Notting Hill race riots

The Notting Hill race riots were a series of racially-motivated riots which took place in the Notting Hill area of London, England over several nights in late August and early September 1958.

Context

The end of World War II had seen a marked increase in Caribbean migrants to Britain. By the 1950s, white working-class "Teddy Boys" were beginning to display hostility towards the black families in the area – a situation exploited and inflamed by groups such as Sir Oswald Mosley's Union Movement and other fascist groups who urged disaffected white residents to "Keep Britain White". [ [http://www.20thcenturylondon.org.uk/server.php?show=conInformationRecord.161 Exploring 20th Century London] , London Museums.]

There was an increase in violent attacks on black people through the summer. For instance, between 2.00am and 5.00am on 24 August, a group of ten white youths committed a series of serious assaults on six inoffensive West Indian men during four separate incidents. At 5.40am, their car was spotted by two police officers who pursued them into the White City estate, where the gang abandoned the car. Using the car as a lead, investigating detectives arrested nine of the gang the next day after working non-stop for 20 hours. [cite book | last = Fido | first = Martin | authorlink = Martin Fido | coauthors = Keith Skinner | year = 1999 | title = The Official Encyclopedia of Scotland Yard | publisher = Virgin Books | location = London | id = ISBN 0-7535-0515-0]

Just prior to the Notting Hill riots, there was also racial unrest in Nottingham, which began on Saturday 23 August and went on intermittently for two weeks. [BBC News: [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6675793.stm The 'forgotten' race riot] , British Broadcasting Corporation, 21 May 2007.]

The riots

The riot is thought to have started on Saturday 30 August when a gang of white youths attacked a white Swedish woman, Majbritt Morrison. [BBC News: [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1355718.stm Long history of race rioting] , British Broadcasting Corporation, 28 May 2001.] The youths had seen her the previous night arguing with her Jamaican husband Raymond at Latimer Road tube station. They had shouted racial insults at him and were incensed when she turned on them. [Younge, Gary: [http://arts.guardian.co.uk/nottinghillcarnival2002/story/0,,775763,00.html The politics of partying] , "The Guardian", 17 August 2002.] Seeing her the next night, the same youths pelted her with bottles, stones, wood and struck her in the back with an iron bar until the police intervened and she was escorted home. Morrison later wrote an autobiographical book, "Jungle West 11", which included details of her ordeal.

Later that night a mob of 300 to 400 white people, many of them "Teddy Boys", were seen on Bramley Road attacking the houses of West Indian residents.

The disturbances, rioting and attacks continued every night until they finally petered out by 5 September.

The Metropolitan Police arrested over 140 people during the two weeks of the disturbance – mostly white youths, but also many black people found carrying weapons. Of the 108 people eventually charged (for crimes such as grievous bodily harm, affray and riot and possessing offensive weapons) 72 were white and 36 were "coloured".

Aftermath

The sentencing of the nine white youths arrested during the riots has passed into judicial lore as an example of "exemplary sentencing" – the ruling of an inordinately harsh punishment to act as a deterrent to others. Each of the youths received a sentence of four years in prison. [cite book |last=Ashworth |first=Andrew |title=Sentencing and Criminal Justice |year=2000 |publisher=Cambridge UniversityPress |location= |id=ISBN 0-5216-7405-0|pages=77 ]

The Notting Hill Carnival was started by Claudia Jones in January 1959 as a response to the riots and the state of race relations in Britain at the time.

The riots caused tension between the Metropolitan Police and the British African-Caribbean community, which claimed that the police had not taken their reports of racial attacks seriously. In 2002, files were released which revealed that senior police officers at the time had assured the Home Secretary, Rab Butler, that there was little or no racial motivation behind the disturbance, despite testimony from individual police officers to the contrary. [Travis, Alan: [http://arts.guardian.co.uk/nottinghillcarnival2002/story/0,12331,780023,00.html After 44 years secret papers reveal truth about five nights of violence in Notting Hill] , "The Guardian", August 24 2002.]

Another riot occurred in the area in 1976 at the conclusion of the Notting Hill Carnival after police arrested a pickpocket, and a group of black youths came to his defence. The disturbance escalated and over 100 police officers were injured. Two notable participants in this riot were Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon, who later formed the seminal London punk band The Clash. Their song "White Riot" was inspired by their participation in this event.

References

External links

*Newsfilm Online: [http://newsfilm.bufvc.ac.uk/article.php?story=2005100819205024 Notting Hill Riot Special] , "ITN News", 5 September 1958.