The Race Relations Board was established in 1966 following the passage of the

Race Relations Act 1965 The Race Relations Act 1965 was the first legislation in the United Kingdom to address racial discrimination. The Act outlawed discrimination on the "grounds of colour, race, or ethnic or national origins" in public places in Great Britain. It ...

. The act specified that the board should consist of a chairman and two other members. Its remit was to consider complaints under the Act. It dealt with 327 complaints of racial discrimination in 1966. The board was abolished by the

Race Relations Act 1976 The Race Relations Act 1976 was established by the Parliament of the United Kingdom to prevent discrimination on the grounds of race. The scope of the legislation included discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, nationality, ethnic and n ...

, and its role was amalgamated with that of the Community Relations Commission to form the

Commission for Racial Equality The Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) was a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom which aimed to address racial discrimination and promote racial equality. The commission was established in 1976, and disbanded in 2007 when its ...

. The first chair of the board was Mark Bonham Carter. He visited the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

in November 1966 to draw lessons from the experiences of North America in handling racial discrimination. He stated that he viewed the existence of a significant

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

minority in itself as a "permanent historical problem" and opined that problems in the United Kingdom were "new". Geoffrey Bindman, QC was the legal advisor to the board throughout its existence and subsequently with the Commission for Racial Equality. The Board set up and co-ordinated 7 regional conciliation committees whose role was to deal with complaints of discrimination. These committees set out reach a settlement of the difference between the complainant and the discriminator with an assurance from the latter that the problem would not arise again. However if no settlement was obtained, the matter would then be referred to the RRB and, if necessary, to the

Attorney-General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

. There was no criminal sanction. Four cases were referred to the Attorney-General in the period up to 1968.

References

{{authority control Race relations in the United Kingdom Defunct public bodies of the United Kingdom 1966 establishments in the United Kingdom 1976 disestablishments in the United Kingdom