People, Places, Events   

The Black Equity Organisation (BEO) is a civil rights organisation and anti-racism charity in the United Kingdom, launched in 2022 with the aim of dismantling systemic racism. The organisation was registered as a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) on 12 September 2021. Co-founded by prominent black Britons including Vivian Hunt, David Lammy and David Olusoga, it was officially announced as a first-of-its-kind civil rights group for the UK in 2022, two years after the

Sitting in Limbo is a 2020 feature-length factual television drama about the Windrush scandal. The story focuses on the real-life experiences of a Jamaican-born British man, Anthony Bryan, one of the victims of the UK Home Office hostile environment policy on immigration. Bryan had lived in the UK for 50 years when his life was upended as a result of the Home Office mistakenly classifying him as an illegal immigrant.

Empire Road is a British television series, made by the BBC in 1978 and 1979. Written by Michael Abbensetts, the programme ran for two series. The series was the first British television series to be written, acted and directed predominantly by black artists. A soap opera, similar in format to Coronation Street, Empire Road depicted life for the African-Caribbean, East Indian and South Asian residents of a racially diverse street in the city of Birmingham.

In 1991, Patricia Scotland became the first black woman to be appointed a Queen's Counsel. She later founded the (now closed) 1 Gray's Inn Square barristers chambers. Early in 1997, she was elected as a Bencher of the Middle Temple. Scotland was named as a Millennium Commissioner on 17 February 1994, and was a member of the Commission for Racial Equality. She received a life peerage on a Labour Party list of working peers and was created Baroness Scotland of Asthal,

British Army drops colour bar 1966 As Armed Forces we champion recognition of the service of black servicemen and women and people from the Commonwealth and ethnic minorities. These examples are select but highlight the contribution of Afro-Caribbean’s, underlining our shared heritage. They exemplify determination, professionalism, commitment and loyalty.

Carroll Thompson is a British lovers rock singer, best known as the "Queen of Lovers Rock”. Thompson, (1960 - present), was born in Letchworth, Hertfordhire in England and is of Jamaican descent. She undertook classical piano training on the piano and sang in school and church choirs as a girl, but initially studied for a career in pharmacy. She began working as a backing singer at several recording studios after auditioning for Frank Farian's Sugar Cane group.

Early Naval History: Black Sailors in the British Navy During the 1700s and 1800s Britain’s navy was the largest in the world. The Royal Navy’s increasing demand for manpower led it to draw its personnel from across the globe as well as the British Isles. Black men (free and enslaved) from the Americas, the Caribbean, Africa and Britain served on Royal Navy vessels in a number of capacities from ship’s cook to, in one known case, ship’s captain (Captain John Perkins).

The most notable ship to arrive in the UK carrying migrants from the Caribbean was the MV Empire Windrush, which left Jamaica on May 24, 1948 and arrived at Tilbury dock on June 22, 1948. According to a passenger on the ship, the journey from Jamaica to the UK took about 22 days, which to them was a long journey. They went to Tampico (Mexico), spent about 3 or 4 days there, passed by Havana, then on to Bermuda, where they spent another 4 days. The ‘Windrush’ became the ico

The Race Relations Act 1968 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom making it illegal to refuse housing, employment, or public services to a person on the grounds of colour, race, ethnic or national origins in Great Britain (although not in Northern Ireland, which had its own parliament at the time). It also created the Community Relations Commission to promote 'harmonious community relations’.