Henry Gunter

{{Short description|British civil rights activist (1920–2007)}} {{distinguish|Henry Gunther}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Henry Gunter | image = Henry Gunter.png | birth_date = 1920 | birth_place = Portland, Jamaica | death_date = {{death date and age|23 July 2007|1920}} | citizenship = United Kingdom | occupation = Machine operator, tool cutter, trade unionist | organization = Amalgamated Engineering Union.<br />Afro Caribbean Society | known_for = Black civil rights leader.<br />Communist activist.<br />Trade union activism. | notable_works = ''A Man's A Man'' (1954) | political_party = Communist Party USA (CPUSA)<br />Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) }}

'''Henry Gunter''' (1920 – 23 July 2007) was a leading British communist and civil rights leader, most famous for his campaigns for racial equality in the English city of Birmingham. After joining the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), he authored a report titled ''A Man's a Man'' (1954), a key British anti-racist text published by the CPGB.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last1=Meddick|first1=Simon|title=Red Lives: Communists and the Struggle for Socialism|last2=Payne|first2=Liz|last3=Katz|first3=Phil|publisher=Manifesto Press Cooperative Limited|year=2020|isbn=978-1-907464-45-4|location=UK|pages=78}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite news|last=Searle|first=Kevin|date=2008|title='Race' and Racism in Birmingham: Researching Post-war Archives|work=Connecting Histories|url=https://calmview.birmingham.gov.uk/CalmView/app_themes/customer/images/bah-source-Race%20(Birmingham%20Stories).pdf|access-date=14 May 2021}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite news|last=Tate|first=Fiona|title=Faces and Places: Henry Gunter|work=Connecting Histories: Staffordshire County Council|url=https://www.search.connectinghistories.org.uk/Details.aspx?&ResourceID=1180&PageIndex=1&KeyWord=Henry%20Gunter&SortOrder=2|access-date=14 May 2021}}</ref> He also authored numerous articles exposing racism in Birmingham's hotels, housing, and employment.<ref name=":0" /> Gunter also helped create the Birmingham branch of the Caribbean Labour Congress, and later served as the leader of the Afro Caribbean Society, which he used to end racial segregation in the employment of Birmingham city's bus services.<ref name=":3">{{Cite news|last=Birmingham Mail|first=|date=4 September 2007|title=Tribute paid to tireless activist|work=Birmingham Mail|url=https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/tribute-paid-to-tireless-activist-44514|access-date=14 May 2021}}</ref> As an influential trade union leader, Gunter was the first black man to serve as a delegate for the Birmingham Trades Council,<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":4">{{Cite book|last=Conduit|first=Susan|url=https://clok.uclan.ac.uk/23006/1/23006%20Conduit%20Susan%20Final%20e-Thesis%20%28Master%20Copy%29.pdf|title=A Cultural Study of two-tone in the Socio-Political and Economic Context of the 1970s|publisher=University of Central Lancashire|year=2017|pages=28}}</ref> and he forwarded a successful motion to the Trades Union Congress in support of the rights of immigrant workers.<ref name=":0" /> He dedicated his entire life to both trade union activism and fighting for the equal rights of black people.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3" />

== Early life == Born in Portland, Jamaica, in 1920, Harold Gunter studied in college to become an accountant, before leaving for the Panama Canal Zone in 1940.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book|last1=Meddick|title=Red Lives|last2=Payne|last3=Katz|publisher=|year=2020|isbn=|location=|pages=77}}</ref>

== Travelling the world (1940–1950) == The United States, which controlled the Canal Zone, were recruiting Jamaicans, convincing Gunter and many others to travel there for work in 1940.<ref name=":5" /> After arriving at the American-controlled Canal, Gunter witnessed racial segregation for the first time in his life because the United States enforced Jim Crow laws in every territory they occupied.<ref name=":5" /> After briefly returning to Jamaica, he moved to a northern region of the United States known as Milwaukee, where he began working with local unions and started writing newspaper articles.<ref name=":5" /> His advocacy for the rights of African Americans led to his writings being republished in Jamaica.<ref name=":5" /> During this time, Gunter met members of the Communist Party USA, who were supporters of equal rights for all races of people.<ref name=":5" /> Gunter continued working in the United States until the end of World War II, becoming more deeply entrenched in the trade union movement and the fight for the rights of black people.<ref name=":5" /> After Gunter briefly returned to Jamaica after World War II, an American regime security force called the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) began to target him for his anti-racist activism and refused to allow Gunter to return to the United States.<ref name=":5" /> It is thought that one of the reasons the FBI barred him from returning was due to his publication of a newspaper titled ''The Jamaican Worker.''<ref name=":3" />

Returning to Jamaica after World War II, Gunter joined the People's National Party and worked closely with one of their leaders, the communist icon Richard Hart.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Meddick|title=Red Lives|last2=Payne|last3=Katz|publisher=|year=2020|isbn=|location=|pages=77–78}}</ref> Job opportunities were extremely few after Gunter had been blocked from returning to the United States, so he chose to instead move to Britain, where he would then spend the remainder of his life, making his home in the English city of Birmingham sometime in 1949.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":6">{{Cite news|last=Hancox|first=Emma|date=5 October 2016|title=Henry Gunter and the Campaign for Equality|work=The Iron Room|url=https://theironroom.wordpress.com/2016/10/05/henry-gunter-and-the-campaign-for-equality/|access-date=14 May 2021}}</ref><ref name=":4" />

== Life in Britain ==

=== Trade Union achievements === After moving to Birmingham, Gunter immediately joined the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), playing an important role in the party for many years.<ref name=":0" /> Despite being educated as an accountant he was sent to work in a brass rolling mill in Deritend, where he was soon fired after he challenged the racist views of a shop steward.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":6" /> After finding another job in Erdington as a tool cutter and machine operator, he became an active member of the Amalgamated Engineering Union.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":6" /> One of his greatest achievements in the trade union movement was becoming the first black delegate to the Birmingham Trades Council.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":4" /> He achieved further success within the trade union movement after forwarding a successful motion to the Trades Union Congress, one of the largest trade unions in the United Kingdom, in support of the rights of immigrant workers in Britain.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":6" /> The motion stated:<blockquote>In view of the appalling conditions which immigrant workers have to live under in Birmingham, we ask that the TUC demand that the government provide accommodation for the workers<ref name=":0" /></blockquote>While serving as an active CPGB activist, Gunter also helped form the Birmingham branch of the Caribbean Labour Congress, an organisation dedicated to promoting workers rights and universal suffrage in the Caribbean.<ref name=":0" /> He often wrote articles for their newspaper ''Caribbean News''.<ref name=":0" />

=== Fight against Birmingham racial segregation === During the 1950s, racial segregation in Britain, often dubbed the "colour bar", was particularly strong in Birmingham, and the local branch of the CPGB asked Gunter to write about the situation within the city.<ref name=":0" /> Gunter wrote a work titled ''A Man's A Man: A Study of Colour Bar in Birmingham and an Answer'' (1954), which was published by the Communist Party of Great Britain.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":6" /> This work became a key British anti-racist text and had a national effect on how British people saw racial issues in the UK.<ref name=":0" />

Gunter joined the Afro Caribbean Society and soon became its leader,<ref name=":1" /> addressing public meetings on racism and organising marches under the banner "No Colour Bar to Housing and Jobs".<ref name=":0" /> He led the Afro Caribbean Society to campaign for an end to racial discrimination in Birmingham city's bus transport system, which was refusing to hire black people, and the city council consequently changed this policy and allowed black people to join the bus services as employees.<ref name=":0" />

In 1958, Gunter met American black civil rights legend Paul Robeson, who was very often a guest of British communist activists.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":6" /> Gunter also met Seretse Khama, who went on to become the president of Botswana.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /><ref name=":6" /> Other famous figures with whom Gunter became acquanted include the pan-Africanist author and journalist George Padmore, and the politician Fenner Brockway.<ref name=":6" />

In 2003, Gunter was commended by the Black History Foundation, who honoured him for "his outstanding service to the city of Birmingham."<ref name=":3" />

== Death and legacy == Henry Gunter died on 23 July 2007.<ref name=":0" />

Methodist reverend Vicky Atkinson, a community leader who had lived in the same area as Gunter and knew him personally, said that Gunter "was a person who stuck by his principles and, as well as being an activist and very political, was also well read and articulate." She went on to say that he "was a good man. He will be missed by a lot of people."<ref name=":3" />

The Communist Party of Britain (CPB) the continuation of the original Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), of which Gunter had been a member, wrote Henry Gunter's short biography and described him as one of the party's "many unsung heroes".<ref name=":5" />

Unite the Union included Gunter in their 2014 Black History Month list of honoured British and Irish civil rights leaders.<ref>{{Cite news|date=2014|title=Black History Month|work=Unite the Union|url=https://uniteyouthdublin.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/bhm-leaflet-single-web.pdf|access-date=14 May 2021}}</ref>

Research papers connected to Henry Gunter are contained in the Wolfson Centre for Archival Research, held under the name "MS 2165".<ref name=":6" />

== References == {{Reflist|30em}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gunter, Henry}} Category:1920 births Category:2007 deaths Category:Black British activists Category:20th-century Black British people Category:British civil rights activists Category:British communists Category:British journalists Category:British newspaper publishers (people) Category:Communist Party of Great Britain members Category:Jamaican emigrants to the United Kingdom Category:Jamaican accountants Category:20th-century Jamaican businesspeople Category:Jamaican socialists Category:People from Portland Parish