Black Handsworth
The publisher and the University of California Press Foundation gratefully acknowledge the generous support of the Fletcher Jones Foundation Imprint in Humanities.
BERKELEY SERIES IN BRITISH STUDIES
Edited by James Vernon
1. The Peculiarities of Liberal Modernity in Imperial Britain, edited by Simon Gunn and James Vernon
2. Dilemmas of Decline: British Intellectuals and World Politics, 1945–1975, by Ian Hall
3. The Savage Visit: New World People and Popular Imperial Culture in Britain, 1710–1795, by Kate Fullagar
4. The Afterlife of Empire, by Jordanna Bailkin
5. Smyrna’s Ashes: Humanitarianism, Genocide, and the Birth of the Middle East, by Michelle Tusan
6. Pathological Bodies: Medicine and Political Culture, by Corinna Wagner
7. A Problem of Great Importance: Population, Race, and Power in the British Empire, 1918–1973, by Karl Ittmann
8. Liberalism in Empire: An Alternative History, by Andrew Sartori
9. Distant Strangers: How Britain Became Modern, by James Vernon
10. Edmund Burke and the Conservative Logic of Empire, by Daniel I. O’Neill
11. Governing Systems: Modernity and the Making of Public Health in England, 1830–1910, by Tom Crook
12. Barbed-Wire Imperialism: Britain’s Empire of Camps, 1976–1903, by Aidan Forth
13. Aging in Twentieth-Century Britain, by Charlotte Greenhalgh
14. Thinking Black: Britain, 1964–1985, by Rob Waters
15. Black Handsworth: Race in 1980s Britain, by Kieran Connell
Black Handsworth
Race in 1980s Britain
Kieran Connell
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
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University of California Press
Oakland, California
© 2019 by Kieran Connell
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Connell, Kieran, author.
Title: Black Handsworth : race in 1980s Britain / Kieran Connell.
Description: Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2019] | Series: Berkeley Series in British Studies ; 15 | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2018036127 (print) | LCCN 2018037563 (ebook) | ISBN 9780520971950 (ebook) | ISBN 9780520300668 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780520300682 (paperback)
Subjects: LCSH: Blacks—England—Birmingham—Social conditions—20th century. | Handsworth (Birmingham, England)—Social conditions—20th century. | Handsworth (Birmingham, England)—Race relations—History—20th century.
Classification: LCC DA690.B6 (ebook) | LCC DA690.B6 C76 2019 (print) | DDC 305.896/042496—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018036127
Manufactured in the United States of America
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For A. S. F. and in memory of K. H. C.
Contents
Introduction: Black Handsworth
1. Shades of Black: Political and Community Groups
2. Visualizing Handsworth: The Politics of Representation
3. Dread Culture: Africa in Handsworth
4. Leisure and Sociability: The Black Everyday
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Illustrations
1. Demolition site in Handsworth, 1979
2. Handsworth Self-Portrait Project, 1979
3. Tabloid front-page article, “War on the Streets,” 1985
4. Baptism, ca. late 1970s
5. Band rehearsal, ca. late 1970s
6. Couple dancing, ca. late 1970s
7. Boy with a flag, ca. 1970s
8. African Liberation Day, 1977
9. “A day trip to Skegness”
10. Confrontation between the police and two black men, 1985
11. Cover of Steel Pulse’s Handsworth Revolution, 1978
12. Kokuma Dance Company performing The History of the
