hospital opposite the
Houses of Parliament
The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parliament, the Palace lies on the north ban ...
in London in June 2016, following a 12-year campaign that raised £500,000 to honour her.
Recognition
A number of awards and honours exist to recognise talent and influence of the Black British community. The
MOBO Awards
The MOBO Awards (Music of Black Origin, also known as the MOBOs) are an annual British music award presentation honouring achievements in " music of black origin", including hip hop, grime, UK Drill, R&B, soul, reggae, jazz, gospel, and ...
, was the first awards ceremony that celebrates the achievements in music of black origin in 2006. Founder
Kanya King
Kanya King, (born in Kilburn, London) is a British entrepreneur who is the founder of the MOBO Awards.
Biography
King was born in Kilburn, London, to an Irish mother and a Ghanaian father, being the youngest of their nine children. Her father ...
has subsequently been awarded both a
MBE Mbe may refer to:
* Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo
* Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria
* Mbe language, a language of Nigeria
* Mbe' language, language of Cameroon
* ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language
Molal ...
and a
CBE
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
for her services to the music industry, and the awards have taken place annually since its inauguration.
The ''
Powerlist
The ''Powerlist'' is a list of the 100 most influential people of African or African Caribbean heritage in the United Kingdom. The list is updated annually and has been published in book format by Powerful Media since 2007. The ''Powerlist'' is ...
'' is an annual list of the 100 most influential people of African or
African Caribbean
Afro-Caribbean people or African Caribbean are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the modern African-Caribbeans descend from Africans taken as slaves to colonial Caribbean via the ...
heritage in the UK. The list was first created in 2007 by Michael Eboda, then editor of the ''
New Nation
''New Nation'' was a weekly newspaper published in the UK for the Black British community. Launched in 1996, the newspaper was Britain's Number 1-selling black newspaper. The paper was published every Monday.
''New Nation'' was initially la ...
'', a weekly newspaper published in the UK for the Black British community, as a way to profile and celebrate influential Black Britons, and inspire and influence the next generation. The list is updated annually and has been published in book format by Powerful Media since 2007. The ''Powerlist'' is not limited to British born citizens and it includes individuals born overseas who have emigrated to the UK. The 50 highest rated nominees, along with updates on the previous year's Powerlistees from rank 2–100, are then ranked by an independent panel in the summer, with the list being produced each autumn. Each year's highest ranking individual is added to the Powerlist Hall of Fame.
In 2014, Melanie Eusebe and
Sophie Chandauka
Sophie Tendai Chandauka MBE is a Zimbabwe-born corporate finance lawyer, entrepreneur and Head of Americas Risk Management and Intelligence at Meta. Previously, Chandauka was Global COO of Shared Services and Banking Operations at Morgan Stanley ...
co-founded the ''Black British Business Awards'', to celebrate the contributions of inspiring professionals across all UK Industries.
The British Ethnic Diversity Sports Awards (BEDSA) were launched in 2016, celebrating the contribution of and achievements of ethnic minority sportspeople and have included awards presented to cricketer
Jofra Archer
Jofra Chioke Archer (born 1 April 1995) is a Barbadian-born English cricketer representing England and Sussex. He is a right-arm fast bowler. In April 2019, Archer was selected to play for the England team in limited overs fixtures against Irel ...
and athlete Christine Ohuruogu.
The inaugural Black British Theatre Awards, co-founded by activist Solange Urdang and theatre director and choreographer Omar F. Okai, took place in October 2019 at Old Finsbury Town Hall hosted by
Ore Oduba
Ore Oduba (born 17 November 1986) is a British television and radio presenter who has also worked as an actor. He is best known for winning the fourteenth series of BBC One's ''Strictly Come Dancing'' in 2016.
He presented the CBBC news program ...
, with winners including Lynette Linton for best Director,
Beverley Knight
Beverley Knight (born Beverley Anne Smith, 22 March 1973) is an English recording artist and musical theatre actress. She released her first album, '' The B-Funk'', in 1995. Heavily influenced by American soul music icons such as Sam Cooke an ...
MBE for supporting actress and ''
Hamilton Hamilton may refer to:
People
* Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname
** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland
** Lord Hamilt ...
'' as best musical production.
Nobility
Some British aristocrats descend from the
Afro-Russian
Afro-Russians (russian: Афророссияне, Afrorossiyane) are people of African descent that have migrated to and settled in Russia. The Metis Foundation estimates that there were about 30,000 Afro-Russians in 2013.
Terminology
Represen ...
courtier General
Abram Petrovich Gannibal
Abram Petrovich Gannibal, also Hannibal or Ganibal, or Abram Hannibal or Abram Petrov ( ru , Абра́м Петро́вич Ганниба́л; c. 1696 – 14 May 1781), was a Russian military engineer, general-in-chief, and nobleman of Africa ...
, including
Natalia Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster
Natalia Ayesha Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster (''née'' Phillips; born 8 May 1959), is a British aristocrat, philanthropist and winemaker. She is the widow of the 6th Duke of Westminster and mother of the 7th Duke. As of 2021, the Duchess's f ...
Hugh Grosvenor, 7th Duke of Westminster
Hugh Richard Louis Grosvenor, 7th Duke of Westminster (born 29 January 1991), styled as Earl Grosvenor until August 2016, is a British aristocrat, billionaire, businessman, and owner of Grosvenor Group. He became Duke of Westminster on 9 August ...
).
George Mountbatten, 4th Marquess of Milford Haven
George Ivar Louis Mountbatten, 4th Marquess of Milford Haven (born 6 June 1961), styled Earl of Medina before 1970, is a British peer and businessman.
Biography Family
Lord Milford Haven is the elder son of the 3rd Marquess of Milford Haven and ...
, is also a direct descendant as the grandson of
Nadejda Mountbatten, Marchioness of Milford Haven
Nadejda Mikhailovna Mountbatten, Marchioness of Milford Haven (née Countess Nadejda Mikhailovna de Torby, until 1917 Princess George of Battenberg; 28 March 1896 – 22 January 1963), was a member of the Russian imperial family who married ...
.
In addition to this, both the mixed-race royal
Archie Mountbatten-Windsor
Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor (born 6 May 2019) is the son of Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. He is a grandson of King Charles III and is sixth in the line of succession to the British throne.
Birth, family ...
dukedom of Sussex
Duke of Sussex is a substantive title, one of several royal dukedoms, that has been created twice in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It is a hereditary title of a specific rank of nobility in the British royal family. It takes its name ...
and the marquessate of Bath respectively. Other mixed-race descendants of British nobles include the philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah (who is the great-grandson of
Charles Cripps, 1st Baron Parmoor
Charles Alfred Cripps, 1st Baron Parmoor, (3 October 1852 – 30 June 1941) was a British politician who crossed the floor from the Conservative to the Labour Party and was a strong supporter of the League of Nations and of Church of England ...
), the actor Adetomiwa Edun (who is the aforementioned Lord Parmoor's great-great-grandson), the writer
James Forman Jr.
James Forman Jr. (born James Robert Lumumba Forman; June 22, 1967) is an American legal scholar currently serving as the Professor of Law at Yale Law School. He is the author of '' Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America'', which ...
Adwoa
Adwoa is a given name used for women born on Monday in Western Africa, particularly Ghana and some parts of Togo, southern Benin and Ivory Coast. Day names are a cultural practice of the Akan people of Ghana and the Ivory Coast. Although some mi ...
and Kesewa Aboah (who are the great-granddaughters of
Anthony Lowther, Viscount Lowther
Anthony Edward Lowther, Viscount Lowther (24 September 1896 – 6 October 1949) was an English courtier and soldier.
Early life
Anthony Edward Lowther was the eldest son of Lancelot Lowther, 6th Earl of Lonsdale by his first wife, the form ...
).
Television
Jamaican-born Barbara Blake-Hannah was the first black person to be an on-camera reporter and interviewer on British television in 1968. Television reporter and newsreader Sir
Trevor McDonald
Sir Trevor McDonald (born George McDonald; 16 August 1939) is a Trinidadian- British newsreader and journalist, best known for his career as a news presenter with ITN.
McDonald was knighted in 1999 for his services to journalism.
Career ...
, born in
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...
, was knighted in 1999. Also notable is
Moira Stuart
Moira Clare Ruby Stuart, (born 2 September 1949) is a British presenter and broadcaster. She was the first female newsreader of Caribbean heritage to appear on British national television, having worked on BBC News since 1981.OBE, the first female newsreader of African-Caribbean heritage on British television.
Clive Myrie
Clive Myrie (born 25 August 1964) is a British journalist, newsreader and presenter who works for the BBC. Since August 2021 he has been the host of the long-running BBC quiz shows ''Mastermind'' and ''Celebrity Mastermind''.
Early life
Myrie ...
, of Jamaican heritage, is another notable newsreader and reporter. He is also the host of the long-running BBC quiz shows ''Mastermind'' and '' Celebrity Mastermind''. Other high-profile television personalities and entertainers include comedian
Sir Lenny Henry
Sir Lenworth George Henry (born 29 August 1958) is a British actor, comedian, singer, television presenter and writer.
Henry gained success as a stand-up comedian and impressionist in the late 1970s and early 1980s, culminating in '' The Len ...
,
Rudolph Walker
Rudolph Malcolm Walker (born 28 September 1939) is a Trinidadian-British actor, known for his sitcom roles as Bill Reynolds in '' Love Thy Neighbour'' (1972–76) and Constable Frank Gladstone in '' The Thin Blue Line'' (1995–96). Since 2001 ...
,
Joseph Marcell
Joseph Marcell (born 18 August 1948) is a British actor and comedian. He is best known for his role as Geoffrey Butler, the butler on the NBC sitcom ''The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air'' from September 1990 until the show ended in May 1996.
Born in S ...
,
Nabil Elouahabi
Nabil Elouahabi (born 6 February 1975), often credited as Nabil Elouhabi, is a British- Moroccan actor, known for his role as Tariq Larousi in ''EastEnders'' from 2003 to 2005, as Rashid "Gary" Mahmoon in "Strangers on the Shore" (the 2002 Chris ...
and chef
Ainsley Harriott
Ainsley Denzil Dubriel Harriott (born 28 February 1957) is an English chef and television presenter. He is known for his BBC cooking game shows '' Can't Cook, Won't Cook'' and '' Ready Steady Cook''.
Early life
Harriott was born in Paddin ...
.
Singers
Marsha Ambrosius
Marsha Ambrosius-Billups (born 8 August 1977) is an English singer and songwriter from Liverpool, England. She embarked on her musical career as a member of Floetry. Ambrosius released her debut solo album '' Late Nights & Early Mornings'' in M ...
,
Joan Armatrading
Joan Anita Barbara Armatrading, (, born 9 December 1950) is a Kittitian-English singer-songwriter and guitarist.
A three-time Grammy Award nominee, Armatrading has also been nominated twice for BRIT Awards as Best Female Artist. She received ...
,
Pato Banton
Pato Banton (born Patrick Murray; 5 October 1961) is a reggae singer and toaster from Birmingham, England. He received the nickname "Pato Banton" from his stepfather; his first name derives from the sound of a Jamaican owl calling "patoo, patoo ...
Diane Charlemagne
Diane Charlemagne (22 February 1964 – 28 October 2015) was a British jazz, soul, funk and electronic dance music singer and songwriter.
Biography
Charlemagne was lead singer with 1980s funk band 52nd Street, having replaced previous lead voc ...
,
Taio Cruz
Jacob Taio Cruz (; born Adetayo Ayowale Onile-Ere, 23 April 1980), better known professionally as Taio Cruz (stylized TΛIO CRUZ), is an English singer, songwriter and record producer from London, England, currently based in Los Angeles. In 200 ...
,
Craig David
Craig Ashley David (born 5 May 1981) is a British singer and songwriter who rose to fame in 1999, featuring on the single " Re-Rewind" by Artful Dodger. David's debut studio album, ''Born to Do It'', was released in 2000, after which he has re ...
,
Des'ree
Desirée Annette Weekes (born 30 November 1968), known by her stage name Des'ree (), is an English pop recording artist who rose to popularity during the 1990s. She is best known for her hits " Feel So High", " You Gotta Be", "Life", and " Kiss ...
,
Fleur East
Fleur East (born 29 October 1987) is an English singer-songwriter, rapper and radio presenter on Hits Radio. She competed on the second series of the televised singing competition ''The X Factor'' in 2005 as a member of the girl group Addicti ...
Jaki Graham
Jacqueline Graham (born 15 September 1956) is a British singer-songwriter. Following her hit version of " Could It Be I'm Falling in Love" with David Grant in 1985, Graham scored a further five UK top 20 hits over a two-year period. In 1994, he ...
Eddy Grant
Edmond Montague Grant (born 5 March 1948) is a Guyanese-British singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known for his genre-blending sound; his music has blended elements of pop, British rock, soul, funk, reggae, electronic music, Af ...
,
Pauline Henry
Pauline Henry (born 29 January 1961) is a Jamaican-British recording artist. She was the vocalist in the Scottish band the Chimes, best known for their 1990 cover version of U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", between 1988 and 19 ...
,
Dev Hynes
Devonté Hynes (born David Joseph Michael Hynes, 23 December 1985), also known as Blood Orange and formerly Lightspeed Champion, is an English singer, songwriter, record producer and director based in New York City. From 2004 to 2006, Hynes was ...
,
Jamelia
'
Jamelia Niela Davis (born 11 January 1981) is an English singer, songwriter and television presenter. She has released three studio albums, each of which has reached the Top 40 in the UK, which collectively have spawned eight UK top-ten singl ...
,
KSI
Olajide Olayinka Williams "JJ" Olatunji (born 19 June 1993), known professionally as KSI, is an English YouTuber and rapper. He is a co-founder and member of the British YouTube group known as the Sidemen. He is the CEO of Misfits Boxing and ...
,
Leona Lewis
Leona Louise Lewis (born 3 April 1985) is a British singer, songwriter, actress and activist. Born and raised in the London Borough of Islington, she attended the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in Croydon. Lewis achieved nationa ...
,
Shaznay Lewis
Tricia Marie "Shaznay" Lewis (born 14 October 1975) is an English singer, songwriter and a member of the girl group All Saints. She has co-written most of the group's songs, including number one singles: "Bootie Call", "Pure Shores" and internat ...
,
Mahalia Mahalia is a given name and may refer to:
* Mahalia Barnes (born 1982), Australian singer-songwriter
*Mahalia Belo, British film and television director
*Mahalia (singer) (born 1 May 1998), English singer, songwriter and actress, better known by th ...
,
Ella Mai
Ella Mai Howell (born 3 November 1994) is an English singer-songwriter. Her musical career began at London's British and Irish Modern Music Institute in 2014, during which time she auditioned as part of a trio on the 11th season of ''The X Fa ...
,
MNEK
Uzoechi Osisioma "Uzo" Emenike (born 9 November 1994), professionally known by his stage name MNEK (, ), is a British singer, songwriter and record producer. He has been nominated for a Grammy and a Brit Award, and has received the ASCAP Vangua ...
,
Maxine Nightingale
Maxine Nightingale (born 2 November 1952) is a British R&B and soul music singer. She is best known for her hits in the 1970s, with the million seller " Right Back Where We Started From" (1975, UK #8 & 1976, U.S. #2), "Love Hit Me" (1977), an ...
,
Billy Ocean
Leslie Sebastian Charles, (born 21 January 1950), better known by his stage name Billy Ocean, is a British recording artist who had a string of R&B international pop hits in the 1970s and 1980s. He was the most popular British R&B singer-son ...
,
Mica Paris
Michelle Antoinette Wallen (born 27 April 1969), known professionally as Mica Paris (), is an English singer, presenter and actress.
Paris was born in Islington in North London, but moved to Brockley, South London, when she was nine. She rel ...
,
Leigh-Anne Pinnock
Leigh-Anne Pinnock (born 4 October 1991) is an English singer, actress and songwriter. She rose to prominence in the 2010s as a member of the girl group Little Mix, one of the world's best-selling girl groups ever. With Little Mix, she release ...
,
Maxi Priest
Max Alfred "Maxi" Elliott (born 10 June 1961), known by his stage name Maxi Priest, is a British reggae vocalist of Jamaican descent. He is best known for singing reggae music with an R&B influence, otherwise known as reggae fusion. He was one ...
,
Corinne Bailey Rae
Corinne Jacqueline Bailey Rae (; born 26 February 1979) is an English singer and songwriter. She is best known for her 2006 single "Put Your Records On". Bailey Rae was named the number-one predicted breakthrough act of 2006 in an annual BBC po ...
,
Andrew Roachford
Andrew Roachford (born 22 January 1965) is a British singer-songwriter and the main force behind the band Roachford, who scored their first success in 1989 with the hit record, hits "Cuddly Toy (song), Cuddly Toy" and "Family Man". He has als ...
,
Sade
Sade may refer to:
People
* Marquis de Sade (1740–1814), French aristocrat, writer, and libertine
* Sade (singer) (born 1959, Helen Folasade Adu), British Nigerian musician and lead singer of the eponymous band
* Sade Baderinwa (born 1969), WAB ...
Seal
Seal may refer to any of the following:
Common uses
* Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly:
** Earless seal, or "true seal"
** Fur seal
* Seal (emblem), a device to imp ...
Heather Small
Heather Margarita Small (born 20 January 1965) is a British soul singer and former lead vocalist of the band M People. Her subsequent debut solo studio album, ''Proud'', was released in 2000.
Career
1987–1998: Hot House and M People
Small ...
,
Jorja Smith
Jorja Alice Smith (born 11 June 1997) is an English singer-songwriter. Born and raised in Walsall, West Midlands, she has been writing songs since the age of 11. In 2012, Smith's friend uploaded her cover of Labrinth's "Earthquake" to YouTube, ...
,
21 Savage
Shéyaa Bin Abraham-Joseph (born October 22, 1992), known professionally as 21 Savage, is a rapper based in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Born in London, he moved to Atlanta with his mother at age seven. He became known after releasing two m ...
,
Benji Webbe
Clive John "Benji" Webbe (born 11 March 1967) is a Welsh singer, best known as the lead vocalist and synthesizer player for the reggae metal band Skindred. Aside from his main project, he is also active in Diamond Spider, Dub War, Mass Mental a ...
Young MC
Marvin Young (born May 10, 1967), better known by his stage name Young M.C., is a British-born American rapper, singer and actor. He is best known for his 1989 hit " Bust a Move". His debut album '' Stone Cold Rhymin found international accl ...
are among the popular singers not mentioned in the music section above.
Film
Sir
Horace Ové
Sir Horace Shango Ové (born 1936) is a Trinidad and Tobago-born British filmmaker, photographer, painter and writer. One of the leading black independent filmmakers to emerge in Britain in the post-war period, Ové holds the ''Guinness World R ...
was the first Black British filmmaker to direct a feature-length film, ''
Pressure
Pressure (symbol: ''p'' or ''P'') is the force applied perpendicular to the surface of an object per unit area over which that force is distributed. Gauge pressure (also spelled ''gage'' pressure)The preferred spelling varies by country and e ...
,'' in 1976. Considered a pioneer in Black British filmmaking, Ové was awarded a
knighthood
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the ...
for his services to media. Inspired by Ové,
Menelik Shabazz
Menelik Shabazz (30 May 1954 – 28 June 2021) was a Barbados-born British film director, producer, educator, and writer, acknowledged as a pioneer in the development of independent Black British cinema, having been at the forefront of contempor ...
became the second Black filmmaker to direct a feature film in the UK, '' Burning an Illusion,'' in 1981. The film received critical acclaim and is considered an important landmark in UK cinema. ''Burning an Illusion'' won the Grand Prix at the
Amiens
Amiens (English: or ; ; pcd, Anmien, or ) is a city and commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in the region of Hauts-de-France. In 2021, the population of ...
International Film Festival in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
.
The most prominent Black British filmmaker is Sir Steve McQueen, who after initially receiving acclaim as a visual artist and winning the
Turner Prize
The Turner Prize, named after the English painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. Between 1991 and 2016, only artists under the age of 50 were eligible (this restriction was removed for the 2017 award) ...
in 1999, went on to direct his first feature ''
Hunger
In politics, humanitarian aid, and the social sciences, hunger is defined as a condition in which a person does not have the physical or financial capability to eat sufficient food to meet basic Human nutrition, nutritional needs for a sustaine ...
'' (2008), which earned him the
Caméra d'Or
The Caméra d'Or ("''Golden Camera''") is an award of the Cannes Film Festival for the best first feature film presented in one of the Cannes' selections (Official Selection, Directors' Fortnight
The Directors' Fortnight (french: Quinzaine des ...
at the
2008 Cannes Film Festival
The 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival was held from 14 to 25 May 2008. The President of the Official Jury was American actor and director Sean Penn. Twenty two films from fourteen countries were selected to compete for the ''Palme d'Or''. The awards ...
. His third feature film, ''
12 Years a Slave
''Twelve Years a Slave'' is an 1853 memoir and slave narrative by American Solomon Northup as told to and written by David Wilson. Northup, a black man who was born free in New York state, details himself being tricked to go to Washington, D.C. ...
'' (2013), won several major international awards, and McQueen became the first black filmmaker to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. Other notable Black British filmmakers include
Richard Ayoade
Richard Ellef Ayoade ( ; born 23 May 1977) is a British actor, comedian, broadcaster and filmmaker. He is best known for his role as socially awkward IT technician Maurice Moss in Channel 4 sitcom ''The IT Crowd'' (2006–2013), for which he ...
,
Amma Asante
Amma Asante (born 13 September 1969) is a British filmmaker, screenwriter, former actress, and Chancellor at Norwich University of the Arts, who was born in London to parents from Ghana. Her love for the film industry started when she receive ...
Ngozi Onwurah
Ngozi Onwurah (born 1966) is a British-Nigerian film director, producer, model, and lecturer. She is best known as a filmmaker for her autobiographical film ''The Body Beautiful'' (1991) and her first feature film, ''Welcome II the Terrordome'' ( ...
, and
Destiny Ekaragha
Destiny Ekaragha is a British film director. She is only the third British black woman, following Ngozi Onwurah and Amma Asante, to have directed a feature-length film that was given cinema distribution in the UK.
Career
Ekaragha began her career ...
.
Actors
Numerous black British actors have experienced success in US television, such as
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (, ; born 22 August 1967) is an English actor, director, and former fashion model known for his roles as Lock-Nah in ''The Mummy Returns'', Nykwana Wombosi in '' The Bourne Identity'', Heavy Duty in '' G.I. Joe: The R ...
,
Idris Elba
Idrissa Akuna Elba (; born 6 September 1972) is an English actor.
,
Alfred Enoch
Alfred Lewis Enoch (born 2 December 1988) is an English actor, best known for playing Dean Thomas in the ''Harry Potter'' film series and Wes Gibbins in the ABC legal thriller television series ''How to Get Away with Murder''.
Early life and ...
,
Damson Idris
Damson Idris (born 2 September 1991) is a British-Nigerian actor. He currently stars on John Singleton's crime drama ''Snowfall'', which debuted 5 July 2017 on FX. He played the co-lead in Netflix's sci-fi action film '' Outside the Wire'' (202 ...
, Lennie James, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Regé-Jean Page, and Marsha Thomason. Black British actors are also increasingly found starring in major Hollywood films, notable examples include Kingsley Ben-Adir, John Boyega, Lois Chimimba, Franz Drameh, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Cynthia Erivo, David Harewood, Naomie Harris, Daniel Kaluuya, Adrian Lester, Delroy Lindo, Lashana Lynch, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Thandiwe Newton, Sophie Okonedo, Eunice Olumide, David Oyelowo, Aaron Pierre (actor), Aaron Pierre, Hugh Quarshie, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, Colin Salmon, Antonia Thomas, Eamonn Walker, Ashley Walters (actor), Ashley Walters, and Letitia Wright. Looking to join the listed above are young stars such as Ricardo P. Lloyd who spoke about the challenges many black British actors face in the UK industry compared to the US in an article by ''The Independent''.
Visual artists
Among notable Black British visual artists are painters such as Chris Ofili, Frank Bowling, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Keith Piper (artist), Keith Piper, Sonia Boyce, Paul Dash, Kimathi Donkor, Claudette Johnson, Winston Branch, and sculptors including Sokari Douglas Camp, Ronald Moody, Fowokan, Yinka Shonibare and Zak Ové.
Fashion
Naomi Campbell was the first black model to appear on the front cover of ''Time Magazine, Time'', French Vogue, French ''Vogue'', and the September issue of American ''Vogue''. Other notable models include Leomie Anderson, Jourdan Dunn, Paloma Elsesser and Munroe Bergdorf.
Writers
Britain's first major black newspaper, the ''West Indian Gazette'' (WIG), was founded by communist activist Claudia Jones in 1958. Notable Black British writers include Andrea Levy, whose best selling book, ''Small Island (novel), Small Island'' (2004)'','' won the Whitbread Book of the Year, the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. Levy became the first Black writer whose pen would join the Royal Society of Literature's historic collection, which includes pens belonging to Charles Dickens, George Eliot, T. S. Eliot and Lord Byron. Bernardine Evaristo's novel ''Girl, Woman, Other'' won the Man Booker Prize in 2019, making Evaristo the first Black British writer to win the Man Booker. In 2020, Evaristo was made an Order of the British Empire, Officer of the Order of the British Empire for her services to literature. Zadie Smith won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize#Commonwealth Writers' Prize: Best Book (1987–2011), Commonwealth Writers’ Best Book Award (Eurasia Section) and the Orange Prize for ''On Beauty''. Smith's acclaimed first novel, ''White Teeth'' (2000) was an international best seller and won multiple accolades, including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction, the Whitbread Book Award in category best first novel, the Guardian First Book Award and the Betty Trask Award. ''Time (magazine), Time'' magazine included the novel in its Time's List of the 100 Best Novels, list of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005. Dreda Say Mitchell became the first Black British writer to be awarded the CWA New Blood Dagger, Crime Writers Association’s John Creasey Dagger for her debut book ''Running Hot,'' in 2005. Mitchell's 2019 psychological thriller, ''Spare Room,'' became a critically acclaimed international best seller and she was honoured with an MBE for services to literature. At the 2020 British Book Awards, Candice Carty-Williams became the first Black woman to win the "Book of the Year" accolade, for her novel ''Queenie (novel), Queenie.'' ''Queenie'' entered the ''The Sunday Times, Sunday Times'' Bestseller hardback chart at number two and has gone on to win numerous accolades. Other notable novelists include Caryl Phillips, Victor Headley, Alex Wheatle, Ferdinand Dennis (winner of the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize for his 1988 travelogue ''Behind the Frontlines: Journey into Afro-Britain''), George Lamming, Sam Selvon, Samuel Selvon (who wrote the groundbreaking novel ''The Lonely Londoners),'' Andrew Salkey, Sir Wilson Harris (who was Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, knighted and received a Lifetime Achievement Prize from the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards), Mike Phillips (writer), Mike Phillips, Booker Prize nominee Nadifa Mohamed and Diran Adebayo (first winner in 1995 of the Saga Prize, which was set up by Marsha Hunt (actress, born 1946), Marsha Hunt to encourage Black British writing and ran for four years).
Jackie Kay was Scots Makar, the national poet laureate of Scotland, between 2016 and 2021. Other notable poets include Roger Robinson (poet), Roger Robinson (won the prestigious T. S. Eliot Prize 2019), Benjamin Zephaniah, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Lemn Sissay, Salena Godden, Warsan Shire, Patience Agbabi, Kamau Brathwaite (won the 2006 International Griffin Poetry Prize, for his volume of poetry ''Born to Slow Horses)'' and James Berry (poet), James Berry, who was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to poetry. Notable playwrights include Mustapha Matura, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Roy Williams (playwright), Roy Williams, Winsome Pinnock, Patricia Cumper and Bola Agbaje. Other contributors include journalists such as Reni Eddo-Lodge, Gary Younge, Afua Hirsch, Ekow Eshun, and Children's Laureate Malorie Blackman. Onyeka, Onyeka Nubia is the author of fictional trilogy ''Waiting to Explode'', ''The Black Prince'', and ''The Phoenix'', for which he won the 2009 African Achievers award for Communication and Media. ''Blackamoores: Africans in Tudor England, their Presence, Status and Origins'' is his latest book, published by Narrative Eye in 2013, in which he proves that Black people in Tudor England had free status and were not slaves. ''Blackamoores'' was runner-up in the 2013/14 People's Book Prize.
Police service
Norwell Roberts was one of the first black police officers to join the Metropolitan Police in 1967, eventually rising to the rank of Detective Sergeant. Roberts was awarded the Queen's Police Medal for distinguished service in 1996 and retired from duty in 1997. Michael Fuller, after a career in the Metropolitan Police, served as the Chief Constable of Kent from 2004 to 2010. He is the son of Jamaican immigrants who came to the United Kingdom in the 1950s. Fuller was brought up in Sussex, where his interest in the police force was encouraged by an officer attached to his school. He is a graduate in social psychology. Leroy Logan served as a Metropolitan Police superintendent and was a founding member and chairman of the National Black Police Association (United Kingdom), National Black Police Association. Logan was awarded an Order of the British Empire, MBE for his fight against racism within the police force. Janet Hills was the first woman to chair the National Black Police Association and was awarded an MBE for her services to policing and to community relations.
Military services
British communist activist Charlie Hutchison, born in Witney and raised in an orphanage, was the only black British volunteer to join the British Battalion of the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. He spent almost 10 years uninteruptedly fighting fascists, taking part in the Battle of Cable Street, and fighting in numerous battles including the Dunkirk evacuation, and the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
In 2005, soldier Johnson Beharry, born in Grenada, became the first man to win the Victoria Cross, the United Kingdom's foremost military award for bravery, since the Falklands War of 1982. He was awarded the medal for service in Iraq in 2004. Air commodore, Air Commodore David Case (British officer), David Case is the highest ranking black officer in the forces. He joined the RAF as a 19-year-old cadet to read aeronautical engineering at the Queen's University Belfast. He received his Commissioned officer, commission in 1975 and was awarded the distinguished Sword of Honour (Cranwell), Sword of Honour, which is bestowed upon the top cadet officer of the year.
Sport
In the sport of Professional boxing, boxing, there have been multiple Black British world champions, including Lennox Lewis (three-time heavyweight world champion, two-time Lineal championship, lineal champion, the most recent heavyweight to hold the Undisputed championship (boxing), undisputed championship, and widely viewed as one of the greatest boxers of all-time), Frank Bruno, Chris Eubank, Chris Eubank Sr., Nigel Benn, David Haye, Kell Brook, James DeGale, Anthony Joshua and Lawrence Okolie.
There are many notable black British association football, footballers, some of whom have played for England national football team, England, including Marcus Rashford, Paul Ince, Sol Campbell, John Barnes, Dion Dublin, Rio Ferdinand, Viv Anderson, Des Walker, Ashley Cole, Ian Wright, Daniel Sturridge, Daniel Welbeck, Joe Gomez (footballer), Joe Gomez, Micah Richards, Bukayo Saka, Raheem Sterling, Jesse Lingard, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Danny Rose (footballer, born 1990), Danny Rose, Ryan Bertrand, Kyle Walker, Dele Alli and David James (footballer, born 1970), David James. Andrew Watson (footballer, born 1856), Andrew Watson who is widely considered to be the world's first association footballer of black heritage, Chris Iwelumo and Ikechi Anya among others have all played for Scotland national football team, Scotland. Eddie Parris, Danny Gabbidon, Nathan Blake and Ashley Williams (footballer), Ashley Williams have played for Wales national football team, Wales.
Black British people have performed well in track and field. Daley Thompson was the gold medallist for the Great Britain at the Olympics, Great Britain team in the decathlon in the 1980 and 1984 Olympics. The most decorated British athlete is Jamaica-born Linford Christie, who moved to the United Kingdom at age seven. He was winner of the gold medal in the 100 meters at the 1992 Olympics, the World Championships, the European Championships and the Commonwealth Games. Sprinter Dwain Chambers grew up in London. His early achievements winning a world junior record for the 100 meters in 1997, as the youngest medal winner in the 1999 world championships, and fourth place at the 2000 Olympics were marred by a later scandal over the use of performance-enhancing drugs, like Christie before him. Kelly Holmes won Olympic gold in both the 800m and 1500m, and set many British records.
In cricket, many have represented England cricket team, England: Mark Alleyne,
Jofra Archer
Jofra Chioke Archer (born 1 April 1995) is a Barbadian-born English cricketer representing England and Sussex. He is a right-arm fast bowler. In April 2019, Archer was selected to play for the England team in limited overs fixtures against Irel ...
, Mark Butcher, Michael Carberry, Norman Cowans, Phillip DeFreitas, Dean Headley, Chris Jordan (cricketer), Chris Jordan, David Lawrence (cricketer), David Lawrence, Chris Lewis (cricketer), Chris Lewis, Devon Malcolm, Gladstone Small, and Alex Tudor to name a few.
In Formula 1, the highest rank of motorsport sanctioned by the FIA, Sir Lewis Hamilton from Stevenage is a seven-time champion, having won the championship in , , , , , and . With seven titles, over 100 wins and pole positions, he is the most successful driver in British history.
Business
Dyke, Dryden and Wade created Britain's first black multi-million-pound business and laid the foundations for future UK black enterprise.
Sir Damon Buffini heads Permira, one of the world's largest private equity firms. He topped the 2007 ''
Powerlist
The ''Powerlist'' is a list of the 100 most influential people of African or African Caribbean heritage in the United Kingdom. The list is updated annually and has been published in book format by Powerful Media since 2007. The ''Powerlist'' is ...
'' as the most powerful Black male in the United Kingdom by ''
New Nation
''New Nation'' was a weekly newspaper published in the UK for the Black British community. Launched in 1996, the newspaper was Britain's Number 1-selling black newspaper. The paper was published every Monday.
''New Nation'' was initially la ...
'' magazine and was appointed to then Prime Minister Gordon Brown's business advisory panel.
Ismail Ahmed (businessman), Ismail Ahmed, is the founder and chairman of WorldRemit, a money transfer company, and Director of the Sahan Foundation International. In October 2019, Ahmed was named first in the Powerlist 2020, an annual list of the 100 most powerful people of African heritage in the UK.
René Carayol is a broadcaster, broadsheet columnist, business and leadership Orator, speaker and author, best known for presenting the BBC series ''Did They Pay Off Their Mortgage in Two Years?'' He has also served as an executive main board director for blue-chip companies as well as the public sector.
Wol Kolade is council member and Chairman of the British Venture Capital Association, BVCA (British Venture Capital Association) and a Governor and council member of the London School of Economics and Political Science, chairing its Audit Committee.
Adam Afriyie is a politician, and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Member of Parliament for Windsor (UK Parliament constituency), Windsor. He is also the founding director of Connect Support Services, an IT services company pioneering fixed-price support. He was also Chairman of DeHavilland, DeHavilland Information Services plc, a news and information services company, and was a regional finalist in the 2003 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards.
Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones is a businessman, farmer and founder of the popular Black Farmer range of food products, which has annual revenues of over £7m.
Following its success in 2007 on TV show ''Dragons' Den,'' the Levi Roots, Levi Roots brand has grown into a multi-million pound enterprise.
Dame Pat McGrath (make-up artist), Pat McGrath, who has been described as the most influential make-up artist in the world by ''Vogue (magazine), Vogue'' magazine, owns a business with an estimated value of $1 billion.
Mo Ibrahim is a telecommunications billionaire businessman and was listed by Time (magazine), ''TIME'' magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Strive Masiyiwa is a billionaire businessman and founder and executive chairman of the international technology group Econet Global. He became the first black billionaire to enter the ''Sunday Times Rich List 2021, Sunday Times Rich List in 2021.''
Jacky Wright is chief digital officer and a corporate vice president at Microsoft, Microsoft US. She has been named the most influential Black person in the UK, ranking at the top of the annual Powerlist in 2022.
Dame Sharon White (businesswoman), Sharon White, the first ever female chair of John Lewis Partnership, she topped the 2023
Powerlist
The ''Powerlist'' is a list of the 100 most influential people of African or African Caribbean heritage in the United Kingdom. The list is updated annually and has been published in book format by Powerful Media since 2007. The ''Powerlist'' is ...
.
In 2004, Greater London Authority Economics produced a report to examine the economic contribution black businesses made to London’s economy. The report found that black businesses made up 4% of all London's businesses, provided over 70,000 jobs and had a total turnover of almost £4.5 billion.
Businesses owned by Black Britons generate more than £10bn for the UK each year, according to the Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship (CREME).
In politics
Houses of Parliament
People of black African and Caribbean ancestry such as Bernie Grant, Valerie Amos, Valerie, Baroness Amos, David Lammy, Dawn Butler, Sir Mark Hendrick and Diane Abbott, as well as Oona King, Oona, Baroness King and Paul Boateng, Paul, Lord Boateng who are of mixed race, have made significant contributions to British politics and trade unionism. Boateng became the United Kingdom's first biracial cabinet minister in 2002 when he was appointed as Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Abbott became the first black female Member of Parliament when she was elected to the British House of Commons, House of Commons in the 1987 United Kingdom general election, 1987 general election.
Bill Morris, Baron Morris of Handsworth, Bill, Lord Morris was elected general secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union in 1992 and became the first black leader of a major British trade union. He was knighthood, knighted in 2003, and in 2006 he took a seat in the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...
as a working life peer, Baron Morris of Handsworth.
The Trinidadian cricketer Learie Constantine, Learie, Lord Constantine was ennobled in 1969 and took the title Baron Constantine of Maraval in Trinidad and Nelson in the County Palatine of Lancaster.
David Pitt, Baron Pitt of Hampstead, David, Lord Pitt became a member of the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...
when he became a Life peer, Life Peer for the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party in 1975. He was also President of the British Medical Association. The first black Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Peer was John Taylor, Baron Taylor of Warwick, John, Lord Taylor."Ex-Tory Peer Lord Taylor Jailed for Expenses Fraud" , BBC News, 31 May 2011. Valerie Amos became the first black woman cabinet minister and the first black woman to become leader of the House of Lords. Patricia Scotland, Patricia, Baroness Scotland became a Labour life peer in 1997 and became the first female Commonwealth Secretary-General, secretary-general of the Commonwealth of Nations.
See also
* ''100 Great Black Britons''
* Black and Asian Studies Association (BASA)
* Black Cultural Archives
* Ethnic groups in the United Kingdom
** British African-Caribbean people
** British Black English
** Black people in Ireland
** Black Scottish people
** Black Welsh people
** Mixed (United Kingdom ethnicity category), British mixed race
* London Black Revolutionaries