As those worst off looked for scapegoats, immigrants were soon being blamed for all the country's problems. Inflammatory programs on TV fueled an overtly racist climate. Well of course, there are far too many immigrants in this country. We do not have sufficient houses, jobs and schools for our own people, let alone immigrants. And unless something's done about this quick, that prejudice is going to be sheer bloody hatred.
Growing up black and British in the 70s was tough. When we're walking around the streets, there's graffiti everywhere. KBW, keep Britain white, niggers go home.
National Front stuff all over the place. So you definitely felt alienated. The majority of Britain's black population were living in the poorest areas of the country, often segregated from the rest of society. When we were kids, we know we were being sort of like brutalized in a lot of ways and we knew there was a lot wrong in the way we were treated. As well as...
the things that affected my white mates, like unemployment, etc., etc., we had the double grief of the cops on our backs with the whole sus laws and things like that. The power to stop and search suspects originally came from an old anti-vagrancy law, but was now being used... over zealously by police to take young black men off the streets I can't count the number of times we'd be tear down to the van and I'm talking about a so to go and sit in a police car at the back and this can be pretty scary because it's late at night there's nobody round no witnesses right and you're thinking what the hell is going on the police were virtually at war with young black kids You know, the chief of the Metropolitan Police said any encounter between black kids and the police was a potential riot.
That view was still prevalent in 1976, that there was going to be civil war, that black and white couldn't live together. One area in West London where black and white were trying to get along was Notting Hill. There, the West Indian community had held an annual carnival since 1964. Originally a small local event, it had rapidly grown.
grown in recent years, and by 1975 attracted 150,000 revelers. To all intents and purposes, it was a pretty harmonious place. People learned to get along.
I mean, we all had to live next door to each other, we all had to work with each other, black and working class and white working class people. It was a fantastic atmosphere. Although the 1975 carnival passed off fairly peacefully, this summer the atmosphere was different.
With racial tension in the air, some local residents were nervous about the West Indian community being allowed to take over the streets. Carnival brings more enjoyment and social values. If we were to do this, you could in a sense say that we ought to donate some money to a conservative faith or a church outing or something, and we don't do that.
It was clear that they wanted the carnival off the streets. The police, the Home Office, the newspapers. There is a reservoir. of racist feeling in the British population.
There is not one single one who does not know that. I used to sleep, eat and drink this stuff. Pen to paper.
And I was known as a public figure by then. And people struck me in the street. Doctor, are we having carnival? Attempts to stop the carnival added to the sense of persecution felt by London's Caribbean community.
Among the younger generation, anger about their situation was fuelling a more militant stance. We were bubbling and backfiring, and rising and raging. There were songs of freedom. Marley's hymns of freedom were all over the place. We were saying, we're not putting up with it anymore.
There was clearly a change in consciousness occurring among young black British kids, because I think they were the first lot that knew they were black and British. They hadn't been born on an island somewhere in the Caribbean or whatever. They'd been born in Notting Hill or Brixton or Toxteth or wherever it was.
And whereas their parents had put up with all the crap, they weren't going to. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Sit down, please, will you? The authorities eventually decided to let the carnival go ahead, but they were determined to to exercise control. The local police chief decided to employ a force 20 times greater than the previous year and was preparing for the event with military precision.
They wanted to move it to a park. Then you can police them by surrounding the park. We said, no, we're not going in the park. This is not a game. On August the 29th, the Notting Hill Carnival began.
The local police chief decided to place more than 1,400 officers on the streets for the two-day event. When I drove in from Brixton, I couldn't believe it. This is not a Notting Hill carnival. This is a police carnival.
Because it seemed like more police than anybody else. In anticipation of trouble, they'd come down and, you know, kind of heavy-handedly, there was a massive police presence, which kind of put this mood over the carnival that year. 1976 was the first year I remember kind of thinking that this is kind of getting bigger and we should go and investigate so I went with some mates to go to carnival that year and there was this cordon of riot police so I said excuse me officer can we get through to get into the carnival and he just turned around to me and he said why do you want to join all the niggers they were everywhere, move, kicking off the stalls We'll have this conflict at the street corner between police who arrested some guy.
So he'll be a scaffold. And then you'll hear comments afterwards. Them police for dead. You are not telling me what you are going for. You have your root in the hell with your mind.
With the help of the street, another conflict. A band with a flag wants to turn left. No. BJ knows the route, and if BJ told her what she has to do, that's what she has to take. You are not organizing the carnival.
We were being provoked, and I knew by Sunday that it was going to be a battle royal. You could just feel that there was about to be war in Babylon. That was the weird thing. People knew we were heading for major trouble. And no-one knew how to pull out, no-one knew how to stop that from happening.
On the evening of the second day, the smouldering resentment turned into violence. it's funny you know you're at a carnival You're digging a sound system, you're grooving on the bass, you're smoking your spliff, and the next thing you know, you're hearing, and there's 500 cops charging down the road with bin lids and truncheons. I was at a mangrove restaurant, and my children were there, and the police stormed the restaurant.
And we locked the door, barricaded the walls, and they broke all the glass. I was like, come out here. Come outside, you black cunts. Come out.
Come out. And my children... was screaming it started off i understand with some young kind of black guys going around doing a bit of you know thievery but a very small group of them And then there was a massive overreaction by the police, stormed in, start hitting anyone with batons who gets in the way and those kids decided they weren't gonna put up with it this time and they fought back. I was with a group of friends coming down Badbrook Grove itself. We were just gobsmacked, amazed at the sight.
It looked like a war zone, complete anarchy. I was underneath the bridge at Akron Road. I'm not going to apologize, but it was really exciting to then see the police running away down Portobello Road and for protection having to pick up dust bin lids.
We'd pick up a brick in the bottom and be like, yeah, have some of this, you bastards, you know what I mean? So we were giving probably more than we got. Young as I was, I knew why this was happening. It was payback time. The streets of Notting Hill were sealed off and rioting lasted for 48 hours.
Hundreds were wounded, mostly police officers. The West Indian community emerged from the riots with a sense of pride. They had given the authorities a bloody nose and a strong message that they would no longer be treated without respect. There was a feeling of the end of carnivore. Of victory.
To be honest, it was like a great weight being lifted off your shoulders. You know, and I'm sorry for the people that got hurt and got caught up in the crossfire. But for us it was extremely liberating, it's undeniable. It put an end to that idea that you can just keep people in their place, that you can treat them very badly, you can be overtly racist towards them and expect them to put up with it.
We had become not only black, but part of the soil. Because when you fight for a place, there's something secret about it.