In our Black History Month festival in 2019, we worked with Tmesis Theatre, First Take & Pagoda Arts on films and live performance which marks the centenary of the 1919 Race Riots in Liverpool. In June 1919 Race Riots exploded on Liverpool’s streets resulting in the murder of young black Seafarer, Charles Wotten. Along the Walking Tours, Tmesis Theatre created moving performances bringing this crucial piece of history back to life. We worked with film makers First Take to create 5 short films that you can watch about the route of Charles Wotten’s tragic journey.

1919 Race Riots from first take on Vimeo.
 

Film 1 Media Fuels Hatred from first take on Vimeo.
 

Film 2 Police Raids from first take on Vimeo.
 

Film 3 Charles Wotten Dies from first take on Vimeo.
 

Film 4 'For Their Safety' from first take on Vimeo.
 

Film 5 Resist Racism Today from first take on Vimeo.

In 1919 race riots broke out in sea ports across the UK, fueled by competition for jobs and casual racism that was inflamed by the press, politicians and union leaders.  Glasgow was the first to witness anti-black violence in January, followed by South Shields in February, with serious levels of violence in London from April to August. In June, Newport and Barry saw rioting, while in Cardiff, three men were killed. In Liverpool, Charles Wotten, a young Bermudian seafarer was murdered by an angry white mob.

Writing on the Wall and partners’ commemorative centenary events explore the 1919 riots, the consequences, and the position of black and racial minority communities in the UK today.
 
Thursday 2nd May: Exhibition Launch – 1919 Race Riots
12.30pm, 3rd Floor, Central Library
A collaboration between Writing on the Wall, Liverpool Record Office and The National Archives which brings together letters from black workers, the Lord Mayor of Liverpool and central government, revealing the British establishment’s attitude to those who had come to the aid of the ‘motherland’ in post war WW1 Britain.
Exhibition runs from 2nd May to 24th June 2019
Free entry
More information here 
 
Saturday 25^th May: 1919: Remembering the Riots – A National Conversation
12pm – 7pm, Reid Room, St George’s Hall
In partnership with Liverpool University we bring together academics, activists and community members from around the UK, including Liverpool Cardiff, Glasgow, South Shields where the 1919 race-riots took place, to reflect on the events in each port city. The day will conclude with a panel discussion featuring pioneering historian Ron Ramdin (The Making of the Black Working Class in Britain), Howard Gayle (61 Minutes in Munich: The Story of Liverpool FC's First Black Footballer), and Salma Yacoob, political activist and psychotherapist, which will consider race and racism in the UK 100 years on. Poetry from acclaimed Urban Griots Levi Tafari.
Tickets £15/£7
Book your tickets here  -  See the full programme here

Sunday 12^th & Sunday 26^th May: 1919 Race Riots Centenary Walking Tour (approx. 2 hours)
Assemble 1.30pm: Chinese Arch, Nelson Street, L1 5DN
Join us as we walk the streets where the 1919 race-riots took place, visiting the residences of those involved as well as trailing the tragic last movements of Charles Wotten.
Ends with refreshments at Toxteth Library, Windsor Street, L8 1XF
Tickets £10/£5
Book your tickets here 

.This film was produced and directed by Hatch TV, made in partnership with WoW and the Geography department of Liverpool University, narrated by Janaya Pickett.

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Another key aspect of this black history month mini festival was the Great War to Race Riots walking tour which started at the Chinese Arch and walked the streets featured in the archives, including the docks where Charles Wotten was murdered, until it came to a stop at Toxteth Library where a fraction of the archive currently resides.

 

The story of the archive is now available to buy from Waterstone's, News from Nowhere and from Amazon. Click below to buy a hard copy directly from Writing on the Wall. 

The National Archives are situated in the very pretty suburb of Kew, West London. On a sunny afternoon I headed there on the invite of Michael Mahoney who I met a few months ago when he visited Liverpool, his home town, to view the Great War to Race Riots Archive (in preparation for a planned National Archives project on 1919 as we approach the 100 year centenary of the horrendous rioting in seaports across the country).

Michael had obviously been inspired by the Liverpool archive and he had pulled out a fascinating range of papers contained in leather backed volumes and dusty paper files. Together we deciphered the scrawled hand writing of civil servants from the Home Office, the Colonial Office and the Ministry of Labour. Their notes, in response to police reports from Liverpool senior police officers on the Liverpool riots and in response to the Lord Mayor's requests for a solution the problem of black unemployment, were generally of buck passing underpinned by not so subtle institutionalised racism.

One gem of a document is a list containing the names of 285 men from the Caribbean and West Africa, complete with their addresses, their marital status and an indication of whether they were prepared to be repatriated back to their home county. This list has been viewed before and has been analysed by John Belcham in Beyond the Windrush. What has not been explored is the fate of these individual men. Were they repatriated or was the sum offered to relocate and start a new life inadequate? Did they discover, as has been documented, that the conditions they were expected to travel in were unfit for human habitation? Did they find, like Elisha Sterling (letter, 2nd July 1919, Great War to Race Riots Archive, Liverpool Records Office) that there was no accommodation for wives and partners on board the ship?

From the list of 47 names of black men in destitution, given to the Lord Mayor and contained in The Great War to Race Riots Archive, the Archive group traced a host of families who are directly related to just three men from that list. We now have a host of more names to research shedding further light on the heritage of Liverpool's black community.

I’d recommend a trip to The National Archives in Kew; the building is impressive, set in beautiful grounds, surrounded by lakes complete with swans. Closer to home, a selection of The Great War to Race Riots Archive is currently on display in Toxteth library and the full archive can be viewed by appointment at the Liverpool Records office which is situated on the third floor of Liverpool Central Library.

-Madeline Heneghan, Co-director
 

Earlier this month, we were delighted to welcome Lord Mayor Roz Gladden and her husband, Councillor Roy Gladden as well as the Young and Junior Lord Mayors for a reviewing of the Great War to Race Riots Archive. We would like to say thank you to the staff at Central Library for accomodating our event. 

Creative Writing Workshops with Levi Tafari 

Writing on the Wall present a fascinating archive of letters and documents highlighting the plight of black soldiers, seafarers, and workers in Liverpool following demobilisation in 1919. As part of the Weeping Window experience, Writing on the Wall invites you to join internationally renowned poet Levi Tafari in exploring the lives of these men and their families and to respond creatively through story-telling and poetry. These creative writing workshops will be include a guided tour of the archive. Join us for all four workshops or simply drop in for one. Find out more here
 

For further information call Madeline Heneghan on 0151 703 0020 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.