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20 July, 2017

Len Garrison

Lenford (Kwesi) Garrison (1943–2003) was an educationalist and historian whose life’s work was to catalogue the development of the black British identity and its history and promote the works of young black writers.

He was born in St Thomas, Jamaica. His father and mother migrated to Britain in 1952 and 1953 respectively, and Len joined them there in west London in 1954.

19 July, 2017

The sari shop, the Golden Mile, Leicester

Sales assistants at a sari shop on the Golden Mile. Refugees from East Africa were housed here when they first came in 1972. It was a dilapidated neighbourhood called Belgrave. Forty years after the settlement, Belgrave was recently renamed the Golden Mile, as it boasts the achievements and entrepreneurial skills of this proud and successful community. It is now a bustling shopping district. During Diwali, the festival of light, Belgrave attracts the largest crowd, outside of India.

29 June, 2017

Demonstration against new immigration rules, Trafalgar Square, 1979

The Thatcher government announced it was changing the immigration rules so that Commonwealth dependants would find it even harder still to enter Britain. People were outraged and in November 1979 thousands came from all over the UK to protest in London. In parliament the Tory MP Tony Marlow shamefully claimed that racism amongst British people was a ‘natural’ instinct. Tory politicians talked openly of repatriating immigrants. The Tories ignored the protests and the new immigration rules came into force in December 1979.