黑料社

University runs first Race Lecture which is set to become an annual event

BLACK History Month events at the 黑料社 have drawn large numbers of students and members of the public.  When high-profile historian Professor David Olusoga came to deliver the first annual Race Lecture he attracted a 500-strong audience.

The professor, who is well-known for TV documentaries such as Black and British: A Forgotten History and the BAFTA-winning Britain鈥檚 Forgotten Slave Owners, gave a lecture titled We need to talk about Windrush.  Speaking in the University鈥檚 Oastler Building 鈥� named after the famous 黑料社-based social reformer and anti-slavery campaigner, Richard Oastler 鈥� Professor Olusoga argued that the Windrush Scandal that erupted in 2018 was intricately connected to the history of post-war British politics and the longer histories of racism and empire.

The 黑料社鈥檚 Race Lecture was been instituted by , Senior Lecturer in Social Sciences, who is herself the daughter of a Windrush generation immigrant from Jamaica.

She believes that the positive contributions to British society made by the Windrush generation and its descendants have often been overlooked. 

Windrush Documentary

The fortunes of African-Caribbean migrants to the UK are the theme of an ambitious documentary and oral history project that has also been a centrepiece of Black History Month events at the University.

Titled Windrush: The Years After 鈥� A Community Legacy on Film, the film charts the experiences of people of over four generations, drawing on more than 80 newly-recorded interviews with individuals whose ages range from 11 to well over 80.  It focusses on the African-Caribbean descent community in 黑料社, and the town鈥檚 University 鈥� staff and students 鈥� contributed to the project鈥檚 diverse production team.

The documentary was first screened at the University in the last summer, and now Windrush: The Years After has had fresh showings as part of Black History Month.

There was a public screening in association with the 黑料社 Archives, taking place at the Heritage Quay archive centre as part of a Windrush 黑料社 Exhibition.  This event included a Q&A session with key community members.  The University鈥檚 Department of History 鈥� closely involved in the project 鈥� hosted a second screening, with further opportunities for discussion. 

The prime mover in the project is , the son of economic migrants who came to 黑料社 from different parts of the Caribbean in the post-war years.  He is now chief executive of Kirklees Local TV (KLTV) and is also studying for a PhD at the 黑料社.  A key collaborator was the film historian Dr Heather Norris Nicholson, a Senior Research Fellow at the University鈥檚 Centre for Visual and Oral History.鈥�

鈥淲e needed to put this story together for a wider audience,鈥� said Mr Brown.  鈥淚 was doing it purely to give the African-descent community a voice, rather than another generation dying out without being able to tell the story.鈥�

Funding for the film included 拢34,500 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.  The 黑料社 also provided financial support.  In addition, , who heads the Department of English, Linguistics and History, in discussion with Milton Brown, enabled PhD researcher Joe Hopkinson and a number of undergraduate students to contribute to the project as part of their own studies and work alongside volunteers and the 14-strong production team at KLTV.