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Notting Hill Riots 1958. Since the end of WWII Notting Hill had seen a huge influx of Caribbean immigrants, settling in to (what was then) the poor end of London.
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Notting Hill Riots 1958 Since the end of WWII Notting Hill had seen a huge influx of Caribbean immigrants, settling in to (what was then) the poor end of London. Living in relative peace for some years, the black community were starting to experience increasing aggravation thanks in large part to Sir Oswald Mosley’s Union Movement urging the white population to ‘Keep Britain White’. Several incidents of racial assault took place throughout the summer while, in Nottingham, riots took place from August 23 for two weeks .
Notting Hill Riots 1958 Racial tensions had increased a s a consequence of the increase in the number of Caribbean immigrants and the problem with rented accommodation. Many landlords had evicted white residents from their homes and then rented their homes to the Caribbean immigrants at a higher price.
On the evening of Friday August 29 a gang of white youths witnessed an argument between Swedish Majbritt Morrison and her West Indian husband Raymond outside Latimer Road tube station. Hurling insults, the youths were surprised when Majbritt turned on them. The following night, seeing her alone they boys pelted her with stones and bottles, and hit her with an iron bar until she was carried away by police. The touch paper had been lit – later that night an estimated 300-400 teddy boys and other whites attacked the homes of West Indian residents on Bramley Road. The unrest continued until September 5 with attacks on people and property, disturbances and rioting eventually petering out with the arrest of 140 people, black and white. 108 were charged with crimes such as GBH, affray and possessing offensive weapons with nine white youths banged up for four years as an example to others.
Source ITN Newsreel http://www.itzcaribbean.com/nottinghillraceriots.php
Source ITN Newsreel http://www.itzcaribbean.com/nottinghillraceriots.php
In January 1959, five months after the riot, the first carnival was held indoors at St Pancras town hall in central London as an act of solidarity and defiant in response to the racist events. Claudia Jones was central to organising the event which in 1965 became an annual outdoor parade in Notting Hill. . Claudia Jones
The tensions after the riot were to stay and that May 1959, a carpenter from Antigua, Kelso Cochrane, was stabbed to death in Kensal Rise (then know as Kensal New Town) by a gang of white men. No one was ever convicted. In the police report pages were stapled up for legal reasons. One document, however, reveals the police's desire to swiftly dismiss racism as a motive for the stabbing. The man leading the investigation, Detective Superintendent Ian Forbes-Leith, told a newspaper at the time: "We are satisfied that it was the work of a group of about six anti-law white teenagers who had only one motive in view - robbery or attempted robbery." Much was made in the press of the fact that Kelso's wallet was empty, but his fiancee Olivia was clear in her statement that he had emptied it before leaving home that evening. The Sunday People also claimed Kelso had been drinking, even though the pathologist ruled this out.
This was to be a social turning point, with more than 1,200 people, both black and white, attending his funeral. This was followed by Oswald Mosley losing the General election.
