I don’t believe the American people even to this day really understand what happened in Florida. ibid. Cynthia McKinney
The story of individuals who were aggrieved by what went on, that went to the back burner and fell out of the story. ibid. Christopher Edley
Florida was an apartheid election, a Jim Crow election. ibid. dude #5
George W Bush won the 2000 election by 537 votes in Florida. ibid. caption
London 1971: ‘But when you’re black and British there is a constant struggle to understand who you really are. We are the children of the colonies who built this empire on the backs of their empire.’ Guerrilla I, Sky Atlantic 2017
‘Today we are reading from Dhari’s own book, memoirs of his struggle, The Dragon Will Fly.’ ibid. teaching in nick
‘This growing police brutality is exactly why we need to keep fighting for Dhari’s appeal.’ ibid. meeting of black citizens
‘The National Front is the Nazi Front!’ ibid. protesters
‘You’re soldiers now.’ ibid.
‘Meanwhile, police raids continue across London in the search for the gunmen and their accomplices. Guerrilla II, news
‘Down with radicals, up with elevated blacks.’ ibid. black activist
‘Today marks the first day of a London visit by Rhodesian diplomats who are expecting to be residing for the next week at Rhodesia House. The purpose of their trip is a meeting with the controversial .. vocal supporters of the Monday Club.’ ibid. news
The Dragon Will Fly Black Unity Now. Guerrilla III, protest mural
‘I’m the one who gave you your voice. I wrote your book.’ ibid. Marcus
‘This is Marcus Hill. I’m going to read a declaration of a state of war.’ ibid.
‘If you want to avoid the police, you should bomb them.’ Guerrilla IV, bird
‘We’re the black army faction.’ ibid. Bloke
If you want to give your life give it, don’t waste it. Guerrilla V, Marcus
Black Power battle with Police: Ministers call for calm following night of black violence: Last night, Britain came under attack. And yet, unlike previous battles, the enemy is not abroad … ibid. Express news article
‘The coloured man looms large in the communist plan to take over America.’ Citizen Koch, Fred Koch, 2013
In June 1979 acclaimed author James Baldwin commits to a complex endeavour: tell his story of America through the lives of three of his murdered friends: Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King junior, Malcolm X. Baldwin never got past this thirty pages of notes entitled: Remember this House. I Am Not Your Negro, 2016
1968 when he [MLK] was murdered; Medgar was murdered in the summer of 1963, Malcolm was murdered in 1965. ibid.
Photographs of 15 year old Dorothy Counts being reviled and spat upon by the mob as she was making her way to school in Charlotte, North Carolina … It filled me with both hatred and pity. ibid.
Heroes were white … I despised and feared those heroes … What this does to the subjugated is destroy his sense of reality. ibid.
White people are astounded by Birmingham. Black people aren’t. White people are endlessly demanding to be reassured that Birmingham is really on Mars. ibid.
Malcolm was one of the people Martin saw in the mountain top. ibid.
You have attacked the entire power structure of the Western world. ibid.
The root of the black man’s hatred is rage … The root of the white man’s hatred is terror. ibid.
We’ve had 54 British prime ministers going back almost three centuries. And all of those prime ministers have something in common: they are all white. David Harewood, Will Britain Ever Have a Black Prime Minister? BBC 2017
What are the chances of Britain having a black prime minister? ibid.
Census: 40% of black people live in social housing. ibid.
Black artists have become entrepreneurs, taking control of their vast creative capital. David Harewood, Get on Up: The Triumph of Black America II
One sound dominates popular music and that’s hip-hop … Hip-Hop didn’t just make you wanna move, it also made us think ibid.
Do the Right Thing was a huge commercial success. ibid.
In the Noughties the American dream continued to be just that for many in the inner cities. ibid.
What is it about white actors putting on make-up to play black characters? Scenes like these are usually edited out if the movies are shown on TV. Others have been gathering dust on shelves. David Harewood on Blackface, BBC 2023
An artform that was once mainstream British culture. Iibid.
At its peak the BBC’s Black and White Minstrel Show was watched by audiences of over 20 million people. ibid.
‘This was a vicious violent system; you could die trying to register to vote.’ Rise Up: The Movement that Changed America, History 2018
‘What we saw as a problem, they saw as a solution.’ ibid.
‘Their courage, their love, transformed the history of this country by affecting the hearts of people thousands of miles away.’ ibid.
Nearly a century after slavery, racial segregation was the law across the South. ibid.
The strategy begins with a single act of defiance. ibid.
The movement also chooses its leader: 26-year-old minister who is determined to keep the protests going. ibid.
The Civil Rights Act is the most sweeping change in social policy since the Civil War. ibid.
‘We must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome.’ ibid. Johnson
Equality is still elusive. ibid.
The extraordinary influence the African/African culture has had on popular culture. David Harewood, Get on Up: The Triumph of Black America, BBC 2023
The talent, bravery and the sheer determination of those creative powerhouses who paved the way. ibid.
Martin Luther King’s 1963 address was a beacon of hope across the globe. ibid.
Offscreen and on, Poitier was the embodiment of authority and poise. ibid.
Poitier’s approach was to fight the system from within. Others however took a different view. ibid.
I also met a lot of people flying the pan-African flags, calling for revolution, and chanting Black Power … I’m back to find out what the Black Liberation Movement are fighting for and meet America’s armed resistance. Black Power: America’s Armed Resistance, BBC 2018
The KKK are still the poster boys of white supremacy. ibid.
So why are people scared of calling the Dallas PD? … 39 people have been shot dead by Dallas cops in the last five years. ibid.
As a black man he’s 31% more likely to be pulled over by cops. ibid.
‘Racism is still alive and well.’ ibid. black protester
Best estimate is 1,100 people were killed by the police in 2015 cf. 3 in the UK. ibid.
There are some stories so big, stories tell us who we are and what we’ve become, we can’t believe they ever got away, vanished from the history books. But then I had no clue about this story myself: escaped American slaves who fought for King George, not George Washington, in the American Revolutionary War, who flocked to the British flag, thousands of them. Simon Schama’s Rough Crossings, BBC 2018
The British made the slaves an offer: come over to our side and we’ll give you your freedom. From all over Slave America, thousands took up the offer and became fugitives. ibid.
So Thomas Peters and thousands of other fearful, hopeful, men, women and children came to the New York dockside, desperate for passage to land and freedom on the last British sailings. And where was this promised land? About as far away from the southern plantations as you could possibly get, on the wind-whipped eastern edge of Canada – Nova Scotia. ibid.
The idea that in Africa there could be a place where ex-slaves would enjoy true liberty and security – that place was on the coast of Sierra Leone, and they call it the Province of Freedom. ibid.
Over the past few years black film-makers and actors have featured heavily in the annual awards ceremonies. Breaking box office records along the way. Black Hollywood: They’ve Got to Have Us I: Legends & Pioneers, BBC 2018
These are artists revolutionizing cinema in ways that really matter to us all. ibid.
Black film-makers finally won themselves the space to speak. ibid.
Gone with the Wind: Many actors were straitjacketed by the writing of the time. But Hattie McDaniel stood out. ibid.
‘My name is Harry Belafonte and I’ve been around a long time.’ ibid.