The United Kingdom is home to the second largest Black community in Europe with the vast majority of those residents based in its capital, London. Traditional Black areas include Brixton, in the South of the city and Notting Hill in the North, which is still the site of the annual Caribbean-based carnival, the largest in Europe. The Black presence in London dates back hundreds of years and includes prominent residents such as Olaudah Equiano (1745–1797) who was involved in the British abolition of slavery, as well as the composer and writer Ignatius Sancho (1729–1780), the first Black person known to have voted in Britain in 1774 and 1780. Among later residents were Henry Sylvester Williams (1869–1911) who helped to organize the first Pan-African Conference in London (1900); John Richard Archer (1863–1932) London’s first Black Mayor (1913) and Claudia Jones, the founder and publisher of the first commercial Black newspaper, the West Indian Gazette, which was distributed from 1958–1964. Black British community stakeholders, organisations and individuals are invited to participate in a variety of ways, including in identifying and/or contributing audio-visual material. If you are interested in developing a project or delivering material, please contact us at: 12blackbeans@gmail.com
