NATIONAL UNION OF TEACHERS – SOUTH WEST REGION
BLACK HISTORY MONTH
Read all about it
Western Daily Press editorial – May 1963
‘White men will never take kindly to working under coloured men.
This is wrong but it is inescapable. The solution obviously is to have sections in which coloured and white folk work apart so that the coloured man has a fair chance of promotion.’
Over forty years after the above appeared the Plymouth Evening Herald reported - August 2004
Authority criticised for lack of racism policy
Fifty racist incidents were recorded in Plymouth schools over 12 months, the city council has revealed.
Given the problems of tackling racism in an area like the South West, where the ethnic minority population is relatively small, the “Keep them in Birmingham” mentality still holds force in many areas and the problems often remain hidden from open view, we decidedat a regional meeting in 2003, that as part of the work of the NUT South West Region we would publicise and promote Black History Month which is held in October every year.
In 2004I asked some people with an interest in Black History to recommend “readable” novels, autobiographiesor other books that they think will interest, entertain and inform trade union members in the region.
Most of the books are available cheaply in paperback versions or can be obtained from your local library. If you were looking for something to read in half-term look no further!
We have also distributed the recommendations through the South West TUC and to other areas of the NUT in the hope that it might stimulate interest and activity outside of our own NUT membership and region.
The choices of our “panel” appear on the following pages - I hope you enjoy them.
Andy Woolley
NUT South West Regional Secretary
NINA FRANKLIN – Bristol NUT Secretary and NUT National Executive Member recommends,
SmallIsland :
Author - Andrea Levy / Publisher - Review ISBN 0755307496
Nina says it was very difficult to get it down to one book but this is the most recent book she has read and enjoyed immensely. It is setin London around 1948 in the lodging house of Queenie Bligh who takes in lodgers who have recently arrived from Jamaica.It tells the storyof one of her lodgers who was one of the several thousand Jamaicans who joined the RAF to fight for Britain against Hitler. He brings his partner who has been a teacher in Jamaica to live in London. Very soon you experience racism and prejudice through the eyes of the charactersand their experiences in post-war Britain. Nina found this to be a very moving novelin that it explores some pretty heavy concepts around empire, prejudice, war and love. It is also set at a changing point for British history and this makes it very thought provoking read. She hopes that Andrea Levy writes a follow-up novel as she was left wondering what happened to the characters !
This book was the winner of the 2004 Orange Prize for Fiction.
AMBER WILLIAMS - A pupil at St. Thomas More School, Bristol recommends,
Slave Girl - The Diary of Clotee, Virginia USA 1859 :
Author - Patricia C. McKissack / Publisher - Scholastic Childrens Books
ISBN: 0439981867
Amber -aged 13 - was unable to put this down when she read it in the Summer. It is part of the My Story series. She found it a verymoving novel which is written as a diary. In particular she learnt a lot from it about slavery in the USA and the abolition of slavery and how this time affected enslaved Aficans. It also tells the story of the underground railway which was set up to help runaway slaves.Amber has insisted that her Mum (Nina Franklin) reads it too, so it may also be a good choice for adults !
SAMIDHA GARG - NUT Principal Officer for Education & Equal Opportunities (Race) recommends,
Staying Power: the History of Black People in Britain since 1504
Author - Peter Fryer / Publisher - Pluto Press Ltd ISBN: 0861047494
Samidha regards this as the “classic book on black history” and says it is “a comprehensive history of Black people in Britain, over several hundred years. Fascinating, well-written and very readable”.
ANA PANZICA – Teacher, NUT member and trustee for the Catholic Association of Racial Justice recommends,
The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou
Author – Maya Angelou / Publisher - Virago Press ISBN: 186049191X
Anna recommends this book in general and particularly the poem “Still I Rise” which to her epitomises the struggle of black people to rise above their past or history. It is reproduced below (don’t let that stop you getting the book and reading all of Maya Angelou’s other poetry)
STILL I RISE
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
MAUREEN WILLIAMS – Chair of the South West TUC Race Committee and representative on it from the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers recommends,
Windrush - The Irresistible Rise of Multicultural Britain
Authors - Mike Phillips and Trevor Phillips / Publisher - HarperCollins
ISBN: 0006530397
Maureen has recommended this book because it highlights a lot of untold stories of Britain’s black population. She also draws attention to the BBC four part series of the same name which these two brothers wrote and produced in 1998 which led to this book by them.
Mike’s most recent novel, “A Shadow of Myself”, published in 2000 is set in London, Prague, Hamburg and Berlin. It explores the history of black people in Europe, colonial independence and the relationship between Europe and the developing world. Mike also published “London Crossings – a biography of Black Britain”, a collection on the development of Black British identity.
LIZ HARRIS – Black Members’ Secretary for UNISON South West Region recommends,
Several books by Richard Hart who is an author the UNISON South West Black Members Self-organised group invited to their Annual General Meeting in 2002. The first three are currently available to purchase but all five may be available from libraries including the black members library at UNISON’s Bristol office.
Rise and Organise: The Birth of the Workers and National Movements in Jamaica (About the birth of the workers’ and national movements in Jamaica 1936 – 1939)
Author Richard Hart / Publisher - Karia Press ISBN: 0946918724
From Occupation To Independence: A Short History Of The Peoples Of The English-speaking Caribbean Region
Author - Richard Hart / Publisher-University of West Indies Press ISBN: 9768125527
Slaves Who Abolished Slavery: volume 2 - Blacks in Rebellion
Author - Richard Hart / Publisher -University of West Indies Press ISBN: 9766401101
Slaves Who Abolished Slavery: volume 1 - Blacks in Bondage
The Life and Resurrection of Marcus Garvey (About labour rebellions of the 1930’s in the British Caribbean region colonies)