Black British people

{{Short description|British people of sub-Saharan African descent}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}} {{Infobox ethnic group | group = Black British people | image = Black British people, 2021 UK Census.png | image_caption = A map of the UK showing the proportion of the Black population in 2021/2022. | population = {{flagicon|United Kingdom}} '''United Kingdom: 2,485,724 – 3.7% (2021/22 Census)''' {{Flag|England}}: 2,381,724 – 4.2% (2021)<ref name=2021census>{{cite web|url=https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/ethnicity/bulletins/ethnicgroupenglandandwales/census2021|title=Ethnic group, England and Wales: Census 2021|publisher=Office for National Statistics|access-date=29 November 2022}}</ref> {{Flag|Scotland}}: 65,414 – 1.2% (2022){{efn|For the purpose of harmonising results to make them comparable across the United Kingdom, the ONS includes individuals in Scotland who classified themselves in the "African" category (58,636 people), which in the Scottish version of the census is separate from "Caribbean or Black" (6,778 people) in this "Black or Black British" category. The ONS note that "the African categories used in Scotland could potentially capture White/Asian/Other African in addition to Black identities".<ref name="Onseg">{{cite United Kingdom census|url=http://ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/measuring-equality/equality/ethnic-nat-identity-religion/ethnic-group/index.html|title=Ethnic group|publisher=Office for National Statistics|access-date=27 April 2015|year=2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150504141401/http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/measuring-equality/equality/ethnic-nat-identity-religion/ethnic-group/index.html|archive-date=4 May 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>}}<ref name="2022census_Scot">{{cite web |url=https://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/media/trbdxzme/scotland-s-census-2022-ethnic-group-national-identity-language-and-religion-chart-data.xlsx |title=Scotland's Census 2022 - Ethnic group, national identity, language and religion - Chart data |author= |date=21 May 2024 |website=Scotland's Census |publisher=National Records of Scotland |access-date=21 May 2024 }} [https://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/search-the-census#/search-by Alternative URL] 'Search data by location' > 'All of Scotland' > 'Ethnic group, national identity, language and religion' > 'Ethnic Group'</ref> {{Flag|Wales}}: 27,554 – 0.8% (2021)<ref name=2021census/> Northern Ireland: 11,032 – 0.6% (2021)<ref name=NICensus2021>{{cite web|url=https://www.nisra.gov.uk/system/files/statistics/census-2021-ms-b01.xlsx|title=MS-B01: Ethnic group|publisher=Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency|date= 22 September 2022|access-date=7 January 2023}}</ref> | popplace = {{hlist|London|Birmingham|Manchester|Leeds|Nottingham|Coventry|Sandwell|Leicester|Glasgow|Edinburgh|Luton|Bristol|Cardiff<ref name="ONS Census 2021"/><ref name="Scotland Census 2022"/>}} | langs = English (British English, Black British English, Caribbean English, African English), Creole languages, French, Jamaican Patois, Nigerian Pidgin, Scottish English, and other languages | rels = Predominantly Christianity (66.9%); minority follows Islam (17.3%), other faiths (0.8%){{efn|Including Buddhism (0.1%), Hinduism (0.1%), Judaism (0.1%), Sikhism (0.01%) and others}} or are irreligious (8.6%) 2021 census, NI, England and Wales only<ref name="ReligionNI2021">{{cite United Kingdom census |url=https://build.nisra.gov.uk/en/custom/data?d=PEOPLE&v=ETHNIC_GROUP_INTERMEDIATE&v=RELIGION_BELONG_TO_AGG19 |table=DT-0036 - Ethnic group by religion |year=2021 |publisher= Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency |access-date=30 June 2023}}</ref><ref name="Religion_E&W21">{{cite web |title=RM031 Ethnic group by religion |url=https://www.ons.gov.uk/datasets/RM031/editions/2021/versions/1/filter-outputs/217f1401-dab4-43d3-aa77-6c9382220c0c#summary |publisher=Office for National Statistics |access-date=28 March 2023}}</ref>{{reflist|group=note}} }}

'''Black British people''' are a multi-ethnic group of British people of either African or Afro-Caribbean origin and in some cases Indo-Caribbean descent.<ref name=":3" /><ref name="Gadsby">Gadsby, Meredith (2006), ''Sucking Salt: Caribbean Women Writers, Migration, and Survival'', University of Missouri Press, pp. 76–77.</ref> The term ''Black British'' developed in the 1950s, referring to the migrant populations from the former British colonies in the West Indies, sometimes referred to as the Windrush Generation though it had been used to describe earlier populations from West Africa.

The term ''black'' has historically had a number of applications as a racial and political label. It may also be used in a wider sociopolitical context to encompass a broader range of non-European ethnic minority populations in Britain, though this usage has become less common over time.<ref name=":1">{{cite journal |doi=10.1136/jech.2003.013466 |doi-access=free|title=Glossary of terms relating to ethnicity and race: For reflection and debate|year=2004|last1=Bhopal|first1=R.|journal=Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health|volume=58|issue=6|pages=441–445|pmid=15143107|pmc=1732794}}</ref> ''Black British'' is one of several self-designation entries used in official UK ethnicity classifications, though many people still choose to self identify as British Nigerian or British Jamaican for example.

Around 3.7 per cent of the United Kingdom's population in 2021 were Black. The figures have increased from the 1991 census when 1.63 per cent of the population were recorded as Black or Black British to 1.15 million residents in 2001, or 2 per cent of the population, this further increased to just over 1.9 million in 2011, representing 3 per cent. Almost 96 per cent of Black Britons live in England, particularly in England's larger urban areas, with close to 1.2 million living in Greater London. 47.8% of the total Black British population live in London.

== Terminology == The term ''Black British'' most commonly refers to Black people from the Commonwealth of Nations, such as from the British West Indies or British West Africa. In the 1970s, a time of rising activism against racial discrimination, the term ''Black'' was also applied to people from the Indian subcontinent. ''Black'' was used in this inclusive political sense to mean "non–white British".{{efn|Solidarity against racism and discrimination sometimes extended the term at that time to the Irish community in Britain as well.<ref name="branching out">[https://web.archive.org/web/20041030074214/http://www.branching-out.net/branching-out/page2.asp?idno=453 What is meant by Black and Asian?] "In the 1970s Black was used as a political term to encompass many groups who shared a common experience of oppression – this could include Asian but also Irish, for example."</ref><ref name="designford 2006">[http://www.designfordiversity.eu/blog/2006/03/term-black-and-asian-short-history.html "The term Black and Asian – a Short History"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061025204304/http://www.designfordiversity.eu/blog/2006/03/term-black-and-asian-short-history.html |date=25 October 2006 }} "In the late 1960s through to the mid-1980s, we progressives called ourselves Black. This was not only because the word was reclaimed as a positive, but we also knew that we shared a common experience of racism because of our skin colour."</ref><ref name="verma">{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2008/jan/10/theatre1|title=Jatinder Verma on why he set up the UK's first Asian theatre group, Tara Arts|last=Verma|first=Jatinder|author-link=Jatinder Verma|date=2008-01-10|work=The Guardian|access-date=2019-12-03|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191019003453/https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2008/jan/10/theatre1|archive-date=19 October 2019|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Modood |first=Tariq |date=1994-11-01 |title=Political Blackness and British Asians |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0038038594028004004 |journal=Sociology |language=en |volume=28 |issue=4 |pages=859–876 |doi=10.1177/0038038594028004004 |issn=0038-0385|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Andrews |first=Kehinde |date=2016-09-01 |title=The problem of political blackness: lessons from the Black Supplementary School Movement |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01419870.2015.1131314 |journal=Ethnic and Racial Studies |volume=39 |issue=11 |pages=2060–2078 |doi=10.1080/01419870.2015.1131314 |issn=0141-9870|url-access=subscription }}</ref>}} For example, Southall Black Sisters was established in 1979 "to meet the needs of black (Asian and Afro-Caribbean) women".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.southallblacksisters.org.uk/|title=Southall Black Sisters Home » Southall Black Sisters|work=Southall Black Sisters|access-date=8 August 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060815033301/http://www.southallblacksisters.org.uk/|archive-date=15 August 2006|url-status=live}}</ref>{{efn|Note that "Asian" in the British context usually refers to people of South Asian ancestry.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Glossary of terms relating to ethnicity and race: for reflection and debate|first=Raj|last=Bhopal|journal=Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health|volume=58|issue=6|pages=441–445|year=2004|doi=10.1136/jech.2003.013466|pmid=15143107|pmc=1732794}}</ref><ref name=BSA>{{cite web|url=http://www.britsoc.co.uk/media/25564/EqualityandDiversity_LanguageandtheBSA_RaceMar05.doc?1429559280759|title=Language and the BSA: Ethnicity & Race|publisher=British Sociological Association|date=March 2005|access-date=27 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150427143029/http://www.britsoc.co.uk/media/25564/EqualityandDiversity_LanguageandtheBSA_RaceMar05.doc?1429559280759|archive-date=27 April 2015}}</ref>}} Several organisations continue to use the term inclusively, such as the Black Arts Alliance,<ref>[http://www.blackartists.org.uk/ "New Black Arts Alliance{{spaced ndash}} Welcome"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070918065638/http://www.blackartists.org.uk/ |date=18 September 2007 }}. Blackartists.org.uk. Retrieved 17 March 2011.</ref><ref>The [http://www.actsofachievement.org.uk/ Black Arts Alliance] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060813114516/http://actsofachievement.org.uk/ |date=13 August 2006 }} encourages "a coming together of Black people from Africa, Asia and the Caribbean because our histories have parallels of oppression"</ref> who extend their use of the term to Latin Americans and all refugees,<ref>Their website intro states "Black Arts Alliance is 21 years old. Formed in 1985 it is the longest surviving network of Black artists representing the arts and culture drawn from ancestral heritages of South Asia, Africa, South America, and the Caribbean and, in more recent times, due to global conflict, our newly arrived compatriots known collectively as refugees." [http://www.blackartists.org.uk/ the Black Arts Alliance.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070918065638/http://www.blackartists.org.uk/ |date=18 September 2007 }}</ref> and the National Black Police Association.<ref>[http://www.nbpa.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=31 National Black Police Association] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070318164308/http://www.nbpa.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=31 |date=18 March 2007 }} states that their "emphasis is on the common experience and determination of the people of African, African-Caribbean, and Asian origin to oppose the effects of racism."</ref>

The official UK census has separate self-designation entries for respondents to identify as "Asian British", "Black British" and "Other ethnic group".<ref name="Onseg"/> Due to the Indian diaspora and in particular Idi Amin's expulsion of Asians from Uganda in 1972, many British Asians are from families that had previously lived for several generations in the British West Indies or the Comoros.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4223322.stm "Multiculturalism the Wembley Way"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080309205117/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4223322.stm |date=9 March 2008 }}, BBC News, 8 September 2005. Retrieved 17 March 2011.</ref> A number of British Asians, including celebrities such as Riz Ahmed, still use the term "Black" and "Asian" interchangeably.<ref name="Mohdin">{{cite web|last1=Mohdin|first1=Aamna|date=3 March 2018|title="Political blackness": a very British concept with a complex history|url=https://qz.com/1219398/political-blackness-a-very-british-concept-with-a-complex-history/|access-date=22 April 2021|website=Quartz|language=en}}</ref>

===Census classification=== The 1991 UK census was the first to include a question on ethnicity. As of the 2011 United Kingdom census, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) allow people in England and Wales and Northern Ireland who self-identify as "Black" to select "Black African", "Black Caribbean" or "Any other Black/African/Caribbean background" tick boxes.<ref name="Onseg"/> For the 2011 Scottish census, the General Register Office for Scotland (GOS) also established new, separate "African, African Scottish or African British" and "Caribbean, Caribbean Scottish or Caribbean British" tick boxes for individuals in Scotland from Africa and the Caribbean, respectively, who do not identify as "Black, Black Scottish or Black British".<ref name="Snoec">{{cite web|title=Scotland's New Official Ethnicity Classification|url=http://www.gov.scot/Resource/Doc/233640/0063967.pdf|publisher=General Register Office for Scotland|access-date=23 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402172616/http://www.gov.scot/Resource/Doc/233640/0063967.pdf|archive-date=2 April 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> The 2021 census in England and Wales maintained the African, Caribbean and any other Black, Black British, or Caribbean background options, adding a write-in response for the "Black African" group. In Northern Ireland, the 2021 census had "Black African" and "Black Other" tick-boxes. In Scotland, the options were "African", "Scottish African" or "British African", and "Caribbean or Black", each accompanied by a write-in response box.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/style-guide/ethnic-groups|title=List of ethnic groups|publisher=HM Government|access-date=26 March 2023}}</ref>

In all of the UK censuses, persons with multiple familial ancestries can write in their respective ethnicities under a "Mixed or multiple ethnic groups" option, which includes additional "White and Black African" or "White and Black Caribbean" tick boxes in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.<ref name="Onseg"/>

===Historical usage=== ''Black British'' or ''Black English'' was also a term for those Black and mixed-race people in Sierra Leone (known as the Creoles or the Krio(s)) who were descendants of migrants from England and Canada and identified as British.<ref>[http://www.britishempire.co.uk/maproom/sierraleone.htm The Map Room: Africa: Sierra Leone] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100127173942/http://www.britishempire.co.uk/maproom/sierraleone.htm |date=27 January 2010 }}, British Empire. Retrieved 17 March 2011.</ref> They are generally the descendants of black people who lived in England in the 18th century. In 1787, hundreds of London's black poor (a category that included the East Indian seamen known as lascars) agreed to go to this West African colony on the condition that they would retain the status of British subjects, live in freedom under the protection of the British Crown, and be defended by the Royal Navy. Making this fresh start with them were some white people (see also Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor), including lovers, wives, and widows of the black men.<ref>[http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/work_community/poor.htm Exhibitions & Learning online | Black presence | Work and community] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080111003422/http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/work_community/poor.htm |date=11 January 2008 }}, The National Archives. Retrieved 17 March 2011.</ref> In addition, nearly 1200 Black Loyalists, former American slaves who had been freed and resettled in Nova Scotia, and 550 Jamaican Maroons also chose to join the new colony.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/sierraleone.htm |title=Economic History of Sierra Leone |publisher=San José State University, Department of Economics |first=Thayer |last=Watkins |access-date=1 December 2012}}</ref><ref>Ferguson, William Stenner. ''Why I Hate Canadians'', 1997.</ref>

==History== {{See also|British African-Caribbean people}}

===Antiquity=== {{See also|Roman Britain#Demographics}}

According to the ''Augustan History'', North African Roman emperor Septimius Severus visited Hadrian's Wall in 210 AD, where he was said to have been mocked by an Ethiopian soldier holding a garland of cypress-boughs. Severus ordered him away, reportedly being "frightened" by his dark skin colour and seeing his act and appearance as an omen:<ref name="Sandiford-1988">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aZoKHu6zkBoC&q=On+another+occasion,+when+he+was+returning+to+his+nearest+quarters+from+an+inspection+of+the+wall+at+Luguvallum+in+Britain,+at+a+time+when+he+had+not+only+proved+victorious+but+had+concluded+a+perpetual+peace,+just+as+he+was+wondering+what+omen+would+present+itself,+an+Ethiopian+soldier,+who+was+famous+among+buffoons+and+always+a+notable+jester,+met+him+with+a+garland+of+cypress-boughs.+And+when+Severus+in+a+rage+ordered+that+the+man+be+removed+from+his+sight,+troubled+as+he+was+by+the+man%27s+ominous+colour+and+the+ominous+nature+of+the+garland,+the+Ethiopian+by+way+of+jest+cried,+it+is+said,+%22You+have+been+all+things,+you+have+conquered+all+things,+now,+O+conqueror,+be+a+god.%22&pg=PA18|title=Measuring the Moment: Strategies of Protest in Eighteenth-century Afro-English Writing|last=Sandiford |first= Keith A. |publisher=Susquehanna University Press/Associated University Presses|date=1988|page= 18|isbn=978-0-941664-79-0}}</ref> <blockquote>On another occasion, when he was returning to his nearest quarters from an inspection of the wall at Luguvallum in Britain, at a time when he had not only proved victorious but had concluded a perpetual peace, just as he was wondering what omen would present itself, an Ethiopian soldier, who was famous among buffoons and always a notable jester, met him with a garland of cypress-boughs. And when Severus in a rage ordered that the man be removed from his sight, troubled as he was by the man's ominous colour and the ominous nature of the garland, the Ethiopian by way of jest cried, it is said, "You have been all things, you have conquered all things, now, O conqueror, be a god". And when on reaching the town he wished to perform a sacrifice, in the first place, through a misunderstanding on the part of the rustic soothsayer, he was taken to the Temple of Bellona, and, in the second place, the victims provided him were black. And then, when he abandoned the sacrifice in disgust and betook himself to the Palace, through some carelessness on the part of the attendants the black victims followed him up to its very doors.<ref>{{cite web|title=Historia Augusta|url=https://archive.org/details/historia-augusta-loeb/page/n457/mode/2up|website=Internet Archive|pages=424–427}}{{pb}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.knowtheromans.co.uk/Sources/HistoriaAugusta/TheLifeofSeptimiusSeverus/|title=THE LIFE OF SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS|website=knowtheromans.co.uk|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190207020435/https://www.knowtheromans.co.uk/Sources/HistoriaAugusta/TheLifeofSeptimiusSeverus/|archive-date=7 February 2019|url-status=live}}{{pb}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.loebclassics.com/view/historia_augusta_septimius_severus/1921/pb_LCL139.425.xml|title=HISTORIA AUGUSTA, 10. Septimius Severus|website=LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190207015842/https://www.loebclassics.com/view/historia_augusta_septimius_severus/1921/pb_LCL139.425.xml|archive-date=7 February 2019|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3nAbAgAAQBAJ&q=On+another+occasion,+when+he+was+returning+to+his+nearest+quarters+from+an+inspection+of+the+wall+at+Luguvallum+in+Britain,+at+a+time+when+he+had+not+only+proved+victorious+but+had+concluded+a+perpetual+peace,+just+as+he+was+wondering+what+omen+would+present+itself,+an+Ethiopian+soldier,+who+was+famous+among+buffoons+and+always+a+notable+jester,+met+him+with+a+garland+of+cypress-boughs.+And+when+Severus+in+a+rage+ordered+that+the+man+be+removed+from+his+sight,+troubled+as+he+was+by+the+man%27s+ominous+colour+and+the+ominous+nature+of+the+garland,+the+Ethiopian+by+way+of+jest+cried,+it+is+said,+%22You+have+been+all+things,+you+have+conquered+all+things,+now,+O+conqueror,+be+a+god.%22&pg=PT835|title=Complete Works of Suetonius|last=Suetonius|date=17 November 2013|publisher=Delphi Classics |isbn=978-1-909496-14-9}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dMRlDwAAQBAJ&q=septimius+severus++You+have+been+all+things,+conquered+all+things,+now,+O+conquerer,+be+a+god!%E2%80%9D&pg=PA45|title=Racism and Early Blackface Comic Traditions: From the Old World to the New|first=Robert|last=Hornback|date=19 July 2018|page= 45|publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-319-78048-1}}</ref></blockquote>

===Anglo-Saxon England=== A girl buried at Updown, near Eastry in Kent in the early 7th century was found to have 33% of her DNA of West African type, most closely resembling Esan or Yoruba people.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ancient DNA reveals complex life stories from the beginnings of English history|date=6 October 2022 |url=https://www.uclan.ac.uk/news/ancient-dna-reveals-english-history |publisher=University of Central Lancashire |access-date=10 January 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Archaeology |first=Current |date=2022-10-05 |title=Individual encounters: capturing personal stories with ancient DNA {{!}} The Past |url=https://the-past.com/feature/individual-encounters-capturing-personal-stories-with-ancient-dna/ |access-date=2025-02-02 |website=the-past.com |language=en-GB}}</ref>

In 2013,<ref name="Gover-2013">{{cite news|url=http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/fairford-sub-sahara-africa-skeleton-gloucestershire-507102|title=The First Black Briton? 1,000 Year Old Skeleton of African Woman Discovered by Schoolboys in Gloucestershire River|last=Gover|first=Dominic|date=18 September 2013|work=International Business Times|access-date=26 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160102014123/http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/fairford-sub-sahara-africa-skeleton-gloucestershire-507102|archive-date=2 January 2016|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Archer-2013" /> a skeleton was discovered in Fairford, Gloucestershire, which forensic anthropology suggested to be that of a Sub-Saharan African woman. Her remains have been dated between the years 896 and 1025.<ref name="Archer-2013">{{cite news|url=http://www.wiltsglosstandard.co.uk/news/10688142.Schoolboys_amazed_that_skeleton_is_1_000_year_old_African_woman/?ref=twtrec|title=Fairford schoolboys who found skull are fascinated to hear it dates back 1,000 years|work=Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard|first=Megan|last=Archer|date=20 September 2013|access-date=26 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160113234041/http://www.wiltsglosstandard.co.uk/news/10688142.Schoolboys_amazed_that_skeleton_is_1_000_year_old_African_woman/?ref=twtrec|archive-date=13 January 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> Local historians believe she was likely either a slave or a bonded servant.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/fairford-sub-sahara-africa-skeleton-gloucestershire-507102|title=1,000 Year Old Skeleton of African Woman Discovered by Schoolboys in Gloucestershire River|date=18 September 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180519204503/https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/fairford-sub-sahara-africa-skeleton-gloucestershire-507102|archive-date=19 May 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>

===16th century=== [[File:Black Trumpeter at Henry VIII's Tournament.jpg|thumb|Extract from the Westminster Tournament Roll almost certainly showing John Blanke, the only figure wearing a brown turban latticed with yellow]] An African musician is among the six trumpeters depicted in the royal retinue of Henry VIII in the Westminster Tournament Roll, an illuminated manuscript dating from 1511. He wears the royal livery and is mounted on horseback. The man is generally identified as "John Blanke, the blacke trumpeter," who is listed in the payment accounts of both Henry VIII and his father, Henry VII.<ref name="HttpwwwblackpresencecoukjohnblankeJohn">[http://www.blackpresence.co.uk/2009/03/john-blanke/ "John Blanke-A Trumpeter in the court of King Henry VIII"], Blackpresence, 12 March 2009. Retrieved 17 March 2011. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120326180155/http://www.blackpresence.co.uk/2009/03/john-blanke/ |date=26 March 2012 }}.</ref><ref>Van Pelt, Nadia, "John Blanke's wages: No business like show business", ''Medieval English Theatre 44'' (Boydell, 2023), pp. 3–35. {{doi|10.2307/j.ctv360nrnh}}.</ref> A group of Africans at the court of James IV of Scotland, included Ellen More and a drummer referred to as the "More taubronar." Both he and John Blanke were paid wages for their services.<ref>{{cite web |author=Anne |url=http://www.mirandakaufmann.com/3/post/2012/11/john-blanke-and-the-more-taubronar-renaissance-african-musicians-at-peckham-library.html |title=John Blanke and the More Taubronar: Renaissance African Musicians at Peckham Library |publisher=Miranda Kaufmann |access-date=22 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131204024815/http://www.mirandakaufmann.com/3/post/2012/11/john-blanke-and-the-more-taubronar-renaissance-african-musicians-at-peckham-library.html |archive-date=4 December 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref> A small number of Africans worked as independent business owners in London in the late 1500s, including the silk weaver Reasonable Blackman.<ref name="Kaufman">{{cite book|title=Black Tudors: The Untold Story|last1=Kaufmann|first1=Miranda|date=2017|publisher=OneWorld|isbn=978-1-78607-396-9|location=UK|page=121}}</ref><ref name="Bidisha">{{cite news |last1=Bidisha |title=Tudor, English and black – and not a slave in sight |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/29/tudor-english-black-not-slave-in-sight-miranda-kaufmann-history |access-date=29 July 2019 |work=The Guardian |date=30 October 2017 |location=London, England}}</ref><ref name="BBC">{{cite journal |title=The prosperous silk weaver |journal=BBC History Magazine |date=9 November 2017 |url=https://www.pressreader.com/uk/bbc-history-magazine/20171109/282175061375411 |access-date=29 July 2019}}</ref>

When trade lines began to open between London and West Africa, people from this area began coming to Britain on board merchant and slaving ships. For example, merchant John Lok brought several captives to London in 1555 from Guinea. The voyage account in Hakluyt reports that they: "were tall and strong men, and could wel agree with our meates and drinkes. The colde and moyst aire doth somewhat offend them."<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.03.0070%3Anarrative%3D522 |first=Richard |last=Hakluyt |title=The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation, The second voyage to Guinea set out by Sir George Barne, Sir John Yorke, Thomas Lok, Anthonie Hickman and Edward Castelin, in the yere 1554. The Captaine whereof was M. John Lok. |publisher=E. P. Dutton & Co. |via=Perseus.tufts.edu |access-date=22 March 2014 |page=522 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150822013621/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.03.0070%3Anarrative%3D522 |archive-date=22 August 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref>

During the later 16th century as well as into the first two decades of the 17th century, 25 people named in the records of the small parish of St. Botolph's in Aldgate are identified as "blackamoors", a popular term at the time used to denote people of a Sub-Saharan African origin.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kaufmann |first=Miranda |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?redir_esc=y&id=7D-9DwAAQBAJ&q=mor#v=onepage&q=blackmor&f=false |title=Black Tudors: The Untold Story |date=2017-10-05 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-78607-185-9 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2YhlAAAAMAAJ&q=in+search+of+shakespeare+bbc+book|title=In Search of Shakespeare|last=Wood|first=Michael|date=1 January 2003|publisher=BBC|isbn=978-0-563-53477-8|language=en}}</ref> In the period of the war with Spain, between 1588 and 1604, there was an increase in the number of people reaching England from Spanish colonial expeditions in parts of Africa. The English freed many of these captives from enslavement on Spanish ships. They arrived in England largely as a by-product of the slave trade; some were of mixed-race African and Spanish descent, and became interpreters or sailors.<ref name="Nicholl-2008">{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780143114628|url-access=registration|quote=fashionable novelty.|title=The Lodger: Shakespeare on Silver Street|publisher=Penguin Books Limited|first=Charles|last=Nicholl|date=3 July 2008|isbn=978-0-14-191187-8}}</ref> Slaver John Hawkins arrived in London with 300 captives from West Africa.<ref name="Nicholl-2008" /> However, the slave trade did not become entrenched until the 17th century and Hawkins only embarked on three expeditions.

Jacques Francis has been described as a slave by some historians,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PHZ5AgAAQBAJ&q=Jacques+Francis+slave&pg=PT23|title=Black Salt: Seafarers of African Descent on British Ships|last= Costello|first=Ray|date=2012|publisher=Liverpool University Press|isbn=978-1-78138-894-5}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Recovering+a+black+African%27s+voice+in+an+English+lawsuit%3A+Jacques...-a0129814209|title=Recovering a black African's voice in an English lawsuit: Jacques Francis and the salvage operations of the Mary Rose and the Sancta Maria and Sanctus Edwardus, 1545–ca 1550.|website=thefreelibrary.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190330205307/https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Recovering+a+black+African%27s+voice+in+an+English+lawsuit%3A+Jacques...-a0129814209|archive-date=30 March 2019|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/early_times/docs/francis_deposition.htm|title=Lying Off The Needles|website=nationalarchives.gov.uk|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170124122445/http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/early_times/docs/francis_deposition.htm|archive-date=24 January 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> but described himself in Latin as a {{lang|la|famulus}}, meaning servant, slave or attendant.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://latin-dictionary.net/definition/20294/famulus-famuli|title=famulus, famuli|website=latin-dictionary.net|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401144214/http://latin-dictionary.net/definition/20294/famulus-famuli|archive-date=1 April 2019|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/early_times/transcripts/jaques_francis.htm|title=Transcript of Jacques Francis's testimony to the High Court of Admiralty, 1548.|website=www.nationalarchives.gov.uk|access-date=30 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170124122435/http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/early_times/transcripts/jaques_francis.htm|archive-date=24 January 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> Francis was a West African born on an island off the coast of Guinea, likely Arguin Island, off the coast of Mauritania.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ungerer|first=Gustav|date=2005|title=Recovering a Black African's Voice in an English Lawsuit: Jacques Francis and the Salvage Operations of the "Mary Rose" and the "Sancta Maria and Sanctus Edwardus", 1545–ca 1550|journal=Medieval & Renaissance Drama in England|volume=17|pages=255–271|issn=0731-3403|jstor=24322730}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Undercurrents of power: aquatic culture in the African diaspora|last=Dawson|first=Kevin|isbn=978-0-8122-4989-7|location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |page=92|oclc=994296486|date = 20 February 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Black Tudors: the untold story|last=Kaufmann|first=Miranda|year=2017|isbn=978-1-78607-184-2|location=London, England|publisher=Oneworld Publications|page=41|oclc=973508149}}</ref> He worked as a diver for Pietro Paulo Corsi in his salvage operations on the sunken ''St Mary'' and ''St Edward'' of Southampton and other ships, such as the ''Mary Rose'', which had sunk in Portsmouth Harbour. When Corsi was accused of theft, Francis stood by him in an English court. With help from an interpreter, he supported his master's claims of innocence. Some of the depositions in the case displayed negative attitudes towards slaves or Black people as witnesses.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/early_times/settlers.htm|title=Black Settlers in Tudor Times|website=nationalarchives.gov.uk|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200318023247/https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/early_times/settlers.htm|archive-date=18 March 2020|url-status=live}}</ref> In March 2019 two of the skeletons found on the ''Mary Rose'' were found to have Southern European or North African ancestry; one found to be wearing a leather wrist-guard bearing the arms of Catherine of Aragon and royal arms of England is thought to possibly be Spanish or North African, the other, known as "Henry" was thought to also have similar genetic makeup. Henry's mitochondrial DNA showed that his ancestry may have came from Southern Europe, the Near East, or North Africa, although Dr Sam Robson from the University of Portsmouth "ruled out" that Henry was Black or that he was sub-Saharan African in origin. Dr Onyeka Nubia cautioned that the number of those on board the ''Mary Rose'' that had heritage beyond Britain was not necessarily representative of the whole of England at the time, although it definitely was not a "one-off".<ref name="Davis-2019">{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/mar/14/mary-rose-crew-might-have-included-sailors-african-heritage|title=Mary Rose crew might have included sailors of African heritage|date=14 March 2019|newspaper=The Guardian|last1=Davis|first1=Nicola|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190315120737/https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/mar/14/mary-rose-crew-might-have-included-sailors-african-heritage|archive-date=15 March 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> It is thought they are likely to have travelled through Spain or Portugal before arriving in Britain.<ref name="Davis-2019" />

Blackamoor servants were perceived as a fashionable novelty and worked in the households of several prominent Elizabethans, including that of Queen Elizabeth I, William Pole, Francis Drake,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OT3yjA2y9xgC&q=time+traveller%27s+guide+to+elizabethan+england|title=The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England|last= Mortimer|first=Ian| page= 119|isbn=978-0-09-954207-0|year=2013|publisher=Random House UK }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vCqG8X7eDdsC&q=elizabethan+servants+blackamoor&pg=PP106|title=Elizabeth's London: Everyday Life in Elizabethan London|first=Liza|last=Picard|date=2013-05-23|publisher=Orion |isbn=978-1-78022-650-7}}</ref><ref name="Nicholl-2008" /> and Anne of Denmark in Scotland.<ref>Kim F. Hall, ''Things of Darkness: Economies of Race and Gender in Early Modern England'' (Cornell University Press, 1996), p. 128.</ref> Among these servants was "John Come-quick, a blackemore", servant to Capt Thomas Love.<ref name="Nicholl-2008" /> Others included in parish registers include Domingo "a black neigro servaunt unto Sir William Winter", buried the xxviith daye of August [1587] and "Frauncis a Blackamoor servant to Thomas Parker", buried in January 1591.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.history.ac.uk/gh/baentries.htm|title=Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170826060906/http://www.history.ac.uk/gh/baentries.htm|archive-date=26 August 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> Some were free workers, although most were employed as domestic servants and entertainers. Some worked in ports, but were invariably described as chattel labour.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OT3yjA2y9xgC&q=time+traveller%27s+guide+to+elizabethan+england|title=The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England|last= Mortimer|page= 120|isbn=978-0-09-954207-0|year=2013|publisher=Random House UK }}</ref>

The African population may have been several hundreds during the Elizabethan period, however not all were Sub-Saharan African.<ref name="Davis-2019" /> Historian Michael Wood noted that Africans in England were "mostly free... [and] both men and women, married native English people."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18903391|title=Britain's first black community in Elizabethan London|publisher=BBC News|date=20 July 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180408161831/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18903391|archive-date=8 April 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> Archival evidence shows records of more than 360 African people between 1500 and 1640 in England and Scotland.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.mirandakaufmann.com/blog/category/africans%20in%20tudor%20england|title=John Blanke takes his rightful place in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography!|first=Miranda|last=Kaufmann|date=25 September 2014|access-date=25 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180325171326/http://www.mirandakaufmann.com/blog/category/africans%20in%20tudor%20england|archive-date=25 March 2018|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.ft.com/content/ccf2d1c8-9ee1-11e7-8b50-0b9f565a23e1|title=Black Tudors by Miranda Kaufmann – a hidden history|newspaper=Financial Times|date=22 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180217202737/https://www.ft.com/content/ccf2d1c8-9ee1-11e7-8b50-0b9f565a23e1|archive-date=17 February 2018|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Mortimer 2013">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OT3yjA2y9xgC&q=time+traveller%27s+guide+to+elizabethan+england|title=The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England|last= Mortimer|isbn=978-0-09-954207-0|year=2013|publisher=Random House UK }}</ref> Reacting to the darker complexion of people with biracial parentage, George Best argued in 1578 that black skin was not related to the heat of the sun (in Africa) but was instead caused by biblical damnation. Reginald Scot noted that superstitious people associated black skin with demons and ghosts, writing (in his sceptical book ''Discoverie of Witchcraft'') "But in our childhood our mothers maids have so terrified us with an ouglie divell having hornes on his head, and a taile in his breech, eies like a bason, fanges like a dog, clawes like a beare, ''a skin like a Niger'' and a voice roring like a lion"; historian Ian Mortimer stated that such views "are to be noted at all levels of society".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OT3yjA2y9xgC&q=time+traveller%27s+guide+to+elizabethan+england|title=The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England|last=Mortimer|page=119|isbn=978-0-09-954207-0|year=2013|publisher=Random House UK }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dBpJTzFd1WoC&q=elizabethan+blackamoor+servants&pg=PT259|title=The Lodger: Shakespeare on Silver Street|date=3 July 2008|isbn=978-0-14-102374-8|last1=Nicholl|first1=Charles|publisher=Penguin Adult }}</ref> Views on Black people were "affected by preconceived notions of the Garden of Eden and the Fall from Grace."<ref name="Mortimer 2013"/> In addition, in this period, England had no concept of naturalization as a means of incorporating immigrants into the society. It conceived of English subjects as those people born on the island. Those who were not were considered by some to be incapable of becoming subjects or citizens.<ref name="Banks">Taunya Lovell Banks, [http://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/fac_pubs/52/ "Dangerous Woman: Elizabeth Key's Freedom Suit – Subjecthood and Racialized Identity in Seventeenth Century Colonial Virginia"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191024221530/https://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/fac_pubs/52/ |date=24 October 2019 }}, 41 ''Akron Law Review'' 799 (2008), Digital Commons Law, University of Maryland Law School. Retrieved 21 April 2009.</ref>

In 1596, Queen Elizabeth I issued letters to the lord mayors of major cities asserting that "of late divers blackmoores brought into this realm, of which kind of people there are already here to manie...". While visiting the English court, Casper Van Senden, a German merchant from Lübeck, requested the permission to transport "Blackamoores" living in England to Portugal or Spain, presumably to sell them there. Elizabeth subsequently issued a royal warrant to Van Senden, granting him the right to do so.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/early_times/elizabeth.htm |title=Exhibitions & Learning online | Black presence | Early times |publisher=The National Archives |access-date=18 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161104215129/http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/early_times/elizabeth.htm |archive-date=4 November 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref> However, Van Senden and Sherley did not succeed in this effort, as they acknowledged in correspondence with Sir Robert Cecil.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mirandakaufmann.com/caspanvansenden.html |title=CaspanVanSenden |publisher=Miranda Kaufmann |date=28 February 2005 |access-date=22 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131204024049/http://www.mirandakaufmann.com/caspanvansenden.html |archive-date=4 December 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1601, Elizabeth issued another proclamation expressing that she was "highly discontented to understand the great number of Negroes and blackamoors which (as she is informed) are carried into this realm",<ref>[http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/early_times/transcripts/deportation_van_senden.htm "Transcript: Licence to Deport Black People"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190510151533/http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/early_times/transcripts/deportation_van_senden.htm |date=10 May 2019 }}, ''Tudor Royal Proclamations'', vol. 3, pp. 221–2. National Archives.</ref> and again licensing van Senden to deport them. Her proclamation of 1601 stated that the blackamoors were "fostered and powered here, to the great annoyance of [the queen's] own liege people, that covet the relief, which those people consume". It further stated that "most of them are infidels, having no understanding of Christ or his Gospel".<ref>''HMC Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Earl of Salisbury at Hatfield'', vol. 11 (Dublin, 1906), p. 569.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/early_times/elizabeth.htm|title=National Archives: Elizabeth I|website=nationalarchives.gov.uk|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203093640/http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/early_times/elizabeth.htm|archive-date=3 December 2013|url-status=live}}</ref>

Studies of African people in early modern Britain indicate a minor continuing presence. Such studies include Imtiaz Habib's ''Black Lives in the English Archives, 1500–1677: Imprints of the Invisible'' (Ashgate, 2008),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mirandakaufmann.com/habibtls.html|title=HabibTLS|work=mirandakaufmann.com|access-date=29 November 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131204023255/http://www.mirandakaufmann.com/habibtls.html|archive-date=4 December 2013|url-status=live}}</ref> Onyeka's ''Blackamoores: Africans in Tudor England, Their Presence, Status and Origins'' (Narrative Eye, 2013),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://narrative-eye.org.uk/newbook.html|title=New Book|work=narrative-eye.org.uk|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203025958/http://narrative-eye.org.uk/newbook.html|archive-date=3 December 2013}}</ref> Miranda Kaufmann's Oxford DPhil thesis ''Africans in Britain, 1500–1640'',<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mirandakaufmann.com/thesis.html|title=Thesis|work=mirandakaufmann.com|access-date=29 November 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131204032612/http://www.mirandakaufmann.com/thesis.html|archive-date=4 December 2013|url-status=live}}</ref> and her ''Black Tudors: The Untold Story'' (Oneworld Publications, 2017).<ref>{{Cite book|title=Black Tudors: the untold story|last=Kaufmann|first=Miranda|isbn=978-1-78607-184-2|location=London, England|publisher=Oneworld Publications|oclc=973508149|year = 2017}}</ref>

=== 17th and 18th centuries === ==== Slavery and the slave trade ==== {{Main|Transatlantic slave trade}}

[[File:Peter Lely - Elizabeth Murray with a Page Boy NTIV HAMH 172330-001.jpg|thumb|A 1651 painting of Scottish noblewoman Elizabeth Maitland, Duchess of Lauderdale with her Black servant]] Britain was involved in the tri-continental slave trade between Europe, Africa and the Americas. Many of those involved in British colonial activities, such as ship's captains, colonial officials, merchants, slave traders and plantation owners brought Black slaves as servants back to Britain with them. This caused an increasing Black presence in the northern, eastern, and southern areas of London. One of the most famous slaves to attend a sea captain was known as Sambo. He fell ill shortly after arriving in England and was consequently buried in Lancashire. His plaque and gravestone still stand to this day. There were also small numbers of free slaves and seamen from West Africa and South Asia. Many of these people were forced into beggary due to the lack of jobs and racial discrimination.<ref>Banton, Michael (1955), ''The Coloured Quarter'', London: Jonathan Cape.</ref><ref>Shyllon, Folarin. "The Black Presence and Experience in Britain: An Analytical Overview", in Gundara and Duffield, eds (1992), ''Essays on the History of Blacks in Britain'', Avebury, Aldershot.</ref> In 1687, a "Moor" was given the freedom of the city of York. He is listed in the freemen's rolls as "John Moore – blacke". He is the only Black person to have been found to date in the York rolls.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.freemenofyork.com/famous_honorary_freemen.html|title=Some Famous Honorary Freemen (in date order)|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130507171118/http://www.freemenofyork.com/famous_honorary_freemen.html|archive-date=7 May 2013|url-status=live}}</ref>[[File:Anon (English School) - double portrait - circa 1650.jpg|thumb|alt=painting described in caption; the Black woman is on the left|Dual portrait of a Black woman and a white woman, identities unknown, circa 1650, by an anonymous hand. The two women, who appear to be of equal standing, are wearing face patches, which were a fashion of the time. The painting is captioned "I black with white bespott y white with blacke this evil proceeds from thy proud hart then take her: Devill."<ref name="Capon">{{cite web |last1=Capon |first1=Alex |date=28 June 2021 |title=Pick of the week: £220,000 for enigmatic faces of the Interregnum |url=https://www.antiquestradegazette.com/print-edition/2021/july/2499/news-digest/pick-of-the-week-220-000-for-enigmatic-faces-of-the-interregnum/ |access-date=4 July 2021 |website=Antiques Trade Gazette}}</ref>]]The involvement of merchants from Great Britain<ref name="Black Liverpool">{{cite book |last=Costello |first=Ray |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2wcXAQAAIAAJ |title=Black Liverpool: The Early History of Britain's Oldest Black Community 1730–1918 |publisher=Picton Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-1-873245-07-1 |location=Liverpool |access-date=17 February 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130612060644/http://books.google.com/books?id=2wcXAQAAIAAJ |archive-date=12 June 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref> in the transatlantic slave trade was the most important factor in the development of the Black British community. These communities flourished in port cities strongly involved in the slave trade, such as Liverpool<ref name="Black Liverpool" /> and Bristol. Some Liverpudlians are able to trace their African heritage in the city back ten generations.<ref name="Black Liverpool" /> Early Black settlers in the city included seamen, the mixed-race children of traders sent to be educated in England, servants, and freed slaves. Mistaken references to slaves entering the country after 1722 being deemed to be free men are derived from a source in which 1722 is a misprint for 1772, in turn based on a misunderstanding of the results of the Somerset case referred to below.<ref name="McIntyre-Brown">{{cite book |last1=McIntyre-Brown |first1=Arabella |title=Liverpool: The First 1,000 Years |last2=Woodland |first2=Guy |publisher=Garlic Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-1-904099-00-0 |location=Liverpool |page=57}}</ref><ref>''Mariners, Merchants and the Military too – A History of the British Empire''.</ref> As a result, Liverpool is home to Britain's oldest Black community, dating at least to the 1730s. By 1795, Liverpool had 62.5 per cent of the European Slave Trade.<ref name="Black Liverpool" />

[[File:Hogarth's Noon.jpg|thumb|William Hogarth's painting ''Four Times of the Day: Noon'' (1738) shows a Black London resident (on the right).]] During this era, Lord Mansfield declared that a slave who fled from his master could not be taken by force in England, nor sold abroad. However, Mansfield was at pains to point out that his ruling did not comment on the legality of slavery itself.<ref>Sivapragasam, Michael, "Why Did Black Londoners not join the Sierra Leone Resettlement Scheme 1783–1815?2 Unpublished Master's dissertation (London: Open University, 2013), pp. 3–4.</ref> This verdict fueled the numbers of Black people who escaped slavery, and helped send slavery into decline. During this same period, many former American slave soldiers, who had fought on the side of the British in the American Revolutionary War, were resettled as free men in London. They were never awarded pensions, and many of them became poverty-stricken and were reduced to begging on the streets. Reports at the time stated that they "had no prospect of subsisting in this country but by depredations on the public, or by common charity". A sympathetic observer wrote that "great numbers of Blacks and People of Colour, many of them refugees from America and others who have by land or sea been in his Majesty's service were... in great distress." Even towards white loyalists there was little good will to new arrivals from America.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Winch |first=Julie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jnXJDgAAQBAJ&q=ignatius+sancho+wooly+headed&pg=PA60 |title=A Gentleman of Color: The Life of James Forten |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-19-516340-7 |pages=60–61|publisher=Oxford University Press }}</ref>

Officially, slavery was not legal in England.<ref>{{cite web |title=Common Law |url=http://www.mirandakaufmann.com/common-law.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131204025750/http://www.mirandakaufmann.com/common-law.html |archive-date=4 December 2013 |access-date=22 March 2014 |publisher=Miranda Kaufmann}}</ref> The Cartwright decision of 1569 resolved that England was "too pure an air for a slave to breathe in". However, Black African slaves continued to be bought and sold in England during the eighteenth century.<ref>Sivapragasam, Michael, "Why Did Black Londoners not join the Sierra Leone Resettlement Scheme 1783–1815?" Unpublished Master's dissertation (London: Open University, 2013), pp. 10–11.</ref> The slavery issue was not legally contested until the Somerset case of 1772, which concerned James Somersett, a fugitive Black enslaved person from Virginia. Lord Chief Justice William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield concluded that Somerset could not be forced to leave England against his will. He later reiterated: "The determinations go no further than that the master cannot by force compel him to go out of the kingdom."<ref>{{Cite web |year=1831 |title=Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Court of King's ..., Volume 4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hSdFAAAAYAAJ&q=lord+mansfield+The+determinations+go+no+further+than+that+the+master+cannot+by+force+compel+him+to+go+out+of+the+kingdom&pg=PA301 |page=301 |last1=Frere |first1=William |last2=Roscoe |first2=Henry }}</ref> Despite the previous rulings, such as the 1706 declaration (which was clarified a year later) by Lord Chief Justice Holt<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Winder |first1=Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7ORcaQIgdcEC&q=%27supposed+to+be+near+20,000...+Negroe+servants%27+in+London:&pg=PT94 |title=Bloody Foreigners: The Story of Immigration to Britain |date=4 November 2010 |publisher=Little, Brown Book |isbn=978-0-7481-2396-4}}</ref> on slavery not being legal in Britain, it was often ignored, with slaveowners arguing that the slaves were property and therefore could not be considered people.<ref>{{cite book |last=Winder |first=Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cIczAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT103 |title=Bloody Foreigners: The Story of Immigration to Britain |date=4 November 2010 |publisher=Little, Brown Book |isbn=978-0-7481-2396-4 |pages=103–104}}</ref> Slave owner Thomas Papillon was one of many who took his Black servant "to be in the nature and quality of my goods and chattel".<ref name="Winder-2010" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Edwards |first=Paul |date=September 1981 |title=The History of Black People in Britain |url=http://www.historytoday.com/paul-edwards/history-black-people-britain |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161018221059/http://www.historytoday.com/paul-edwards/history-black-people-britain |archive-date=18 October 2016 |work=History Today |volume=31 |issue=9}}</ref>

==== Rise in population ==== Black people lived among whites in London in areas of Mile End, Stepney, Paddington, and St Giles. After Mansfield's ruling many former slaves continued to work for their old masters as paid employees. Between 14,000 and 15,000 (then contemporary estimates) slaves were immediately freed in England.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Heward |first=Edmund |url=https://archive.org/details/lordmansfield0000hewa |title=Lord Mansfield |year=1979 |isbn=978-0-85992-163-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/lordmansfield0000hewa/page/141 141] |publisher=B. Rose |url-access=registration}}</ref> Many of these emancipated individuals became labelled as the "black poor", the black poor were defined as former slave soldiers since emancipated, seafarers, such as South Asian lascars,<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Black Poor |url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/work_community/poor.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080111003422/http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/work_community/poor.htm |archive-date=11 January 2008 |website=National Archive}}</ref> former indentured servants and former indentured plantation workers.<ref name="FilePower">File, Nigel, and Chris Power (1981), ''Black Settlers in Britain 1555–1958'', Heinemann Educational.</ref> Around the 1750s, London became the home to many Black people, as well as Jews, Irish, Germans and Huguenots. According to Gretchen Gerzina in her ''Black London'', by the mid-18th century, Black people accounted for somewhere between 1% and 3% of the London populace.<ref name="Bartels">{{cite journal |last=Bartels |first=Emily C. |year=2006 |title=Too Many Blackamoors: Deportation, Discrimination, and Elizabeth I |url=http://www.press.jhu.edu/timeline/sel/Bartels_2006.pdf |journal=Studies in English Literature |volume=46 |issue=2 |pages=305–322 |doi=10.1353/sel.2006.0012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100623225903/https://www.press.jhu.edu/timeline/sel/Bartels_2006.pdf |archive-date=23 June 2010 |s2cid=154728438}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Gerzina |first=Gretchen |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780813522593/page/5 |title=Black London: Life before Emancipation |publisher=Rutgers University Press |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-8135-2259-3 |location=New Brunswick, New Jersey |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780813522593/page/5 5] |url-access=registration}}</ref> Evidence of the number of Black residents in the city has been found through registered burials. Some Black people in London resisted slavery through escape.<ref name="Bartels" /> Leading Black activists of this era included British-Nigerian Olaudah Equiano, British-Ghanaian Ottobah Cugoano and Ignatius Sancho . Mixed race Dido Elizabeth Belle who was born a slave in the Caribbean moved to Britain with her white father in the 1760s. In 1764, ''The Gentleman's Magazine'' reported that there was "supposed to be near 20,000 Negroe servants."<ref>{{Cite magazine |title=The History of Black People in Britain |url=https://www.historytoday.com/archive/history-black-people-britain |access-date=2022-09-30 |magazine=History Today |first1=Paul |last1=Edwards |volume =31 |issue =9 |date=September 1981 }}</ref>

John Ystumllyn (c. 1738 - 1786) was the first well-recorded Black person of North Wales. He may have been a victim of the Atlantic slave trade, and was from either West Africa or the Caribbean. He was taken by the Wynn family to their Ystumllyn estate in Criccieth, and christened with the Welsh name John Ystumllyn. He was taught English and Welsh by the locals, became a gardener at the estate and "grew into a handsome and vigorous young man". His portrait was painted in 1750s. He married local Welsh woman Margaret Gruffydd in 1768 and their descendants still live in the area.<ref>{{cite odnb |title=Ystumllyn, John |last=Green |first=Andrew |date=2019-10-10 |doi=10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.112797 }}</ref>

It was reported in the Morning Gazette that there was 30,000 in the country as a whole, though the numbers were thought to be "alarmist" exaggerations. In the same year, a party for Black men and women in a Fleet Street pub was sufficiently unusual to be written about in the newspapers. Their presence in the country was striking enough to start heated outbreaks of distaste for ''colonies of Hottentots''.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7ORcaQIgdcEC&q=%27supposed+to+be+near+20,000...+Negroe+servants%27+in+London:&pg=PT94|title=Bloody Foreigners: The Story of Immigration to Britain|last=Winder|first=Robert|publisher=Hachette|date=2010|isbn=978-0-7481-2396-4}}</ref> Modern historians estimate, based on parish lists, baptismal and marriage registers as well as criminal and sales contracts, that about 10,000 Black people lived in Britain during the 18th century.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/africans_in_art_gallery.shtml|title=The Black Figure in 18th-century Art|website=BBC|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191026180159/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/africans_in_art_gallery.shtml|archive-date=26 October 2019|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://revealinghistories.org.uk/what-evidence-is-there-of-a-black-presence-in-britain-and-north-west-england.html|title=Revealing Histories: Remembering Slavery|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161127032654/http://revealinghistories.org.uk/what-evidence-is-there-of-a-black-presence-in-britain-and-north-west-england.html|archive-date=27 November 2016|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Winder-2010">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7ORcaQIgdcEC&q=%27supposed+to+be+near+20,000...+Negroe+servants%27+in+London:&pg=PT94|title=Bloody Foreigners: The Story of Immigration to Britain|last=Winder|first=Robert|date=4 November 2010|publisher=Little, Brown Book |isbn=978-0-7481-2396-4}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=''Black People in Britain 1555–1833'', Folarin Shyllon. Review by: Arthur Sheps|page=45}}</ref> Other estimates put the number at 15,000.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://rbscp.lib.rochester.edu/2509|title=Frederick Douglass Project: Terry's Allen's "Blacks in Britain" Essay|website=River Campus Libraries|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170831220759/http://rbscp.lib.rochester.edu/2509|archive-date=31 August 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://historicengland.org.uk/research/inclusive-heritage/the-slave-trade-and-abolition/sites-of-memory/black-lives-in-england/|title=Black Lives in England|website=Historic England|date=27 November 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151124135304/https://historicengland.org.uk/research/inclusive-heritage/the-slave-trade-and-abolition/sites-of-memory/black-lives-in-england/|archive-date=24 November 2015|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/s/silver-service-slavery-the-black-presence-in-the-white-home/|title=Silver Service Slavery: The Black Presence in the White Home|date=13 January 2011|website=Victoria and Albert Museum (VAM)|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170713103537/http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/s/silver-service-slavery-the-black-presence-in-the-white-home/|archive-date=13 July 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> [[File:Sir_Joshua_Reynolds_-_Charles_Stanhope,_3rd_Earl_of_Harrington_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg|thumb|278x278px|Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl of Harrington and Marcus Richard Fitzroy Thomas by Joshua Reynolds<ref name="West Sussex Record Office-2022">{{Cite web |date=2022-05-17 |title=The Boy in the Painting: Marcus Thomas, b.1768-d.1816 |url=https://westsussexrecordofficeblog.com/2022/05/17/the-boy-in-the-painting-marcus-thomas-b-1768-d-1816/ |access-date=2023-10-15 |website=West Sussex Record Office |language=en}}</ref><ref name="britishart.yale">{{Cite web |title=Charles Stanhope, third Earl of Harrington and Marcus Richard Fitzroy Thomas - YCBA Collections Search |url=https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:5006 |access-date=2023-10-15 |website=collections.britishart.yale.edu}}</ref>]] In 1772, Lord Mansfield put the number of Black people in the country at as many as 15,000, though most modern historians consider 10,000 to be the most likely.<ref name="Winder-2010" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/intro/intro.htm|title=Arriving in Britain|website=National Archives|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170319094028/http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/intro/intro.htm|archive-date=19 March 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> The black population was estimated at around 10,000 in London, making black people approximately 1% of the overall London population. The black population constituted around 0.1% of the total population of Britain in 1780.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://1841census.co.uk/1570-1750-estimated-population/|title=Estimated Population|website=1841census.co.uk|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200507141859/https://1841census.co.uk/1570-1750-estimated-population/|archive-date=7 May 2020|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="The First Black Britons">{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/black_britons_01.shtml|title=The First Black Britons|website=BBC|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191031231238/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/black_britons_01.shtml|archive-date=31 October 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> The Black female population is estimated to have barely reached 20% of the overall Afro-Caribbean population in the country.<ref name="The First Black Britons" /> In the 1780s with the end of the American Revolutionary War, hundreds of Black loyalists from America were resettled in Britain.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jnXJDgAAQBAJ&q=ignatius+sancho+wooly+headed&pg=PA60|title=A Gentleman of Color: The Life of James Forten|isbn=978-0-19-516340-7|last1=Winch|first1=Julie|year=2003|publisher=Oxford University Press }}</ref> Marcus Thomas is thought to have been brought at that time from Jamaica as a young boy by the Stanhope family, working as a servant in their home, being baptised age 19, and later joining the Westminster Militia as a drummer.<ref name="West Sussex Record Office-2022" /><ref name="britishart.yale" /> Later some emigrated to Sierra Leone, with help from Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor after suffering destitution, to form the Sierra Leone Creole ethnic identity.<ref>{{cite journal |last2=Porter |first2=A. |last1=Hargreaves |first1=J. |year=1963 |title=''The Sierra Leone Creoles - Creoledom: A Study of the Development of Freetown Society'' |journal=The Journal of African History |volume=4 |issue=3, 0000539|pages=468–469 |doi=10.1017/S0021853700004394|s2cid=162611104 }} </ref><ref name="Walker">{{cite book|last=Walker |first=James W |year=1992 |chapter=Chapter Five: Foundation of Sierra Leone |title=The Black Loyalists: The Search for a Promised Land in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone, 1783–1870 |location=Toronto |publisher=University of Toronto Press |pages=[https://archive.org/details/blackloyalistsse0000walk/page/94 94]–114 |url=https://archive.org/details/blackloyalistsse0000walk |url-access=registration |isbn=978-0-8020-7402-7}}, originally published by Longman & Dalhousie University Press (1976).</ref><ref name="Taylor">{{cite book |last=Taylor |first=Bankole Kamara |title=Sierra Leone: The Land, Its People and History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I__jAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA68 |date=February 2014 |publisher=New Africa Press |isbn=978-9987-16-038-9 |page=68}}</ref>

==== Discrimination ==== {{Main|Discrimination based on skin color|l1 = Discrimination}}

In 1731 the Lord Mayor of London ruled that "no Negroes shall be bound apprentices to any Tradesman or Artificer of this City". Due to this ruling, most were forced into working as domestic servants and other menial professions.<ref name="Sandhu">{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/black_britons_01.shtml|title=The First Black Britons|first=Sukhdev|last=Sandhu|website=BBC|date=17 February 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191031231238/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/black_britons_01.shtml|archive-date=31 October 2019|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Winder-2010" /> Those Black Londoners who were unpaid servants were in effect slaves in anything but name.<ref>Sivapragasam, Michael, "Why Did Black Londoners not join the Sierra Leone Resettlement Scheme 1783–1815?" Unpublished Master's dissertation (London: Open University, 2013), p. 3.</ref> In 1787, Thomas Clarkson, an English abolitionist, noted at a speech in Manchester: "I was surprised also to find a great crowd of black people standing round the pulpit. There might be forty or fifty of them."<ref>{{Cite web |title=What evidence is there of a Black presence in Britain and north west England? |url=http://revealinghistories.org.uk/what-evidence-is-there-of-a-black-presence-in-britain-and-north-west-england.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161127032654/http://revealinghistories.org.uk/what-evidence-is-there-of-a-black-presence-in-britain-and-north-west-england.html |archive-date=27 November 2016 |website=Revealing Histories}}</ref> There is evidence that Black men and women were occasionally discriminated against when dealing with the law because of their skin colour. In 1737, George Scipio was accused of stealing Anne Godfrey's washing, the case rested entirely on whether or not Scipio was the only Black man in Hackney at the time.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Black Communities |url=https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/static/Black.jsp |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160603052405/http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/static/Black.jsp |archive-date=3 June 2016 |publisher=The Proceedings of the Old Bailey}}</ref> Ignatius Sancho, Black writer, composer, shopkeeper and voter in Westminster wrote, that despite being in Britain since the age of two he felt he was "only a lodger, and hardly that."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shyllon |first=F. O. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IDVnAAAAMAAJ&q=black+people+in+Britain+shyllon+book |title=Black People in Britain 1555–1833 |date=1 January 1977 |publisher=Institute of Race Relations |isbn=978-0-19-218413-9 |language=en}}</ref> Sancho complained of "the national antipathy and prejudice" of native white Britons "towards their wooly headed brethren."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sancho |first=Ignatius |year=1803 |title=Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, an African: To which are Prefixed... |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B04UAAAAYAAJ&q=ignatius+sancho+letters |page=v}}</ref> Sancho was frustrated that many resorted to stereotyping their Black neighbours.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Winch |first=Julie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jnXJDgAAQBAJ&q=ignatius+sancho+wooly+headed&pg=PA60 |title=A Gentleman of Color: The Life of James Forten |year=2003 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-516340-7}}</ref> A financially independent householder, he was the second Black person of African origin to vote in parliamentary elections in Britain, in a time when only 3% of the British population were allowed to vote.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ignatius Sancho (c1729–1780): The Composer |url=http://abolition.e2bn.org/people_30.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019173703/http://abolition.e2bn.org/people_30.html |archive-date=19 October 2017 |website=The Abolition Project}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=December 2025|reason=States that Sancho was the first black person to vote in the Britain}}

Sailors of African descent experienced far less prejudice compared to Black people in the cities such as London. Black sailors would have shared the same quarters, duties and pay as their white shipmates. There are some disputes in the estimation of Black sailors, conservative estimates put it between 6% and 8% of navy sailors of the time, this proportion is considerably larger than the population as a whole. Notable examples are Olaudah Equiano and Francis Barber.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Taylor |first=Stephen |date=2020 |title=Sons of the Waves |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nVHaDwAAQBAJ |access-date=2 April 2022 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-25261-3 }}</ref>

[[File:European, likely British family with a black servant.png|thumb|288x288px|An 18th-century painting of the Irish politician Edward Southwell Jr. and his family pictured with their Black child servant]]

==== Abolitionism ==== With the support of other Britons, these activists demanded that Blacks be freed from slavery. Supporters involved in these movements included workers and other nationalities of the urban poor. Black people in London who were supporters of the abolitionist movement include Cugoano and Equiano. At this time, slavery in Britain itself had no support from common law, but its definitive legal status was not clearly defined until the 19th century.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}[[File:Ignatius Sancho, 1768.jpg|thumb|Composer and shopkeeper Ignatius Sancho was the first black person of African origins to vote in parliamentary elections and became a symbol of the humanity of Africans and immorality of the slave trade.]]

==== Olaudah Equiano ==== {{Main|Olaudah Equiano}}

During the late 18th century, numerous publications and memoirs were written about the "black poor". One example is the writings of British-Nigerian Olaudah Equiano, a former enslaved man who wrote a memoir titled ''The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano''.

In 1786, Equiano became the first African person to be employed by the British government, when he was made Commissary of Provisions and Stores for the 350 Black people suffering from poverty who had decided to accept the government's offer of an assisted passage to Sierra Leone.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/black_britons_01.shtml|title=The First Black Britons|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191031231238/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/black_britons_01.shtml|archive-date=31 October 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> The following year, in 1787, encouraged by the Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor, about 400<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.historymatters.online/_files/ugd/095d87_63278bd078904fda84449c892a794539.pdf |access-date=2022-03-10 |title=Why did the Black Poor of London not support the Sierra Leone Resettlement Scheme? |first=Michael |last=Siva |journal=History Matters Journal |date=Winter 2021 |volume=1 |issue=2 |page=44 }}</ref> melanated Londoners were aided in emigrating to Sierra Leone in West Africa, founding the first British colony on the continent.<ref>Sivapragasam, Michael, "Why Did Black Londoners not join the Sierra Leone Resettlement Scheme 1783–1815?" Unpublished Master's dissertation (London: Open University, 2013).</ref> They asked that their status as British subjects be recognized, along with requests that they be given military protection by the Royal Navy.<ref>Simon Schama (2006), ''Rough Crossings'', p. 363.</ref> However, even though the committee signed up about 700 members of the Black Poor, only 441 boarded the three ships that set sail from London to Portsmouth.<ref>Michael Siva, "Why did the Black Poor of London not support the Sierra Leone Resettlement Scheme?", ''History Matters Journal'', Vol. 1, No. 2 (Winter, 2021), pp. 25, 44.</ref> Many black Londoners were no longer interested in the scheme, and the coercion employed by the committee and the government to recruit them only reinforced their opposition. Equiano, who was originally involved in the scheme, became one of its most vocal critics. Another prominent Black Londoner, British-Ghanaian Ottobah Cugoano, also criticised the scheme.<ref>Sivapragasam, Michael, "Why Did Black Londoners not join the Sierra Leone Resettlement Scheme 1783–1815?" Unpublished Master's dissertation (London: Open University, 2013), pp. 26-33.</ref><ref>Michael Siva, "Why did the Black Poor of London not support the Sierra Leone Resettlement Scheme?", ''History Matters Journal'', Vol. 1, No. 2 (Winter, 2021), pp. 38–43.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain|last=Fryer|first=Peter|author-link=Peter Fryer|year=1984|publisher=Pluto Press|isbn=978-0-86104-749-9|page=195 quotes a contemporary commentator who called them "indigent, unemployed, despised and forlorn", saying that "it was necessary they should be sent somewhere, and be no longer suffered to invest [sic] the streets of London" (C. B. Wadström, An Essay on Colonization, 1794–5, II, 220)}}</ref>

==== Ancestry ====

In 2007, scientists found the rare paternal haplogroup A1 in a few living British men with Yorkshire surnames. This clade is today almost exclusively found among males in West Africa, where it is also rare. The haplogroup is thought to have been brought to Britain either through enlisted soldiers during Roman Britain, or later via the modern slave trade. Turi King, a co-author on the study, noted the most probable "guess" was the West African slave trade. Some of the known individuals who arrived through the slave route, such as Ignatius Sancho and Olaudah Equiano, attained a very high social rank. Some married into the general English population.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6293333.stm|title=Yorkshire clan linked to Africa|date=24 January 2007|access-date=26 April 2015|agency=BBC|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150128115729/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6293333.stm|archive-date=28 January 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>[[File:Pablo Fanque.jpg|thumb|Pablo Fanque, celebrated circus owner and performer in Victorian Britain]] [[File:Jem Wharton 1839 portrait by William Daniels.png|thumb|Portrait of the London-born boxer James Wharton, 1839]]

===19th century=== In the late 18th century, the British slave trade declined in response to changing popular opinion. Both Great Britain and the United States abolished the Atlantic slave trade in 1808, and cooperated in liberating slaves from illegal trading ships off the coast of West Africa. Many of these freed slaves were taken to Sierra Leone for settlement. Slavery was abolished completely in the British Empire by 1834, although it had been profitable on Caribbean plantations. Fewer Black people were brought into London from the West Africa and West Indies.<ref name="FilePower" /> The resident British Black population, primarily male, was no longer growing from the trickle of enslaved people and servants from the West Indies and America.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GtyjameJAdUC&q=black+people+population+victorian&pg=PA2|title=Black Victorians/Black Victoriana|isbn=978-0-8135-3214-1|last1=Gerzina|first1=Gretchen|year=2003|publisher=Rutgers University Press }}</ref>

Abolition meant a virtual halt to the arrival of Black people to Britain, just as immigration from Europe was increasing.<ref name="BBC-2011">{{Cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/uk/2002/race/short_history_of_immigration.stm#1800s|title=BBC:Short History of Immigration|website=BBC WEBSITE|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110319224317/http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/uk/2002/race/short_history_of_immigration.stm#1800s|archive-date=19 March 2011|url-status=live}}</ref> The Black population of Victorian Britain was so small that those living outside of larger trading ports were isolated from the Black population.<ref name="Black Victorians/Black Victoriana">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GtyjameJAdUC&q=black+victorian+britain+book|title=Black Victorians/Black Victoriana|isbn=978-0-8135-3214-1|last1=Gerzina|first1=Gretchen|year=2003|publisher=Rutgers University Press }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dHB_BAAAQBAJ&q=black+people+in+victorian+britain&pg=PA229|title=An Immigration History of Britain|last=Panikos|first=Panayi|publisher=Routledge|date=2014|isbn=978-1-317-86423-3}}</ref> The mentioning of Black people and descendants in parish registers declined markedly in the early 19th century. It is possible that researchers simply did not collect the data or that the mostly Black male population of the late 18th century had married white women.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dHB_BAAAQBAJ&q=Mixed+relationships+also+took+place+between+the+overwhelmingly+male+non-European+immigrants+and+native+women&pg=PA101|title=An Immigration History of Britain|last=Panikos|first=Panayi|page=20|date=2014|publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-86423-3}}</ref><ref name="Black Victorians/Black Victoriana" /> Evidence of such marriages may still be found today with descendants of Black servants such as Francis Barber, a Jamaican-born slave who lived in Britain during the 18th century. His descendants still live in England today and are white.<ref name="Sandhu" /> Abolition of slavery in 1833, effectively ended the period of small-scale Black immigration to London and Britain. Though, there were some exceptions, Black and Chinese seamen began putting down the roots of small communities in British ports, not least because they were abandoned there by their employers.<ref name="BBC-2011" />

By the late 19th century, race discrimination was furthered by theories of scientific racism, which held that white people were the 'superior race' and that Black people were less intelligent than white people. Attempts to support these theories cited "scientific evidence", such as brain size. James Hunt, President of the London Anthropological Society, in 1863 in his paper "On the Negro's place in nature" wrote that "the Negro is inferior intellectually to the European...[and] can only be humanised and civilised by Europeans."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F6MEAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA53|title=memoirs read before the anthropological society of london p52|year=1865}}</ref> In the 1880s, there was a build-up of small groups of Black dockside communities in towns such as Canning Town,<ref>Bell, Geoffrey (2002), ''The Other Eastenders: Kamal Chunchie and West Ham's early black community'', Stratford: Eastside Community Heritage.</ref> Liverpool and Cardiff. [[File:Sara Forbes Bonetta (15 September 1862) (cropped).jpg|thumb|Sarah Forbes Bonetta, Yoruba princess and goddaughter to Queen Victoria. Orphaned in warfare, given as a "gift" to Queen Victoria.]] Despite social prejudice and discrimination in Victorian England, some 19th-century Black Britons achieved exceptional success. Pablo Fanque, born likely to West African parents as William Darby in Norwich<ref>{{Citation |last=Etherington |first=Norman A. |title=Review of Gerzina, Gretchen Holbrook, ed., Black Victorians/Black Victoriana |date=January 2004 |url=https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=8797 |access-date=2026-05-01 |publisher=H-SAfrica, H-Review |language=en}}</ref>, rose to become the proprietor of one of Britain's most successful Victorian circuses. He is immortalised in the lyrics of The Beatles song "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" Thirty years after his 1871 death, the chaplain of the Showman's Guild said: <blockquote>"In the great brotherhood of the equestrian world there is no colour line [bar], for, although Pablo Fanque was of African extraction, he speedily made his way to the top of his profession. The camaraderie of the ring has but one test – ability."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.100greatblackbritons.com/bios/Pablo_Fanque.htm|title=Pablo Fanque, Black Circus Proprietor|publisher=100 Great Black Britons|access-date=22 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140328053339/http://www.100greatblackbritons.com/bios/Pablo_Fanque.htm|archive-date=28 March 2014|url-status=live}}</ref></blockquote>Another great circus performer was equestrian Joseph Hillier, who took over and ran Andrew Ducrow's circus company after Ducrow died.<ref>A. H. Saxon, ''The Life and Art of Andrew Ducrow'', Archon Books, 1978.</ref>

From the early part of the century, students of African descent were admitted to British Universities. One such student, for example, was the African American James McCune Smith, who travelled from New York City to Glasgow University to study medicine. In 1837 he was awarded a medical doctorate and published two scientific articles in the ''London Medical Gazette''. These articles are the first known to be published by an African-American medical doctor in a scientific journal.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Eddy|first1=Matthew Daniel|title=James McCune Smith: new discovery reveals how first African-American doctor fought for women's rights in Glasgow|work=The Conversation|date=8 October 2021|access-date=14 October 2021|url=https://theconversation.com/james-mccune-smith-new-discovery-reveals-how-first-african-american-doctor-fought-for-womens-rights-in-glasgow-166233}}</ref>

An Indian Briton, Dadabhai Naoroji, stood for election to parliament for the Liberal Party in 1886. He was defeated, leading the leader of the Conservative Party, Lord Salisbury to remark that "however great the progress of mankind has been, and however far we have advanced in overcoming prejudices, I doubt if we have yet got to the point of view where a British constituency would elect a Black man".<ref name=":3">Sumita Mukherjee, [https://archive.today/20141021045527/http://www.academia.edu/354227/Narrow-majority_and_Bow-and-agree_Public_Attitudes_Towards_the_Elections_of_the_First_Asian_MPs_in_Britain_Dadabhai_Naoroji_and_Mancherjee_Merwanjee_Bhownaggree_1885-1906 "'Narrow-majority' and 'Bow-and-agree': Public Attitudes Towards the Elections of the First Asian MPs in Britain, Dadabhai Naoroji and Mancherjee Merwanjee Bhownaggree, 1885–1906"], ''Journal of the Oxford University History Society'', 1 (2004), p. 3.</ref> Naoroji was elected to parliament in 1892, becoming the second Member of Parliament (MP) of Indian descent after David Ochterlony Dyce Sombre. [[File:Annie_Brewster.tif|thumb|Annie Brewster, 'Nurse Ophthalmic' at London Hospital]] In 1881, Annie Brewster joined the staff of the London Hospital as a nurse and rose to become known as ‘Nurse Ophthalmic', in charge of the ophthalmic wards.<ref>{{cite odnb|last=Bourne |first=Stephen |title=Brewster, Annie Catherine |date=2021-04-08 |doi=10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.90000380676 }}</ref>

=== 20th century === ==== Early 20th century ==== On Christmas Day 1901 Aston Villa beat Everton 3-2 at Goodison. Villa's Willie Clarke became the first Black player to score in the English First Division.<ref name=BFB>{{cite web|url=http://www.boyfrombrazil.co.uk/2011/07/celebrating-106-years-of-black-footballers-at-valley-parade/|title=Celebrating 106 Years of Black Footballers at Valley Parade|date=6 July 2011|author=Dave Pendleton|publisher=Boy From Brazil}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Football's Black Pioneers on Radio Leeds |url=https://footballs-black-pioneers.com/about/tag/bradford-city/ |website=Football's Black Pioneers |accessdate=9 September 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Murray |first1=Scott |title=The Title: The Story of the First Division |date=September 2017 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=9781472936622 |edition=1st |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9M8vDgAAQBAJ}}</ref> According to the Sierra Leonan barrister and writer, Augustus Merriman-Labor, in his 1909 book ''Britons Through Negro Spectacles'', London's Black population at the time did "not much exceed one hundred" people and "to every one Negro there, there are over sixty thousand whites".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Merriman-Labor |first=Augustus |title=Britons Through Negro Spectacles |publisher= Forgotten Books |year=1909 |page=17 |language=en |chapter=Babel in Babylon |url=https://archive.org/details/britonsthroughne00merr/page/16/mode/2up}}</ref> [[File:Walter Tull23.jpg|thumb| Walter Tull, professional footballer and mixed-heritage British Army officer, pictured with fellow officers]] [[File:British West Indies Regiment Q 001202.jpg|thumb|Members of the British West Indies Regiment on the Somme, September 1916. All of the men pictured were Afro-Caribbean people who volunteered to fight for the British Army.]] thumb|Soldiers of D Company, 1/4th Battalion, The Gloucestershire Regiment, with a captured German Maxim machine gun. A board in the foreground is dated "After 17–22 July 1916". A "pals" company, all the men were from the Bristol area. Sitting in front of central the capped officer is a Black man, wearing a spiked German helmet.

World War I saw a small growth in the size of London's Black communities with the arrival of merchant seamen and soldiers. At that time, there were also small groups of students from Africa and the Caribbean migrating into London. These communities are now among the oldest Black communities of London.<ref>Scobie, Edward (1972), ''Black Britannia'', Chicago, Illinois: Johnson Publishing Company Inc.</ref> The largest Black communities were to be found in the United Kingdom's great port cities: London's East End, Liverpool, Bristol and Cardiff's Tiger Bay, with other communities in South Shields in Tyne & Wear and Glasgow. In 1914, the Black population was estimated at 10,000 and centred largely in London.<ref name="Bourne-2020">{{Cite book|first=Stephen|last=Bourne|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xSaPlwEACAAJ|title=Black Poppies (source on back cover of book and description in link)|date=2020|publisher=History Press |isbn=978-0-7524-9787-7}}</ref><ref name="Storm-2015" />

By 1918 there may have been as many as 20,000<ref>{{Cite book|title=Colonial Soldiers in Europe, 1914–1945: "Aliens in Uniform" in Wartime Societies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-6RACwAAQBAJ&q=black+population+of+britain+in+1914&pg=PA100|pages= 97, 101|isbn = 97-81317330981|last1 = Storm|first1 = Eric|last2 = Tuma|first2 = Ali Al|date = 22 December 2015| publisher=Routledge }}</ref> or 30,000<ref name="Bourne-2020" /> black people living in Britain. However, the Black population was much smaller relative to the total British population of 45 million and official documents were not adapted to record ethnicity.<ref name="Costello-2016">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0j7KDAAAQBAJ&q=black+tommies+book|title=Black Tommies: British Soldiers of African Descent in the First World War|first=Ray|last=Costello|date=June 2016|publisher=Liverpool University Press |isbn=978-1-78138-861-7}}</ref> Black residents had for the most part emigrated from parts of the British Empire. The number of black soldiers serving in the British army, (rather than colonial regiments,) prior to World War I is unknown but was likely to have been negligibly low.<ref name="Storm-2015">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-6RACwAAQBAJ&q=black+population+of+britain+in+1914&pg=PA100|title=Colonial Soldiers in Europe, 1914–1945: "Aliens in Uniform" in Wartime Societies |page=97|date=22 December 2015|isbn=978-1-317-33098-1|last1=Storm |first1=Eric |last2=Tuma |first2=Ali Al |publisher=Routledge }}</ref> One of the Black British soldiers during World War I was Walter Tull, an English professional footballer, born to a Barbadian carpenter Daniel Tull and Kent-born Alice Elizabeth Palmer. His grandfather was a slave in Barbados.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/0/ww1/25403975|title=Walter Tull|website=BBC|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190213143751/http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/0/ww1/25403975|archive-date=13 February 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> Tull became the first British-born mixed-heritage infantry officer in a regular British Army regiment, despite the 1914 Manual of Military Law specifically excluding soldiers that were not "of pure European descent" from becoming commissioned officers.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-31796542|title=The officer who refused to lie about being black|date=27 April 2015|website=BBC News|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180323102843/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-31796542|archive-date=23 March 2018|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/mar/25/walter-tull-football-pioneer-war-hero-tottenham-northampton-military-cross|title=Football pioneer and war hero Walter Tull may be honoured at last|last=Aarons|first=Ed|website=The Observer|date=25 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180405110831/https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/mar/25/walter-tull-football-pioneer-war-hero-tottenham-northampton-military-cross|archive-date=5 April 2018|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://hiddenhistorieswwi.ac.uk/uncategorized/2014/09/beyond-walter-tull/|title=Beyond Walter Tull|website=The Centre for Hidden Histories|date=5 September 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170822013626/http://hiddenhistorieswwi.ac.uk/uncategorized/2014/09/beyond-walter-tull/|archive-date=22 August 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

Colonial soldiers and sailors of Afro-Caribbean descent served in the United Kingdom during the First World War, and some settled in British cities. The South Shields community—which also included other "coloured" seamen known as lascars, who were from South Asia and the Arab world—were victims of the UK's first race riot in 1919.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/tyne/roots/2003/10/arabontyne.shtml |title=Culture: When the Boat Came in |publisher=BBC Tyne |date=2003 |access-date=22 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130705214110/http://www.bbc.co.uk/tyne/roots/2003/10/arabontyne.shtml |archive-date=5 July 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref> Charles Wootton (also recorded as Wooten or Wotten), a Black seaman and First World War veteran, was killed by a white mob in Liverpool during the unrest.<ref>{{cite web |title=The race riots of 1919 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/z8gpm39 |publisher=BBC Bitesize |access-date=6 April 2026}}</ref> Soon eight other cities with significant non-white communities were also hit by race riots.<ref name=Tabili/> Due to these disturbances, many of the residents from the Arab world as well as some other immigrants were evacuated to their homelands.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Goodwin|first1=Stefan|title=Africa in Europe: Interdependencies, relocations, and globalization|date=2009|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=978-0-7391-2765-0|page=202|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=atEVAQAAIAAJ|access-date=13 April 2016}}</ref> In that first postwar summer, other racial riots of whites against "coloured" peoples also took place in numerous United States cities, towns in the Caribbean, and South Africa.<ref name=Tabili>Tabili, Laura, [http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/840 "Review of Jacqueline Jenkinson, ''Black 1919: Riots, Racism and Resistance in Imperial Britain''], Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2009, {{ISBN|9781846312007}}", ''Reviews in History'' website. Retrieved 13 April 2016. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160422181418/http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/840 |date=22 April 2016 }}.</ref> They were part of the social dislocation after the war as societies struggled to integrate veterans into the work forces again, and groups competed for jobs and housing. At Australian insistence, the British refused to accept the Racial Equality Proposal put forward by the Japanese at the Paris Peace Conference, 1919.

The West African Students’ Union (WASU), founded in London in 1925 by Ladipo Solanke and Herbert Bankole-Bright, became an important organisation supporting African students in Britain and campaigning against racial discrimination and colonial rule. It played a significant role in linking Black political activism in Britain with anti-colonial movements in West Africa and provided a base for political discussion and organisation among African students.<ref>{{cite web |title=The WASU Journal |url=https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/explore-the-collection/stories/the-wasu-journal/ |publisher=The National Archives |access-date=6 April 2026}}</ref>

==== World War II ==== [[File:RAF student pilot Jellicoe Scoon, a West Indian from Trinidad, in Parliament Square in London, 26 March 1942. CH5213.jpg|thumb|270px|RAF student pilot Jellicoe Scoon from Trinidad, standing at Parliament Square in London, 26 March 1942]] World War II marked another period of growth for the Black communities in London, Liverpool and elsewhere in Britain. Many Blacks from the Caribbean and West Africa arrived in small groups as wartime workers, merchant seamen, and servicemen from the army, navy, and air forces.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Schler|first1=Lynn|title=Nation on Board: Becoming Nigerian at Sea|date=2016|publisher=Ohio University Press|location=Athens, OH|isbn=978-0-8214-2218-2|page=240}}</ref> For example, in February 1941, 345 West Indians came to work in factories in and around Liverpool, making munitions.<ref>"Liverpool's Black Population During World War II", ''Black and Asian Studies Association Newsletter'' No. 20, January 1998, p. 6.</ref> Among those from the Caribbean who joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) and gave distinguished service are Ulric Cross<ref>{{cite news|first=Stephen|last=Bourne|author-link=Stephen Bourne (writer)|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/squadron-leader-ulric-cross-pilot-who-went-on-to-become-a-judge-and-diplomat-8872480.html |title=Squadron Leader Ulric Cross: Pilot who went on to become a judge and diplomat|newspaper='The Independent|date= 10 October 2013}}</ref> from Trinidad, Cy Grant<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1581188/Veterans-remember-Germany-bombing-raids.html |title=Veterans remember Germany bombing raids |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=9 March 2008}}</ref> from Guyana and Billy Strachan<ref>{{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|page=194}}</ref> from Jamaica. The African and Caribbean War Memorial was installed in Brixton, London, in 2017 by the Nubian Jak Community Trust to honour servicemen from Africa and the Caribbean who served alongside British and Commonwealth Forces in both the First World War and Second World War.<ref>Francis, Tracey (18 May 2017), [http://www.keepthefaith.co.uk/2017/05/18/african-and-caribbean-war-memorial/ "African and Caribbean War Memorial"], ''Keep The Faith''.</ref>

By the end of 1943, there were 3,312 African-American GIs based at Maghull and Huyton, near Liverpool.<ref>"Liverpool's Black Population During World War II", ''BASA Newsletter'' No. 20, January 1998, p. 10.</ref> The Black population in the summer of 1944 was estimated at 150,000, mostly Black GIs from the United States. However, by 1948 the Black population was estimated to have been less than 20,000 and did not reach the previous peak of 1944 until 1958.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Black and British: A Forgotten History |last= Olusoga|first=David |author-link=David Olusoga |year=2016 |page=467}}</ref> [[File:Dutch merchant seamen have been aiding the allied war effort on the seven seas. , Bestanddeelnr 935-2097.jpg|thumb|A Afro-Dutch merchant seaman eating ''maatjesharing'' in London, June 1943]] Learie Constantine, a West Indian cricketer, was a welfare officer with the Ministry of Labour when he was refused service at a London hotel. He sued for breach of contract and was awarded damages. This particular example is used by some to illustrate the slow change from racism towards acceptance and equality of all citizens in London.<ref>{{cite journal |title = Race, empire and British wartime national identity, 1939–45 |first = Sonya |last = Rose |journal = Historical Research |volume = 74 |issue = 184 |pages = 220–37 |date = May 2001 |doi = 10.1111/1468-2281.00125|pmid = 18161216 }}</ref> In 1943, Amelia King was refused work by the Essex branch of the Women's Land Army because she was Black. The decision was overturned after her cause was taken up by Holborn Trades Council,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Trades Union Congress |url=https://wdc.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/tav/id/4628 |access-date=2024-09-11 |website=wdc.contentdm.oclc.org |language=en}}</ref> which led to her MP, Walter Edwards, raising the matter in the House of Commons. She ultimately took a placement in Frith Farm, Wickham, Hampshire and had lodgings with a family in the village.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Latherow |first=Tamisan |date=2020-08-18 |title=Breaking the Colour Bar: Amelia King and the Women's Land Army |url=https://merl.reading.ac.uk/blog/2020/08/breaking-the-colour-bar-amelia-king-womens-land-army/ |access-date=2024-09-11 |website=The Museum of English Rural Life |language=en-GB}}</ref>

==== Post-war ==== [[File:HMT Empire Windrush FL9448.jpg|thumb|The ''Empire Windrush'' is extremely important within Black British history; in 1948 it carried the first large wave of Jamaican immigrants to the United Kingdom.]] In 1950, there were probably fewer than 20,000 non-White residents in Britain, almost all born overseas.<ref>Coleman, David; Paul Compton; John Salt (2002). [https://books.google.com/books?id=mmaRpUa1oSoC&pg=PA505 ''The Demographic Characteristics of Immigrant Populations''], Council of Europe, p. 505. {{ISBN|92-871-4974-7}}. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161224003819/https://books.google.com/books?id=mmaRpUa1oSoC&pg=PA505 |date=24 December 2016 }}.</ref> Following the Second World War, migration to Britain increased from the Caribbean and from parts of West Africa, driven by labour shortages and facilitated by imperial and Commonwealth connections. While Caribbean migration—symbolised by the arrival of HMT ''Empire Windrush'' in 1948—formed the most visible early wave, migration from West Africa also expanded through students, professionals and later family settlement, particularly during and after the decolonisation of the 1950s and 1960s.<ref>{{cite web |title=Caribbean migration to Britain |url=https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/caribbean-migration/ |publisher=The National Archives |access-date=6 April 2026}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Migration from Africa to the UK |url=https://www.migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/migration-from-africa-to-the-uk/ |publisher=Migration Observatory, University of Oxford |access-date=6 April 2026}}</ref>

In the post-war period, particularly during the 1950s to 1970s, thousands of West African children in Britain were privately fostered with other families, a practice sometimes referred to as “farming”, often reflecting the circumstances of migrant parents balancing work and study commitments, and in some cases continuing into later decades.<ref>{{cite news |title=The West African children 'farmed out' to white families |url=https://www.itv.com/news/2021-03-13/the-west-african-children-farmed-out-to-white-families |publisher=ITV News |date=13 March 2021 |access-date=3 May 2026}}</ref>

After World War II, the largest influx of Black people occurred, mostly from the British West Indies. More than a quarter of a million West Indians, the overwhelming majority of them from Jamaica, settled in Britain in less than a decade. In 1951, the population of and African Caribbean-born people in Britain was estimated at 20,900.<ref name="Ballad-2017">{{Cite web|url=http://crossasia-repository.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/286/1/demography.pdf|title=Britain's visible minorities: a demographic overview|first=Roger |last=Ballad|publisher= University of Manchester – Centre for Applied Asian Studies|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180327161127/http://crossasia-repository.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/286/1/demography.pdf|archive-date=2018-03-27}}</ref> In the mid-1960s, Britain had become the centre of the largest overseas population of West Indians.<ref name="Writingblack">Procter, James (ed.), ''Writing Black Britain 1948–1998: An Interdisciplinary Anthology'', Manchester University Press, 2000.</ref> This migration event is often labelled "Windrush", a reference to the {{HMT|Empire Windrush}}, the ship that carried the first major group of Caribbean migrants to the United Kingdom in 1948.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/collection/ss-windrush |title=A Portrait of England: SS Empire Windrush |publisher=icons |access-date=22 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110810100235/http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/collection/ss-windrush |archive-date=10 August 2011}}</ref>

"Caribbean" is itself not one ethnic or political identity; for example, some of this wave of immigrants were Indo-Caribbean. The most widely used term used at that time was ''West Indian'' (or sometimes ''coloured''). ''Black British'' did not come into widespread use until the second generation were born to these post-war migrants to the UK. Although British by nationality, due to friction between them and the White majority they were often born into communities that were relatively closed, creating the roots of what would become a distinct Black British identity. By the 1950s, there was a consciousness of Black people as a separate group that had not been there during 1932–1938.<ref name="Writingblack" /> The increasing consciousness of Black British peoples was deeply informed by the influx of Black American culture imported by Black servicemen during and after World War II, music being a central example of what Jacqueline Nassy-Brown calls "diasporic resources". These close interactions between Americans and Black British were not only material but also inspired the expatriation of some Black British women to America after marrying servicemen (some of whom later repatriated to the UK).<ref>{{cite journal|last=Nassy-Brown|first=Jacqueline|title=Black Liverpool, Black America, and the Gendering of Diasporic Space|journal=Cultural Anthropology|date=August 1998|volume=13|issue=3|page=291|doi=10.1525/can.1998.13.3.291|doi-access=free}}</ref>

==== Late 20th century ==== [[File:Ridley road market dalston 1.jpg|thumb|right|Ridley Road Market in Dalston, London, which sells Afro-Caribbean music, textiles, and food including goat meat, yams, mangos and spices]] In 1961, the population of people born in Africa or the Caribbean was estimated at 191,600, just under 0.4% of the total UK population.<ref name="Ballad-2017" /> The 1962 Commonwealth Immigrants Act was passed in Britain along with a succession of other laws in 1968, 1971 and 1981, which severely restricted the entry of Black immigrants into Britain. During this period it is widely argued that emergent Black people and Asians struggled in Britain against racism and prejudice. During the 1970s—and partly in response to both the rise in racial intolerance and the rise of the Black Power movement abroad—''black'' became detached from its negative connotations, and was reclaimed as a marker of pride: Black is beautiful.<ref name="Writingblack"/> The Race Relations Act 1965 was the first legislation in the United Kingdom to address racial discrimination, prohibiting discrimination in public places and making incitement to racial hatred an offence. Although limited in scope, it marked a significant step in the legal recognition of racial equality, later expanded by the Race Relations Acts of 1968 and 1976.<ref>{{cite web |title=Race Relations Act 1965 |url=https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/private-lives/relationships/collections1/race-relations-act-1965/race-relations-act-1965/ |publisher=UK Parliament |access-date=6 April 2026}}</ref> Activists such as Paul Stephenson, who led the 1963 Bristol Bus Boycott, played a key role in challenging racial discrimination in Britain and contributing to wider pressure for change.<ref>{{cite web |title=Bristol Bus Boycott 1963 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/bristol/content/articles/2003/11/06/history_bristol_bus_boycott_feature.shtml |publisher=BBC |access-date=3 May 2026}}</ref> In 1975, David Pitt was appointed to the House of Lords. He spoke against racism and for equality in regards to all residents of Britain. In the years that followed, several Black members were elected into the British Parliament. By 1981, the Black population in the United Kingdom was estimated at 1.2% of all countries of birth, being 0.8% Black-Caribbean, 0.3% Black-African, and 0.1% Black-Other residents.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/celsius/online-training/ethnicity/et040200|title=1981: country of birth compared to ETHNIC9}}{{Dead link|date=March 2026 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }}</ref>

Since the 1980s, the majority of Black immigrants into the country have come directly from Africa, in particular, Nigeria and Ghana in West Africa, Uganda and Kenya in East Africa, Zimbabwe, and South Africa in Southern Africa.{{citation needed|date=February 2021}} Nigerians and Ghanaians have been especially quick to accustom themselves to British life, with young Nigerians and Ghanaians achieving some of the best results at GCSE and A-Level, often on a par or above the performance of white pupils.<ref name="webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk">[http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20080530183443/http://dcsf.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/0208-2006dom-en.pdf "Ethnicity and Education: The Evidence on Minority Ethnic Pupils aged 5–16"], The Department for Education and Skills, 2006.</ref>

By the 1991 census, the Black population of Great Britain was recorded at 890,727 (1.6% of the total population). This included 499,964 people in the Black Caribbean category (0.9%), 212,362 in the Black African category (0.4%) and 178,401 in the Black Other category (0.3%). London contained the largest concentration, with around half a million Black residents, and an increasing proportion were British-born.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Coleman |editor-first=David |title=Ethnicity in the 1991 Census, Volume Two: The ethnic minority populations of Great Britain |publisher=HMSO |year=1996 |isbn=978-0116916563 |pages=1–24}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Demography of Britain |url=http://crossasia-repository.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/286/1/demography.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180327161127/http://crossasia-repository.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/286/1/demography.pdf |archive-date=27 March 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> Even with this growing population and the first Black MP's elected to Parliament, many argue that there was still discrimination towards, and a socio-economic imbalance in London, among Black people. In 1992, the number of Black MPs in Parliament increased to six, and in 1997, they increased their numbers to nine. There are still many problems that Black Londoners face; the new global and high-tech information revolution is changing the urban economy and some argue that it is driving up unemployment rates among the Black population relative to the non-black population,<ref name="FilePower"/> something, it is argued, that threatens to erode the progress made thus far.<ref name="FilePower"/> By 2001, the Black British population was recorded at 1,148,738 (2.0%) in the 2001 census.<ref name=Population/> This included 565,876 people in the Black Caribbean category (1.0%), 485,277 in the Black African category (0.8%) and 97,585 in the Black Other category (0.2%). Mixed or Multiple ethnic groups were also recorded, including those identifying as White and Black Caribbean and White and Black African.<ref name="ONS2001">{{cite web |title=Ethnic group statistics, 2001 Census |url=https://www.ons.gov.uk/ |publisher=Office for National Statistics |access-date=22 November 2022}}</ref>

====Street conflicts and policing==== {{see also|List of race riots}} [[File:1981 Brixton Riots.jpg|thumb|The Brixton race riot in London, 1981]] The late 1950s through to the late 1980s saw a number of mass street conflicts involving young Afro-Caribbean men and British police officers in English cities, mostly as a result of tensions between members of local Black communities and whites.

The first major incident occurred in 1958 in Notting Hill, when roaming gangs of between 300 and 400 white youths attacked Afro-Caribbeans and their houses across the neighbourhood, leading to a number of Afro-Caribbean men being left unconscious in the streets.<ref name=OxfordCompanion>{{cite book|editor-last= Dabydeen|editor-first=David |editor2=John Gilmore |editor3=Cecily Jones |title=The Oxford Companion to Black British History |publisher=OUP |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-19-280439-6 }}</ref> The following year, Antigua-born Kelso Cochrane was murdered by being set upon and stabbed by a gang of white youths while walking home to Notting Hill.

During the 1970s, police forces across England increasingly began to use the Sus law, provoking a sense that young Black men were being discriminated against by the police<ref name=Phillips>{{cite book|last=Phillips|first= Trevor |author2=Mike Phillips |title=Windrush: The Irresistible Rise of Multi-Racial Britain |publisher=HarperCollins |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-00-653039-8}}</ref> The next newsworthy outbreak of street fighting occurred in 1976 at the Notting Hill Carnival when several hundred police officers and youths became involved in televised fights and scuffles, with stones thrown at police, baton charges and a number of minor injuries and arrests.<ref>{{cite book |last=Fryer|first= Peter |title=Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain since 1504 |location=London |publisher=Pluto Press |year=1984 |isbn=978-0-86104-749-9}}</ref>

The 1980 St Pauls riot in Bristol saw fighting between local youths and police officers, resulting in numerous minor injuries, damage to property and arrests. In London, 1981 brought further conflict, with a perceived racist police force after the death of 13 Black youngsters who were attending a birthday party that ended in the devastating New Cross Fire. The fire was viewed by many as a racist massacre<ref name=OxfordCompanion /> and a major political demonstration, known as the Black People's Day of Action was held to protest against the attacks themselves, a perceived rise in racism, and perceived hostility and indifference from the police, politicians and media.<ref name=OxfordCompanion /> Tensions were further inflamed when, in nearby Brixton, police launched operation Swamp 81, a series of mass stop-and-searches of young Black men.<ref name=OxfordCompanion /> Anger erupted when up to 500 people were involved in street fighting between the Metropolitan Police and local Afro-Caribbean community, leading to a number of cars and shops being set on fire, stones thrown at police and hundreds of arrests and minor injuries. A similar pattern occurred further north in England that year, in Toxteth, Liverpool, and Chapeltown, Leeds.<ref>{{cite news |last=Roberts|first= Eric |url=http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/features/life_and_times_in_chapeltown_1_2447014 |title=Life and times in Chapeltown |newspaper=Yorkshire Post |date=1 January 2003 |access-date=22 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140322194923/http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/features/life_and_times_in_chapeltown_1_2447014 |archive-date=22 March 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:UK and Ghana flag on a property in Moss Side, Manchester, UK 03.jpg|thumb|A Union Jack and Flag of Ghana flying together from a property in Moss Side, Manchester in 2023]] Despite the recommendations of the Scarman Report (published in November 1981),<ref name=OxfordCompanion /> relations between Black youths and police did not significantly improve and a further wave of nationwide conflicts occurred in Handsworth, Birmingham, in 1985, when the local South Asian community also became involved. Photographer and artist Pogus Caesar extensively documented the riots.<ref name=Phillips /> Following the police shooting of a Black grandmother Cherry Groce in Brixton, and the so-called accidental death of Cynthia Jarrett during a police raid on her home in Tottenham, in north London, protests held at the local police stations did not end peacefully and further street battles with the police erupted,<ref name=OxfordCompanion /> the disturbances later spreading to Manchester's Moss Side.<ref name=OxfordCompanion /> The street battles themselves (involving more stone-throwing, the discharge of one firearm, and several fires) led to two fatalities (in the Broadwater Farm riot) and Brixton.

In 1999, following the Macpherson Inquiry into the 1993 killing of Stephen Lawrence, Sir Paul Condon, commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, accepted that his organisation was institutionally racist. Some members of the Black British community were involved in the 2001 Harehills race riot and 2005 Birmingham race riots.

===== Surveillance of Black populations ===== In the 1950s the British government became concerned about radicalisation within Black immigrant communities, and began measures to surveil them at large. For example, in Sheffield, police constables were authorised to "Observe, visit, and report" on the city's Black community, with authorisation for the creation of a card index of details such as address and place of employment of the city's then 534 residents.

Documents from the National Archives show that practices continued into the 1960s, with Manchester police creating reports on immigrant communities' "intermixing, miscegenation and illegitimacy", listing numbers of children by race.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Blankson |first=Perry |date=23 October 2021 |title=The British State's Secret War on Black Power |url=https://tribunemag.co.uk/2021/10/the-british-states-secret-war-on-black-power |access-date=19 October 2023 |website=Tribunemag.co.uk}}</ref>

===Early 21st century=== [[File:Carpetright store after Tottenham riots.jpg|thumb|right|Firefighters douse a shop and flats destroyed by arson during the initial rioting in Tottenham.]] In 2011, following the shooting of a mixed-race man, Mark Duggan, by police in Tottenham, a protest was held at the local police station. The protest ended with an outbreak of fighting between local youths and police officers leading to widespread disturbances across English cities.

Some analysts claimed that Black people were disproportionally represented in the 2011 England riots.<ref>[https://www.economist.com/britain/2011/09/03/a-reckoning "Race and the riots: A reckoning"], ''The Economist'', 3 September 2011. Retrieved 7 November 2011.</ref> Research suggests that race relations in Britain deteriorated in the period following the riots and that prejudice towards ethnic minorities increased.<ref>{{cite news|last=Taylor|first=Matthew|title=British public 'are more prejudiced against minorities after riots'|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/sep/05/british-public-prejudiced-minorities-riots|newspaper=The Guardian|date=5 September 2011|location=London|access-date=14 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161116055144/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/sep/05/british-public-prejudiced-minorities-riots|archive-date=16 November 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> Groups such as the EDL and the BNP were said to be exploiting the situation.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://metro.co.uk/2011/08/11/uk-riots-vigilantes-clash-with-1000-riot-police-in-eltham-116815/|title=UK riots: Vigilantes clash with 1,000 riot police in Eltham|date=11 August 2011|work=Metro|access-date=24 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190624163226/https://metro.co.uk/2011/08/11/uk-riots-vigilantes-clash-with-1000-riot-police-in-eltham-116815/|archive-date=24 June 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> Racial tensions between Blacks and Asians in Birmingham increased after the deaths of three Asian men at the hands of a Black youth.<ref>{{cite news|last=Kerrins|first=Suzanne|title=Sir Ian Botham: bring in corporal punishment and ban reality TV to save today's youth|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/news/8786663/Sir-Ian-Botham-bring-in-corporal-punishment-and-ban-reality-TV-to-save-todays-youth.html|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date=24 September 2011|location=London|access-date=4 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170427100640/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/news/8786663/Sir-Ian-Botham-bring-in-corporal-punishment-and-ban-reality-TV-to-save-todays-youth.html|archive-date=27 April 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

In a ''Newsnight'' discussion on 12 August 2011, historian David Starkey blamed "Black gangster and rap culture", saying that it had influenced youths of all races.<ref name="BBC-2011-2">{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-14513517|title='The whites have become black' says David Starkey|work=BBC|access-date=15 August 2011|date=12 August 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110815022708/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14513517|archive-date=15 August 2011|url-status=live}}</ref> Figures showed that 46 percent of people brought before a courtroom for arrests related to the 2011 riots were black.<ref>[http://news.sky.com/home/article/16095055 "Gangs Had No 'Pivotal Role' In English Riots"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120112122926/http://news.sky.com/home/article/16095055 |date=12 January 2012 }}, Sky News, 24 October 2011. Retrieved 7 November 2011.</ref>

During the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom the first ten healthcare workers to die from the virus came from Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, prompting the head of the British Medical Association to call on the government to begin investigating if and why minorities are being disproportionally affected.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Siddique |first1=Haroon |title=UK government urged to investigate coronavirus deaths of BAME doctors |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/apr/10/uk-coronavirus-deaths-bame-doctors-bma |website=The Guardian |access-date=22 April 2020 |date=10 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200422204554/https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/apr/10/uk-coronavirus-deaths-bame-doctors-bma |archive-date=22 April 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref> Early statistics found that Black and Asian people were being affected worse than white people, with figures showing 35% of COVID-19 patients were non-white,<ref>{{cite web |first=Robert|last=Booth|title=BAME groups hit harder by Covid-19 than white people, UK study suggests |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/07/bame-groups-hit-harder-covid-19-than-white-people-uk |website=The Guardian |access-date=22 April 2020 |date=7 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200416141036/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/07/bame-groups-hit-harder-covid-19-than-white-people-uk |archive-date=16 April 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref> and similar studies in the US had shown a clear racial disparity.<ref>{{cite web |first=Tara|last= John |author2= Aleesha Khaliq |title=Is Britain's minority community disproportionately affected by the coronavirus? Lack of public data makes it difficult to answer. |url=https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/11/uk/coronavirus-uk-minorities-death-intl-gbr/index.html |publisher=CNN|date=11 April 2020|access-date=22 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200423064033/https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/11/uk/coronavirus-uk-minorities-death-intl-gbr/index.html |archive-date=23 April 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref> The government announced that they will be launching an official inquiry into the disproportionate impact of coronavirus on Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities with Communities Minister Robert Jenrick acknowledging that "There does appear to be a disproportionate impact of the virus on BAME communities in the UK."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Croxford |first1=Rianna |title=Coronavirus cases to be tracked by ethnicity |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/health-52338101 |website=BBC News |access-date=22 April 2020 |date=18 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200420141642/https://www.bbc.com/news/health-52338101 |archive-date=20 April 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref>

A social media campaign in response to the Clap for our Carers campaign, highlighted the role Black and minority health and key workers and asking the public to continue their support after the pandemic gained more than 12 million views online.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Wilson |first1=Cherry |title='You clap for me' film celebrates minority workers |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-52294950 |website=BBC News |access-date=22 April 2020 |date=15 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200416044101/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-52294950 |archive-date=16 April 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Barr |first1=Sabrina |title=#YouClapForMeNow video celebrates BAME key health workers |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/coronavirus-key-workers-black-minority-ethnic-you-clap-for-me-now-video-a9465761.html |website=The Independent |access-date=22 April 2020 |language=en |date=15 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200421171127/https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/coronavirus-key-workers-black-minority-ethnic-you-clap-for-me-now-video-a9465761.html |archive-date=21 April 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Binns |first1=Daniel |title=Britain's salute to our health service heroes enters a fourth week |url=https://www.metro.news/britains-salute-to-our-health-service-heroes-enters-a-fourth-week/1981155/ |website=Metro Newspaper UK |access-date=22 April 2020}}</ref> 72 per cent of NHS Staff that died from COVID-19 were reported as being from Black & Minority Ethnic groups, far higher than the number of staff from BAME backgrounds working in the NHS, which stood at 44%.<ref>{{cite web |title=High number of BAME coronavirus deaths 'magnifies UK's institutional racism' |first=Joe|last= Roberts|url=https://metro.co.uk/2020/04/23/high-number-bame-coronavirus-deaths-magnifies-uks-institutional-racism-12597470/ |website=Metro |access-date=23 April 2020 |language=en |date=23 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200424232421/https://metro.co.uk/2020/04/23/high-number-bame-coronavirus-deaths-magnifies-uks-institutional-racism-12597470/ |archive-date=24 April 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref> Statistics did show that black people were significantly over-represented, but that as the pandemic progressed the disparity in these figures was reducing.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Lee |first1=Georgina |title=FactCheck: are ethnic minority coronavirus patients more likely to die? |url=https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-are-ethnic-minority-coronavirus-patients-more-likely-to-die |website=Channel 4 News |date=21 April 2020 |access-date=22 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200421175011/https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-are-ethnic-minority-coronavirus-patients-more-likely-to-die |archive-date=21 April 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref> Reports discussed a number of complex contributing factors including health and income inequality, social and environmental factors were exacerbating and contributing to the spread of the disease unequally.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ro |first1=Christine |title=Coronavirus: Why some racial groups are more vulnerable |url=https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200420-coronavirus-why-some-racial-groups-are-more-vulnerable |website=www.bbc.com |date=21 April 2020 |access-date=22 April 2020 |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200421103629/https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200420-coronavirus-why-some-racial-groups-are-more-vulnerable |archive-date=21 April 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref> In April 2020, after his sister's partner died from the virus, Patrick Vernon set up a fundraising initiative called "The Majonzi Fund" which will provide families with access to small financial grants that can be used to access bereavement counselling and organise memorial events and tributes after the social lockdown has been lifted.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Gelder |first1=Sam |title=Campaigner launches fundraiser to support BAME communities affected by coronavirus |url=https://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/coronavirus-hackney-campaigner-launches-fundraiser-to-support-bame-communities-impacted-by-coronavirus-1-6619699 |website=Hampstead Highgate Express |date=23 April 2020 |access-date=23 April 2020 |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200427103135/https://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/coronavirus-hackney-campaigner-launches-fundraiser-to-support-bame-communities-impacted-by-coronavirus-1-6619699 |archive-date=27 April 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref>

After Brexit, EU nationals working in the health and social care sector were replaced by migrants from non-EU countries such as Nigeria.<ref>{{cite news |title=Net migration drops to 685,000 after hitting record levels, as even more arrived in UK last year than previously thought |url=https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/net-migration-drops-to-685-000/ |date=23 May 2024 |work=LBC}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title='Europeans are almost not coming to the UK any more' |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/6/9/europeans-are-almost-not-coming-to-the-uk-any-more |work=Al Jazeera |date=9 June 2023}}</ref> About 141,000 people came from Nigeria in 2023.<ref>{{cite news |title=Migration: How many people come to the UK and how are the salary rules changing? |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-48785695 |work=BBC News |date=23 May 2024}}</ref>

In 2024, Kemi Badenoch became the first Black leader of any major UK political party to lead the Conservative Party.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2 November 2024 |title=Kemi Badenoch wins Tory leadership election |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/nov/02/kemi-badenoch-wins-tory-leadership-election |access-date=2 November 2024 |website=The Guardian |language=en}}</ref>

==Demographics==

===Population=== {| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:90%; margin:auto;" |+ Black British population by region and country |- ! rowspan="2" |Region / Country ! colspan="2" |2021{{refn|2021/22: England and Wales,<ref name=2021regionethnic>{{cite web |url=https://www.ons.gov.uk/datasets/TS021/editions/2021/versions/1/filter-outputs/87c867f1-15bc-4f2a-a1ec-51f5a0c2d410 |title= Ethnic group - England and Wales regions |publisher=Office for National Statistics |date=29 November 2022 |access-date=30 November 2022}}</ref> Scotland,<ref name="2022census_Scot"/> and Northern Ireland<ref name=NICensus2021/>}} ! colspan="2" |2011{{refn|2011: England and Wales,<ref name="QS201EW">{{cite web |title=QS201EW: Ethnic Group |url=https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/qs201ew |publisher=Nomis: Official Census and Labour Market Statistics |access-date=30 January 2013}}</ref> Scotland,<ref name="2011census_Scot">{{cite United Kingdom census|url=https://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/documents/censusresults/release2a/scotland/KS201SC.pdf|table=Table KS201SC - Ethnic group|publisher=National Records of Scotland|year=2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180704124858/https://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/documents/censusresults/release2a/scotland/KS201SC.pdf|archive-date=4 July 2018}}</ref> and Northern Ireland<ref name="NI_2011">{{cite web |title=Ethnic Group - Full Detail: QS201NI |url=http://www.ninis2.nisra.gov.uk/Download/Census%202011_Excel/2011/QS201NI.xls|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141023054518/https://www.ninis2.nisra.gov.uk/Download/Census%202011_Excel/2011/QS201NI.xls|archive-date=23 October 2014 |access-date=22 July 2014}}</ref>}} ! colspan="2" |2001{{refn|2001: England and Wales,<ref name="KS006">{{cite web |title=KS006: Ethnic group |url=https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2001/ks006 |publisher=Nomis: Official Census and Labour Market Statistics |access-date=30 June 2003}}</ref> Scotland,<ref name="2001census_Scot">{{cite web|title=Analysis of Ethnicity in the 2001 Census - Summary Report |url=http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2004/02/18876/32939|access-date=6 September 2014}}</ref> and Northern Ireland<ref name="NI_2001">{{cite web |title=Ethnic Group: KS06 (statistical geographies) |url=http://www.ninis2.nisra.gov.uk/Download/Census%202001_Excel/2001/KS06%20%20(st).xls |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140730020427/http://www.ninis2.nisra.gov.uk/Download/Census%202001_Excel/2001/KS06%20%20(st).xls|archive-date=30 July 2014 |access-date=22 July 2014}}</ref>}} ! colspan="2" |1991{{refn|1991: Great Britain.<ref name="GB_LBS91_1991">{{cite web |title=1991 census - local base statistics |url=https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/datasets/lbs91 |publisher=Nomis: Official Census and Labour Market Statistics |access-date=14 June 2023}} ''Tables L01 to L18: Demographic and economic characteristics > L06 Ethnic group''</ref> Northern Ireland did not record ethnic group data in the 1991 census.<ref>{{cite web |title=1991 Census - Tables |url=https://www.nisra.gov.uk/publications/1991-census-tables |publisher=Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency |access-date=2 March 2006}}</ref>}} |- !Number !{{Abbr|%|percentage}} !Number !{{Abbr|%|percentage}} !Number !{{Abbr|%|percentage}} !Number !{{Abbr|%|percentage}} |- |'''{{flag|England}}''' | '''2,381,724''' | '''4.22%''' | '''1,846,614''' | '''3.48%''' | '''1,132,508''' | '''2.30%''' | '''874,882''' | '''1.86%''' |- | —Greater London | 1,188,370 | 13.50% | 1,088,640 | 13.32% | 782,849 | 10.92% | 535,216 | 8.01% |- | —West Midlands | 269,019 | 4.52% | 182,125 | 3.25% | 104,032 | 1.98% | 102,206 | 1.98% |- | —South East | 221,584 | 2.39% | 136,013 | 1.58% | 56,914 | 0.71% | 46,636 | 0.62% |- | —East of England | 184,949 | 2.92% | 117,442 | 2.01% | 48,464 | 0.90% | 42,310 | 0.84% |- | —North West | 173,918 | 2.34% | 97,869 | 1.39% | 41,637 | 0.62% | 47,478 | 0.71% |- | —East Midlands | 129,986 | 2.66% | 81,484 | 1.80% | 39,477 | 0.95% | 38,566 | 0.98% |- | —Yorkshire and the Humber | 117,643 | 2.15% | 80,345 | 1.52% | 34,262 | 0.69% | 36,634 | 0.76% |- |—South West | 69,614 | 1.22% | 49,476 | 0.94% | 20,920 | 0.42% | 21,779 | 0.47% |- |—North East | 26,635 | 1.01% | 13,220 | 0.51% | 3,953 | 0.16% | 4,057 | 0.16% |- |'''{{flag|Scotland}}''' | '''65,414'''{{efn-lg|name=Census2021/22|Scotland held its census a year later after the rest of the United Kingdom due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, data shown is for 2022 as opposed to 2021.}} | '''1.20%''' | '''36,178''' | '''0.68%''' | '''6,247''' | '''0.12%''' | '''6,353''' | '''0.13%''' |- |'''{{flag|Wales}}''' | '''27,554''' | '''0.89%''' | '''18,276''' | '''0.60%''' | '''7,069''' | '''0.24%''' | '''9,492''' | '''0.33%''' |- | '''Northern Ireland''' | '''11,032''' | '''0.58%''' | '''3,616''' | '''0.20%''' | '''1,136''' | '''0.07%''' | {{n/a}} | {{n/a}} |- !'''{{flag|United Kingdom}}''' ! '''2,485,724''' ! '''3.71%''' ! '''1,905,506''' ! '''3.02%''' ! '''1,148,738''' ! '''1.95%''' ! '''890,727'''{{efn-lg|name=fn2|Figures are for Great Britain only, i.e. excludes Northern Ireland}} ! '''1.62%''' |- |}

====2021 census==== upright=1.25|thumb|Distribution of Black British people by local authority, 2021 census thumb|280x280px|Black/Black British population pyramid in 2021 (in England and Wales) thumb|Country of birth (2021 census, England and Wales)<ref>{{cite web |title=Country of birth (extended) and ethnic group |url=https://www.ons.gov.uk/datasets/create/filter-outputs/f86827e1-d05a-4d0e-9740-5ce82a7c43f4#get-data |publisher=Office for National Statistics |access-date=28 March 2023}}</ref> {{Pie chart|thumb=right|caption=Year of arrival (2021 census, England and Wales){{efn|Combined figures for all categorised under 'Black, Black British, Black Welsh, Caribbean or African' including 'African', 'Caribbean' and 'Other Black'}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ethnic group and year of arrival in the UK |url=https://www.ons.gov.uk/datasets/create/filter-outputs/3b1e01ff-adfa-4048-ad0a-9a305cde51d6 |publisher=Office for National Statistics|access-date=28 March 2023 |website=www.ons.gov.uk}}</ref>| label1=Born in the UK|value1=48.6|color1=DodgerBlue| label2=Before 1950|value2=0.05|color2=Gray| label3=1951 to 1960|value3=1.3|color3=Green| label4=1961 to 1970|value4=3.2|color4=DarkOrange| label5=1971 to 1980|value5=1.2|color5=DarkKhaki| label6=1981 to 1990|value6=3.1| label7=1991 to 2000|value7=8.4|color7=Gold| label8=2001 to 2010|value8=17.6|color8=Chartreuse| label9=2011 to 2021|value9=16.6|color9=DarkRed}} In the 2021 census, 2,409,278 people in England and Wales were recorded within the Black ethnic groups (Black, Black British, Black Welsh, Caribbean or African), accounting for around 4.0% of the population. Separate Mixed or Multiple ethnic groups included 1.1% identifying as White and Black Caribbean and 0.8% as White and Black African.<ref name="ONS2021">{{cite web |title=Ethnic group, England and Wales: Census 2021 |url=https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/ethnicity/bulletins/ethnicgroupenglandandwales/census2021 |publisher=Office for National Statistics |access-date=22 November 2022}}</ref> In Northern Ireland, 11,032, or 0.6% of the population, identified as Black African or Black Other.<ref name=NICensus2021/> The census in Scotland was delayed for a year and took place in 2022, the equivalent figure was 65,414, representing 1.2% of the population.<ref name="2022census_Scot"/> The ten local authorities with the largest proportion of people who identified as Black were all located in London: Lewisham (26.77%), Southwark (25.13%), Lambeth (23.97%), Croydon (22.64%), Barking and Dagenham (21.39%), Hackney (21.09%), Greenwich (20.96%), Enfield (18.34%), Haringey (17.58%) and Brent (17.51%). Outside of London, Manchester had the largest proportion at 11.94%. In Scotland, the highest proportion was in Aberdeen at 4.20%; in Wales, the highest concentration was in Cardiff at 3.84%; and in Northern Ireland, the highest concentration was in Belfast at 1.34%.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Ethnic group - Office for National Statistics |url=https://www.ons.gov.uk/datasets/TS021/editions/2021/versions/1/filter-outputs/24422250-263c-4b84-8dd4-6159ee18b8e6#get-data |access-date=2023-01-03 |website=www.ons.gov.uk}}</ref>

====2011 census==== The 2011 UK census recorded 1,904,684 residents who identified as "Black/African/Caribbean/Black British", accounting for 3 per cent of the total UK population.<ref name=2011census>{{cite United Kingdom census |url=http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/census/2011-census/key-statistics-and-quick-statistics-for-local-authorities-in-the-united-kingdom---part-1/rft-ks201uk.xls |table=Table KS201UK – Ethnic group, local authorities in the United Kingdom|publisher=Office for National Statistics |year=2011|access-date=12 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131021150149/http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/census/2011-census/key-statistics-and-quick-statistics-for-local-authorities-in-the-united-kingdom---part-1/rft-ks201uk.xls|archive-date=21 October 2013|url-status=live}}</ref> This was the first UK census where the number of self-reported Black African residents exceeded that of Black Caribbeans.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.voice-online.co.uk/article/2011-census-british-africans-now-dominant-black-group|title=2011 Census: British Africans now dominant black group|first=Elizabeth|last=Pears|work=The Voice|date=12 December 2012|access-date=24 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150427004245/http://www.voice-online.co.uk/article/2011-census-british-africans-now-dominant-black-group|archive-date=27 April 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>

Within England and Wales, 989,628 individuals specified their ethnicity as "Black African", 594,825 as "Black Caribbean", and 280,437 as "Other Black".<ref name=2011CensusEngWales>{{cite United Kingdom census |url=http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/census/2011-census/key-statistics-for-local-authorities-in-england-and-wales/rft-table-ks201ew.xls|title=Table KS201EW – Ethnic group, local authorities in England and Wales|publisher=Office for National Statistics|year=2011|access-date=24 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116113321/http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/census/2011-census/key-statistics-for-local-authorities-in-england-and-wales/rft-table-ks201ew.xls|archive-date=16 January 2013|url-status=live}}</ref> In Northern Ireland, 2,345 individuals self-reported as "Black African", 372 as "Black Caribbean", and 899 as "Other Black", totaling 3,616 "Black" residents.<ref>{{cite United Kingdom census |url=http://www.ninis2.nisra.gov.uk/Download/Census%202011_Winzip/2011/DC2101NI%20(a).ZIP |table=Table DC2101NI – Ethnic group by age by sex|publisher=Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency|year=2011|access-date=24 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150701090949/http://www.ninis2.nisra.gov.uk/Download/Census%202011_Winzip/2011/DC2101NI%20(a).ZIP|archive-date=1 July 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> In Scotland, 29,638 persons identified themselves as "African", choosing either the "African, African Scottish or African British" tick box or the "Other African" tick box and write-in area. 6,540 individuals also self-reported as "Caribbean or Black", selecting either the "Caribbean, Caribbean Scottish or Caribbean British" tick box, the "Black, Black Scottish or Black British" tick box, or the "Other Caribbean or Black" tick box and write-in area.<ref name="KS201SC">{{cite United Kingdom census |url=http://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/documents/censusresults/release2a/scotland/KS201SC.pdf |table=Table KS201SC – Ethnic group: All people |publisher=National Records of Scotland |year=2011|access-date=12 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924095926/http://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/documents/censusresults/release2a/scotland/KS201SC.pdf|archive-date=24 September 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> In order to compare UK-wide results, the Office for National Statistics combined the "African" and "Caribbean or Black" entries at the top-level,<ref name="Onseg"/> and reported a total of 36,178 "Black" residents in Scotland.<ref name=2011census/> According to the ONS, individuals in Scotland with "Other African", "White" and "Asian" ethnicities as well as "Black" identities could thus all potentially be captured within this combined output.<ref name="Onseg"/> The General Register Office for Scotland, which devised the categories and administers the Scotland census, does not combine the "African" and "Caribbean or Black" entries, maintaining them as separate for individuals who do not self-identify as "Black" (see census classification).<ref name="Snoec"/>

====2001 census==== In the 2001 census, 575,876 people in the United Kingdom had reported their ethnicity as "Black Caribbean", 485,277 as "Black African", and 97,585 as "Black Other", making a total of 1,148,738 "Black or Black British" residents. This was equivalent to 2 per cent of the UK population at the time.<ref name=Population>{{cite web|url=http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=455|title=Population size: 7.9% from a minority ethnic group|date=13 February 2003|publisher=Office for National Statistics|access-date=12 March 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040118055948/http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=455|archive-date=18 January 2004}}</ref>

=== Population distribution === Most Black Britons can be found in the large cities and metropolitan areas of the country. The 2011 census found that 1.85 million of a total Black population of 1.9 million lived in England, with 1.09 million of those in London, where they made up 13.3 per cent of the population, compared to 3.5 per cent of England's population and 3 per cent of the UK's population. The ten local authorities with the highest proportion of their populations describing themselves as Black in the census were all in London: Lewisham (27.2 per cent), Southwark (26.9 per cent), Lambeth (25.9 per cent), Hackney (23.1 per cent), Croydon (20.2 per cent), Barking and Dagenham (20.0 per cent), Newham (19.6 per cent), Greenwich (19.1 per cent), Haringey (18.8 per cent) and Brent (18.8 per cent).<ref name=2011census/> More specifically, for Black Africans the highest local authority was Southwark (16.4 per cent) followed by Barking and Dagenham (15.4 per cent) and Greenwich (13.8 per cent), whereas for Black Caribbeans the highest was Lewisham (11.2 per cent) followed by Lambeth (9.5 per cent) and Croydon (8.6 per cent).<ref name=2011census/>

Outside of London, the next largest populations are in Birmingham (125,760, 11%) / Coventry (30,723, 9%) / Sandwell (29,779, 8.7%) / Wolverhampton (24,636, 9.3%), Manchester (65,893, 12%), Nottingham (32,215, 10%), Leicester (28,766, 8%), Bristol (27,890, 6%), Leeds (25,893, 5.6%), Sheffield (25,512, 4.6%) and Luton (22,735, 10%).<ref name=2021census/>

===Religion===

{| class="wikitable" ! rowspan="3" |Religion ! colspan="4" |England and Wales |- ! colspan="2" |2011<ref name=religion>{{cite United Kingdom census |url=http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/about-ons/business-transparency/freedom-of-information/what-can-i-request/previous-foi-requests/population/ethnicity-and-religion-by-age/dc2201ew---ethnic-group-and-religion.xls |table=Table DC2201EW - Ethnic group and religion |year=2011 |publisher=Office for National Statistics |access-date=14 January 2016}} Size: 21 Kb.</ref> ! colspan="2" |2021<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ethnic group by religion - Office for National Statistics |url=https://www.ons.gov.uk/datasets/RM031/editions/2021/versions/1/filter-outputs/217f1401-dab4-43d3-aa77-6c9382220c0c#summary |access-date=2023-04-02 |website=www.ons.gov.uk}}</ref> |- !Number !% !Number !% |- | 20px Christianity |1,288,371 |69.1% | 1,613,753 | 67.0% |- | 20px Islam |272,015 |14.6% | 416,327 | 17.3% |- | No religion |137,467 |7.4% | 205,375 | 8.5% |- | 20px Buddhism |2,809 |0.2% | 2,336 | 0.1% |- | 20px Hinduism |5,474 |0.3% | 1,919 | 0.08% |- | 20px Judaism |1,611 |0.09% | 1,632 | 0.07% |- | 20px Sikhism |1,431 |0.08% | 306 | 0.01% |- | Other religions |7,099 |0.4% | 13,413 | 0.6% |- | Not Stated |148,613 |8.0% | 154,219 | 6.4% |- !Total !1,864,890 !100% !2,409,280 !100% |}

===Mixed marriages=== An academic journal article published in 2005, citing sources from 1997 and 2001, estimated that nearly half of British-born African-Caribbean men, a third of British-born African-Caribbean women, and a fifth of African men, have white partners.<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Bland | first1 = L. | doi = 10.1111/j.0953-5233.2005.00371.x | title = White Women and Men of Colour: Miscegenation Fears in Britain after the Great War | journal = Gender & History | volume = 17 | page = 29 | year = 2005 | s2cid = 143187996 }}</ref> In 2014, ''The Economist'' reported that, according to the Labour Force Survey, 48 per cent of Black Caribbean men and 34 per cent of Black Caribbean women in couples have partners from a different ethnic group. Moreover, mixed-race children under the age of ten with Black Caribbean and white parents outnumber Black Caribbean children by two-to-one.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/news/britain/21595908-rapid-rise-mixed-race-britain-changing-neighbourhoodsand-perplexing|title=Ethnic minorities: Into the melting pot|newspaper=The Economist|date=8 February 2014|access-date=24 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150221062149/http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21595908-rapid-rise-mixed-race-britain-changing-neighbourhoodsand-perplexing|archive-date=21 February 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Culture and community== [[File:Notting Hill Carnival 2004 004.jpg|right|thumb|Notting Hill Carnival in London]]

===Dialect=== {{Main|Multicultural London English}}

Multicultural London English is a variety of the English language spoken by a large number of the Black British population of Afro-Caribbean ancestry.<ref>Sebba, Mark (2007). "Caribbean Creoles and Black English", chap. 16 of David Britain (ed.), ''Language in the British Isles'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|0-521-79488-9}}.</ref> British Black dialect has been influenced by Jamaican Patois owing to the large number of immigrants from Jamaica, but it is also spoken or imitated by those of different ancestry.

British Black speech is also heavily influenced by social class and regional dialect (Cockney, Mancunian, Brummie, Scouse, etc.).

African-born immigrants speak African languages and French as well as English.

=== Music === {{See also|Caribbean music in the United Kingdom|British Black music|Category:Black British musicians|Category:Black British singers}} Black British music is a long-established and influential part of British music. Its presence in the United Kingdom stretches back to the 18th century, encompassing concert performers such as George Bridgetower and street musicians the likes of Billy Waters. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875–1912) achieved great success as a composer at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The Jazz Age also had taken an effect on the generation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Toynbee |first=Jason |date=2013 |title=Race, History, and Black British Jazz |journal=Black Music Research Journal |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=1–25 |doi=10.5406/blacmusiresej.33.1.0001 |jstor=10.5406/blacmusiresej.33.1.0001 |s2cid=191433299 |issn=0276-3605}}</ref>

In the late 1970s and 1980s, 2 Tone became popular with the British youth; especially in the West Midlands. A blend of punk, ska and pop made it a favourite among both white and Black audiences. Famous bands in the genre include the Selecter, the Specials, the Beat and the Bodysnatchers. [[File:Billy Waters, a one legged busker, in a crowded London stree Wellcome V0007299.jpg|thumb|Billy Waters busking in London during the early 19th century.]] Jungle, dubstep, drum and bass, UK garage and grime music originated in London.

The MOBO Awards recognise performers of "Music of Black Origin".

Black Lives in Music (BLiM) was formed after its founders noticed institutionalised racism in the British entertainment industry. BLiM works for equal opportunities for Black, Asian and ethnically diverse people in the jazz and classical music industry, opportunities that include the chance to learn a musical instrument, attend a music school, pursue a career in music and reach senior levels within the sector without facing discrimination.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Krol |first=Charlotte |date=2021-03-15 |title=Black Lives In Music initiative launches to fight racism |url=https://www.nme.com/news/music/black-lives-in-music-initiative-launches-to-fight-racism-2900908 |access-date=2023-02-09 |website=NME |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Black Lives In Music survey highlights systemic and institutionalised industry racism |url=https://www.musicweek.com/talent/read/black-lives-in-music-survey-highlights-systemic-and-institutionalised-industry-racism/084338 |access-date=2023-02-09 |website=www.musicweek.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Black Lives in Music Celebrate Their Second Year Anniversary |url=https://musiciansunion.org.uk/news/black-lives-in-music-celebrate-their-second-year-anniversary |access-date=2023-02-09 |website=musiciansunion.org.uk |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Bugel |first=Safi |date=2022-10-26 |title=UK music industry to implement anti-racism code of conduct from 2023 |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/oct/26/uk-music-industry-to-implement-anti-racism-code-of-conduct-from-2023 |access-date=2023-02-09 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

=== Media === The Black community in Britain has a number of significant publications. The leading key publication is ''The Voice'' newspaper, founded by Val McCalla in 1982, and Britain's only national Black weekly newspaper. ''The Voice'' primarily targets the Caribbean diaspora and has been printed for more than 35 years.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.voice-online.co.uk/about-us|title=About Us {{!}} The Voice Online|website=voice-online.co.uk|language=en|access-date=26 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180325143048/http://www.voice-online.co.uk/about-us|archive-date=25 March 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> Secondly, the ''Black History Month'' magazine is a central point of focus which leads the nationwide celebration of Black History, Arts and Culture throughout the UK.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/|title=Black History Month 2016 – Official Black History Month|website=Black History Month 2018|language=en-US|access-date=26 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180323230926/http://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/|archive-date=23 March 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> ''Pride Magazine'', published since 1991, is the largest monthly magazine that targets Black British, mixed-race, African and African-Caribbean women in the United Kingdom. In 2007, ''The Guardian'' reported that the magazine had dominated the Black women's magazine market for more than 15 years.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2007/jan/08/mondaymediasection4|title=A fall in store for Pride?|last=Izundu|first=Uchenna|date=8 January 2007|work=The Guardian|access-date=12 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180113035450/https://www.theguardian.com/media/2007/jan/08/mondaymediasection4|archive-date=13 January 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> ''Keep The Faith'' magazine is a multi-award-winning Black and minority ethnic community magazine produced quarterly since 2005.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.keepthefaith.co.uk/|title=Keep The Faith ®|website=Keep The Faith ®|language=en-GB|access-date=26 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180404181704/http://www.keepthefaith.co.uk/|archive-date=4 April 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> ''Keep The Faith''{{'}}s editorial contributors are some of the most powerful and influential movers and shakers, and successful entrepreneurs within BME communities.

Many major Black British publications are handled through Diverse Media Group,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://diversemediagroup.co.uk|title=diversemediagroup.co.uk|website=diversemediagroup.co.uk|language=en-US|access-date=26 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180830070407/http://diversemediagroup.co.uk/|archive-date=30 August 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> which specialises in helping organisations reach Britain's Black and minority ethnic community through the main media they consume. The senior leadership team is a composite of many CEO and owners from the publications listed above.

==== Publishing ==== Among Black-led publishing companies established in the UK are New Beacon Books (co-founded 1966 by John La Rose), Allison and Busby (co-founded 1967 by Margaret Busby), Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications (co-founded 1969 by Jessica Huntley and Eric Huntley), Hansib (founded 1970), Karnak House (founded 1975 by Amon Saba Saakana), Black Ink Collective (founded in 1978), Black Womantalk (founded in 1983), Karnak House (founded by Buzz Johnson), Tamarind Books (founded 1987 by Verna Wilkins), and others.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.andotherstories.org/2017/06/09/raising-the-visibility-of-black-british/|title=Raising the Visibility of Black British Publishers|website=And Other Stories|first=Nichola|last= Smalley|date=9 June 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.artsandcultureexeter.co.uk/news/black-women-in-the-uk-publishing-industry|title=Black Women in the UK Publishing Industry|first=Kate|last=Wallis|website=University of Exeter|date=15 October 2020|access-date=11 February 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://womenshistorynetwork.org/quiet-resistance-black-women-in-british-publishing-in-the-1970s-and-1980s-by-preeti-dhillon/|title=Quiet resistance: Black women in British publishing in the 1970s and 1980s, by Preeti Dhillon|first=Lyndsey|last=Jenkins|website=Women's History Network|date=19 October 2021|access-date=11 February 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://writersmosaic.org.uk/content/mainstreaming-and-greater-choice-of-books-margaret-busby/|title=Mainstreaming and greater choice of books |first=Margaret|last=Busby|website=Writers Mosaic|date=24 December 2021 |access-date=11 February 2023}}</ref> The International Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World Books (1982–1995) was an initiative launched by New Beacon Books, Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications and the ''Race Today'' Collective.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bocaslitfest.com/celebrating-black-britain/black-british-publishing/|title=A short history of Black British Publishing {{!}} The Roots of Independent Black British Publishing|first=Roxy |last=Harris|author2=Sarah White|website=Bocas Lit Fest|date=7 March 2021 |access-date=12 February 2023}}</ref>

== Social issues == === Racism === {{See also|Racism in the United Kingdom}} Black people in the United Kingdom have historically experienced racism and discrimination. Research in the first decade of the 21st century has suggested that while racist attitudes in general have declined, Black British people still experience racism, discrimination and violence, as well as inequalities in health, education, housing, employment, politics, the criminal justice system, and healthcare.<ref name="MAR 2006" /><ref name="Ford2008" />

Black immigrants who arrived in Britain from the Caribbean in the 1950s faced significant amounts of racism.<ref name="Cloake" /> Historian Winston James suggests that the experience of racism in Britain was a major factor in the development of a shared Caribbean identity amongst Black immigrants from a range of different island and class backgrounds.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Migration, Racism and Identity: The Caribbean Experience in Britain|first=Winston|last=James|journal=New Left Review|volume=I/193|year=1992|pages=15–55|article-number=1674 |doi=10.64590/tjd |url=http://newleftreview.org/static/assets/archive/pdf/NLR18902.pdf|access-date=27 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150614042815/http://newleftreview.org/static/assets/archive/pdf/NLR18902.pdf|archive-date=14 June 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>

Many Caribbean immigrants first experienced discrimination when trying to find private accommodation, as there was no anti-discrimination legislation to prevent landlords from refusing to accept Black tenants, and they were generally ineligible for council housing until they had been resident in the UK for five years. A survey undertaken in Birmingham in 1956 found that only 1.5% of white people surveyed would let a room to a Black tenant. As a result, many Black immigrants were forced to live in poor quality housing in urban slum areas, where there were often problems with crime, violence and prostitution. Notorious slum landlord Peter Rachman owned around 100 properties in the Notting Hill area of London, where Black people lived. Black tenants typically paid twice the rent of white tenants, and lived in conditions of extreme overcrowding.<ref name="Cloake">{{cite book|title=Multicultural Britain|first1=J. A.|last1=Cloake|first2=M. R.|last2=Tudor|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|year=2001|pages=38–39|isbn=978-0-19-913424-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Urban Housing Segregation of Minorities in Western Europe and the United States|first1=Deborah|last1=Phillips|first2=Valerie|last2=Karn|chapter=Racial Segregation in Britain: Patterns, Processes, and Policy Approaches|editor-first=Elizabeth D.|editor-last=Huttman|publisher=Duke University Press|location=Durham, NC|isbn=978-0-8223-1060-0|year=1991|pages=63–91}}</ref>

In the 1970s and 1980s, Black people in Britain were the victims of racist violence perpetrated by far-right groups such as the National Front.<ref>{{cite book|title=Racialised Barriers: The Black Experience in the United States and England in the 1980s|first=Stephen|last=Small|year=1994|publisher=Routledge|location=Abingdon|page=76|isbn=978-0-415-07726-2}}</ref> During this period, it was also common for Black footballers to be subjected to racist chanting from crowd members.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sirc.org/publik/fvracism.html|title=Racism and football fans|publisher=Social Issues Research Centre|access-date=28 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150509231040/http://www.sirc.org/publik/fvracism.html|archive-date=9 May 2015|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title='Kicking racism out of football': An assessment of racial harassment in and around football grounds|first=Brian|last=Holland|journal=Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies|year=1995|volume=21|issue=4|pages=567–586|doi=10.1080/1369183X.1995.9976513}}</ref> Opposition to interracial marriage remained significant throughout the 1980s, but negative attitudes towards Black and Asian people generally declined by the mid-1990s.<ref name="Ford2008">{{cite journal|first=Robert|last=Ford|title=Is racial prejudice declining in Britain?|journal=The British Journal of Sociology|year=2008|volume=59|issue=4|pages=609–636|doi=10.1111/j.1468-4446.2008.00212.x|pmid=19035915|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://blog.policy.manchester.ac.uk/featured/2014/08/the-decline-of-racial-prejudice-in-britain/|title=The decline of racial prejudice in Britain|first=Rob|last=Ford|publisher=University of Manchester|date=21 August 2014|access-date=28 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150504223828/http://blog.policy.manchester.ac.uk/featured/2014/08/the-decline-of-racial-prejudice-in-britain/|archive-date=4 May 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 2006, the University of Maryland's Minorities at Risk (MAR) project said that despite the United Kingdom's attempts to address racism, its anti-racism laws and policies remained "ineffective". It found that African-Caribbean people in the United Kingdom continued to face "persistent economic and political discrimination", including in housing, employment, education, insurance, religious worship, and the criminal justice system.<ref name="MAR 2006">{{cite web|url=http://www.cidcm.umd.edu/mar/assessment.asp?groupId=20005|title=Assessment for Afro-Caribbeans in the United Kingdom|publisher=Minorities at Risk Project, University of Maryland|date=31 December 2006|access-date=28 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141122000240/http://www.cidcm.umd.edu/mar/assessment.asp?groupId=20005|archive-date=22 November 2014}}</ref> In 2008, research by academic Robert Ford found that attitudes towards Black people had generally improved but that "Racism and racial discrimination remain a part of everyday life for Britain's ethnic minorities". He said this had continuing negative impacts in housing, employment, and health.<ref name="Ford2008"/>

In 2018, Martin Hewitt of the Metropolitan Police suggested that knife crime in Britain, and especially London, does not get "the sense of collective outrage that it ought to do" because it disproportionately affects Black communities.<ref>Slawson, Nicola (21 March 2018), [https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/21/knife-deaths-among-black-people-should-cause-more-outrage "Knife deaths among black people 'should cause more outrage{{'"}}], ''The Guardian''. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180322030126/https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/21/knife-deaths-among-black-people-should-cause-more-outrage |date=22 March 2018}}.</ref><ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-43491155 "Police: Are black knife deaths being ignored?"], ''BBC'', 21 March 2018. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-43491155].</ref> A 2023 University of Cambridge survey, which featured the largest sample of Black people in Britain, found that 88% had reported racial discrimination at work, 79% believed the police unfairly targeted Black people with stop and search powers, and 80% definitely or somewhat agreed that discrimination in education was the biggest barrier to academic attainment for young Black students.<ref>{{cite web |title=Black British Voices: the findings |url=https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/black-british-voices-report |website=University of Cambridge |language=en |date=28 September 2023}}</ref>

=== Education === A government report from 2006 found that pupils of Nigerian and Ghanaian origin achieved some of the highest GCSE and A-level results among ethnic groups in England.<ref name="webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk"/> According to Department for Education statistics for the 2021–22 academic year, Black British pupils attained below the national average for academic performance at both A-Level and GCSE level. 12.3% of Black British pupils achieved at least 3 As at A Level<ref name="DfE_ALevels">{{cite web |title=Students getting 3 A grades or better at A level |url=https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/education-skills-and-training/a-levels-apprenticeships-further-education/students-aged-16-to-18-achieving-3-a-grades-or-better-at-a-level/latest#by-ethnicity |website=gov.uk |date=23 November 2023 |publisher=Department for Education |access-date=26 November 2023}}</ref> and an average score of 48.6 was achieved in Attainment 8 scoring at GCSE level.<ref name="DfE_GCSEs">{{cite web |title=GCSE results (Attainment 8) |url=https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/education-skills-and-training/11-to-16-years-old/gcse-results-attainment-8-for-children-aged-14-to-16-key-stage-4/latest#by-ethnicity |website=gov.uk |date=17 October 2023 |publisher=Department for Education |access-date=4 December 2023}}</ref> A disparity exists in academic performance between Black African pupils and Black Caribbean pupils at GCSE level. Black African pupils achieved better results than both white pupils and the national average, with an average score of 50.9 and 54.5% of pupils achieving grade 5 or above in both English and Maths GCSE. Meanwhile, Black Caribbean pupils attained an average score of 41.7 with only 34.6% of pupils attaining grade 5 or above in both English and Maths GCSE.<ref name="DfE_EngMaths">{{cite web |title=GCSE English and maths results |url=https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/education-skills-and-training/11-to-16-years-old/a-to-c-in-english-and-maths-gcse-attainment-for-children-aged-14-to-16-key-stage-4/latest#by-ethnicity |website=gov.uk |date=17 October 2023 |publisher=Department for Education |access-date=4 December 2023}}</ref> Black supplementary schools, also known as Saturday schools, emerged in Britain from the late 1960s and 1970s as community-led initiatives aimed at addressing educational inequalities and supporting Black children within the mainstream education system. Often organised by parents, activists and community groups, these schools provided additional instruction in core subjects as well as teaching Black history and cultural identity.<ref>{{cite web |title=Black supplementary schools |url=https://www.runnymedetrust.org/uploads/publications/pdfs/BlackSupplementarySchoolsReport-2008.pdf |publisher=Runnymede Trust |access-date=6 April 2026}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Supplementary schools |url=https://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item126660.html |publisher=British Library |access-date=6 April 2026}}</ref>

A 2019 report by Universities UK found that student's race and ethnicity significantly affect their degree outcomes. According to this report from 2017–18, there was a 13% gap between the likelihood of white students and Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) students graduating with a first or 2:1 degree classification at British universities.<ref>{{cite web |title=The degree awarding gap - RGS |url=https://www.rgs.org/research/higher-education-resources/the-degree-awarding-gap |website=www.rgs.org |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/sites/default/files/field/downloads/2021-07/bame-student-attainment.pdf |title=Black, Asian and Ethnic Student Attainment at UK Universities: Close the Gap (May 2019)}}</ref>

{{col-begin|width=auto}} {{col-break}} {| class="wikitable sortable" |- ! colspan="3" | Students in England getting at least 3 A grades at A level (2021/22)<ref name="DfE_ALevels"/> |- ! Ethnic Group !! % |- |Chinese |36.8 |- |Indian |28.4 |- |All ethnic groups (average) |23.1 |- |Mixed |21.1 |- |White |20.7 |- |Bangladeshi |16.5 |- |Pakistani |15.8 |- |'''Black''' |'''12.3''' |- |Gypsy/Roma |2.2 |} {{col-break}} {| class="wikitable sortable" |- ! colspan="3" | GCSE Attainment 8 score (out of 90.0) (2021/22)<ref name="DfE_GCSEs"/> |- ! Ethnic group!!Average |- |Chinese |66.1 |- |Indian |61.3 |- |Bangladeshi |54.4 |- |Mixed |49.4 |- |Pakistani |49.1 |- |All ethnic groups (average) |48.8 |- |'''Black''' |'''48.6''' |- |White |47.8 |- |Gypsy/Roma |21.0 |- |} {{col-break}} {| class="wikitable sortable" |- ! colspan="3" |Pupils in England getting a grade 5 or above in English and maths GCSE (2021/22)<ref name="DfE_EngMaths"/> |- ! Ethnic group!!% |- |Chinese |80.0 |- |Indian |73.0 |- |Bangladeshi |62.1 |- |Pakistani |51.2 |- |Mixed |49.9 |- |All ethnic groups (average) |49.8 |- |'''Black''' |'''49.4''' |- |White |47.9 |- |Gypsy/Roma |8.5 |- |} {{col-end}}

=== Employment === According to the 2005 TUC report ''Black workers, jobs and poverty'', Black and minority ethnic people (BMEs) were more likely to be unemployed than the White population. The rate of unemployment among the White population was 5%, but among ethnic minority groups it was Bangladeshi 17%, Pakistani 15%, Mixed 15%, Black Britons 13%, Other ethnic 12% and Indian 7%. Of the different ethnic groups studied, Asians had the highest poverty rate of 45% (after housing costs), Black Britons 38% and Chinese/other 32% (compared to a poverty rate of 20% for the White population). However, the report did concede that things were slowly improving.<ref>{{cite web|title=Black workers, jobs and poverty |url=http://www.tuc.org.uk/welfare/tuc-10172-f0.pdf |publisher=TUC |access-date=25 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060926132749/http://www.tuc.org.uk/welfare/tuc-10172-f0.pdf |archive-date=26 September 2006 }}</ref>

According to 2012 data compiled by the Office for National Statistics, 50% of young Black men from 16-24 demographics were unemployed between Q4 2011 and Q1 2012.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ball |first1=James |last2=Milmo |first2=Dan |last3=Ferguson |first3=Ben |date=9 March 2012 |title=Half of UK's young black males are unemployed |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/mar/09/half-uk-young-black-men-unemployed |website=The Guardian}}</ref>

A 2014 study by the Black Training and Enterprise Group (BTEG), funded by Trust for London, explored the views of young Black males in London on why their demographic have a higher unemployment rate than any other group of young people, finding that many young Black men in London believe that racism and negative stereotyping are the main reasons for their high unemployment rate.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.trustforlondon.org.uk/research/publication/action-plan-to-increase-employment-rates-for-young-black-men-in-london/|title=Action Plan to Increase Employment Rates for Young Black Men in London|work=trustforlondon.org.uk|access-date=2 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518104211/http://www.trustforlondon.org.uk/research/publication/action-plan-to-increase-employment-rates-for-young-black-men-in-london/|archive-date=18 May 2015}}</ref>

In 2021, 67% of Black 16 to 64-year-olds were employed, compared to 76% of White British and 69% of British Asians. The employment rate for Black 16 to 24-year-olds was 31%, compared to 56% of White British and 37% of British Asians.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ethnicity facts and figures: Employment |url=https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/work-pay-and-benefits/employment/employment/latest#by-ethnicity |website=gov.uk |date=3 November 2022 |publisher=Office for National Statistics |access-date=26 May 2023}}</ref> The median hourly pay for Black Britons in 2021 was amongst the lowest out of all ethnicity groups at £12.55, ahead of only British Pakistanis and Bangladeshis.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ethnicity fact and figures: Average hourly pay |url=https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/work-pay-and-benefits/pay-and-income/average-hourly-pay/latest#by-ethnicity-over-time |website=gov.uk |date=27 July 2022 |publisher=Office for National Statistics}}</ref> In 2023, the Office for National Statistics published more granular analysis and found that UK-born Black employees (£15.18) earned more than UK-born white employees (£14.26) in 2022, while non-UK born Black employees earned less (£12.95). Overall, Black employees had a median hourly pay of £13.53 in 2022.<ref name="PayGap22">{{cite web |title=Ethnicity pay gaps, UK: 2012 to 2022 |url=https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/articles/ethnicitypaygapsingreatbritain/2012to2022 |publisher=Office for National Statistics |access-date=29 November 2023}}</ref> According to Department for Work and Pensions data for between 2018 and 2021, 24% of Black families were in receipt of income-related benefits, compared to 16% of White British families and 8% of British Chinese and Indian families. Black families were also the most likely ethnicity to be in receipt of housing benefit, council tax reduction, and reside in social housing.<ref name="StateSupport">{{cite web |title=Ethnicity facts and figures: State Support |url=https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/work-pay-and-benefits/benefits/state-support/latest#by-ethnicity-and-type-of-support |website=service.gov.uk |date=12 July 2022 |publisher=Department for Work and Pensions}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Ethnicity facts and figures: Renting social housing |url=https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/housing/social-housing/renting-from-a-local-authority-or-housing-association-social-housing/latest#by-ethnicity |website=service.gov.uk |date=4 February 2020 |publisher=Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government}}</ref> However, White British families (54%) were the most likely out of all ethnic groups to receive state support with 27% of White British families in receipt of the state pension.<ref name="StateSupport"/>

=== Crime === Both racist crime and gang-related crime continues to affect Black communities, so much so that the Metropolitan Police launched Operation Trident to tackle so-called 'black-on-black' crime. Numerous deaths in police custody of Black men has generated a general distrust of police among some Black communities in the UK.<ref>Gilligan, Andrew. It is perhaps notable that no police force has seen fit to set up a task force or inquiry to tackle this apparent fatality in police custody disparity. [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8687879/Tottenham-and-Broadwater-Farm-A-tale-of-two-riots.html "Tottenham and Broadwater Farm: A Tale of Two Riots"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171031140739/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8687879/Tottenham-and-Broadwater-Farm-A-tale-of-two-riots.html |date=31 October 20his 17 }}. ''The Daily Telegraph''. 7 August 2011. Retrieved 28 October 2011.</ref><ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/law_in_action/7948604.stm "Trusting the Young"], BBC News, 17 March 2009. Retrieved 28 October 2011.</ref> According to the Metropolitan Police Authority in 2002–03 of the 17 deaths in police custody, 10 were Black or Asian – Black convicts have a disproportionately higher rate of incarceration than convicts of other ethnicities. The government reports<ref name="Statistics-2004">[http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs05/s95race04.pdf Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System – 2004 A Home Office publication under section 95 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991]. Retrieved 17 March 2011. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070413203821/http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs05/s95race04.pdf |date=13 April 2007 }}</ref> The overall number of racist incidents recorded by the police rose by 7 per cent from 49,078 in 2002/03 to 52,694 in 2003/04.

Media representation of young Black British people has focused particularly on "gangs" with Black members and violent crimes involving Black victims and perpetrators.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/jomec/resources/media_representations_of_black_young_men_and_boys.pdf|title=Media representations of black young men and boys: Report of the Reach media monitoring project|first1=Stephen|last1=Cushion|first2=Kerry|last2=Moore|first3=John|last3=Jewell|publisher=Department for Communities and Local Government|year=2011|access-date=28 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151013163405/http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/jomec/resources/media_representations_of_black_young_men_and_boys.pdf|archive-date=13 October 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> According to a Home Office report,<ref name="Statistics-2004" /> 10 per cent of all murder victims between 2000 and 2004 were Black. Of these, 56 per cent were murdered by other Black people (with 44 per cent of Black people murdered by whites and Asians – making Black people disproportionately higher victims of killing by people from other ethnicities). In addition, a Freedom of Information request made by ''The Daily Telegraph'' shows internal police data that provides a breakdown of the ethnicity of the 18,091 men and boys who police took action against for a range of offences in London in October 2009. Among those proceeded against for street crimes, 54 per cent were Black; for robbery, 59 per cent; and for gun crimes, 67 per cent.<ref>Alderson, Andrew (26 June 2010), [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7856787/Violent-inner-city-crime-the-figures-and-a-question-of-race.html "Violent Inner-City Crime, the Figures, and a Question of Race"], ''The Telegraph''. Retrieved 17 March 2011. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180221154616/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7856787/Violent-inner-city-crime-the-figures-and-a-question-of-race.html |date=21 February 2018 }}.</ref> According to the Office for National Statistics, 18.4% of homicide suspects in England and Wales from March 2019 to March 2021 were Black.<ref>{{Cite web |first= |date=February 2022 |title=Appendix tables: homicide in England and Wales |url=https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/appendixtableshomicideinenglandandwales |website=Office of National Statistics}}</ref>

Black people, who according to government statistics<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20090627064105/http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=273 Population Size 7.9% from a minority ethnic group], National Statistics Bureau.</ref> make up 2 per cent of the population, are the principal suspects in 11.7 per cent of murders, i.e. in 252 out of 2163 murders committed 2001/2, 2002/3, and 2003/4.<ref>Table 3.6 of Home Office publication ''Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System 2004''.</ref> Judging on the basis of prison population, a substantial minority (about 35%) of Black criminals in the United Kingdom are not British citizens but foreign nationals.<ref>Chapter 9, tables 9.1 – 9.4, of Home Office publication ''Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System 2004''.</ref> In November 2009, the Home Office published a study that showed that, once other variables had been accounted for, ethnicity was not a significant predictor of offending, anti-social behaviour or drug abuse among young people.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs09/horr19c.pdf|archive-url=http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20100416130201/http%3A//rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs09/horr19c.pdf|archive-date=16 April 2010|title=Longitudinal analysis of the Offending, Crime and Justice Survey 2003–06|first1=Jon|last1=Hales|author2=Camilla Nevill|author3=Steve Pudney|author4=Sarah Tipping|journal=Research Report|volume=19|publisher=Home Office|location=London|date=November 2009|access-date=7 October 2010|page=23}}</ref>

After several high-profile investigations such as that of the murder of Stephen Lawrence, the police have been accused of racism, from both within and outside the service. Cressida Dick, head of the Metropolitan Police's anti-racism unit in 2003, remarked that it was "difficult to imagine a situation where we will say we are no longer institutionally racist".<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/apr/22/lawrence.ukcrime "'Metropolitan police still institutionally racist'"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190604212618/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/apr/22/lawrence.ukcrime |date=4 June 2019 }}, ''The Guardian'', 22 April 2003. Retrieved 17 March 2011.</ref> Black people were seven times more likely to be stopped and searched by police compared to white people, according to the Home Office. A separate study said Black people were more than nine times more likely to be searched.<ref>Akwagyiram, Alexis (17 January 2012). [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16552489 "Stop and Search Use and Alternative Police Tactics"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181122175234/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16552489 |date=22 November 2018 }}, BBC News. Retrieved 29 November 2012.</ref>

In 2010, Black Britons accounted for around 2.2% of the general UK population, but made up 15% of the British prison population, which experts say is "a result of decades of racial prejudice in the criminal justice system and an overly punitive approach to penal affairs."<ref>{{cite news|title=More black people jailed in England and Wales proportionally than in US|url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/oct/11/black-prison-population-increase-england|work=The Guardian|location=London|first=Randeep|last=Ramesh|date=11 October 2010|access-date=27 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208071531/http://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/oct/11/black-prison-population-increase-england|archive-date=8 December 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> This proportion decreased to 12.4% by the end of 2022 even though Black Britons now made up around 3–4% of the British population.<ref>{{cite web |title=Table 1.4: Prison population by ethnic group and sex |url=https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1131446/Population_31Dec2022.ods |website=gov.uk |publisher=Ministry of Justice |access-date=18 April 2023}}</ref> In the prison environment, Black prisoners are the most likely to be involved in violent incidents. In 2020, Black prisoners were most likely out of all ethnic groups to be assailants (319 incidents for every 1,000 prisoners) or involved in violent incidents with no clear victim or assailant (185 incidents for every 1,000 prisoners).<ref>{{cite web |title=Violence involving prisoners |url=https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/crime-justice-and-the-law/prison-and-custody-incidents/violence-involving-prisoners/latest#by-ethnicity-and-role-in-the-incident |website=gov.uk |date=14 June 2021 |publisher=Ministry of Justice |access-date=14 June 2021}}</ref> In the same year, 32% of children in prison were Black in contrast to 47% of prisoners aged under 18 being White.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ethnicity and the Criminal Justice System, 2020 |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/ethnicity-and-the-criminal-justice-system-statistics-2020/ethnicity-and-the-criminal-justice-system-2020#offender-management |publisher=Ministry of Justice |access-date=2 December 2021}}</ref> The Lammy Review, led by David Lammy MP, provided potential reasons on the disproportionate number of lack children in prisons including austerity in public services, lack of diversity in the judiciary, and the school system inadequately serving the Black community by failing to identify learning difficulties.<ref>{{cite news |title='There is no silver bullet': how young BME people suffer under criminal justice system |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/01/we-need-more-black-judges-how-disproportionality-hits-young-bme-people |work=The Guardian |date=1 February 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Lammy |first1=David |title=The Lammy Review: An independent review into the treatment of, and outcomes for, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic individuals in the Criminal Justice System |url=https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/643001/lammy-review-final-report.pdf |website=gov.uk |publisher=Lammy Review}}</ref>

=== Health === For some key health measures, including life expectancy, general mortality and many of the leading causes of death in the UK, Black Britons have better outcomes than their white British counterparts. As an example, compared to the white population in England, cancer rates are 4% lower in Black people, who are also less likely to die of the disease than whites.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2 March 2022 |title=White people at much higher risk of most cancers in England, study finds |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/health-60574317 |access-date=27 November 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Snape |first=Alice |date=3 March 2022 |title=White people are more at risk of getting most cancers, according to new study |url=https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/body/health/a39308492/cancer-risk-race/ |access-date=27 November 2023 |website=Cosmopolitan |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=26 July 2021 |title=Ethnic differences in life expectancy and mortality from selected causes in England and Wales - Office for National Statistics |url=https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/lifeexpectancies/articles/ethnicdifferencesinlifeexpectancyandmortalityfromselectedcausesinenglandandwales/2011to2014 |access-date=27 November 2021 |website=www.ons.gov.uk |language=en}}</ref> Generally, Black people in England and Wales have a significantly lower mortality rate from all-causes than whites.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Borrett |first=Amy |date=29 September 2023 |title=Why are white Britons dying at higher rates than other ethnic groups? |work=Financial Times |url=https://www.ft.com/content/f51ee83d-8a9b-4eba-8a04-5609c70a74fa |access-date=27 November 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=9 September 2023 |title=What's Killing White Britons? |url=https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-economist-uk/20230909/281728389101546 |access-date=27 November 2023 |via=PressReader}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=19 August 2021 |title=Mortality from leading causes of death by ethnic group, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics |url=https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/articles/mortalityfromleadingcausesofdeathbyethnicgroupenglandandwales/2012to2019 |access-date=27 November 2023 |website=www.ons.gov.uk |language=en}}</ref> Black people in England and Wales also have a higher life expectancy at birth than their white counterparts.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Courea |first=Eleni |date=26 July 2021 |title=British ethnic minorities have longer life expectancy than white people |newspaper=The Times |language=en |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/society/article/british-ethnic-minorities-have-longer-life-expectancy-than-white-people-llwsmv290 |access-date=27 November 2023 |issn=0140-0460}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> One contributing factor put forward is that white Britons are more likely to smoke and to drink harmful levels of alcohol.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Phillips |first=Alexa |date=26 July 2021 |title=White and mixed ethnic groups 'don't live as long' as other groups, study suggests |url=https://news.sky.com/story/white-and-mixed-ethnic-groups-dont-live-as-long-as-other-groups-study-suggests-12364473 |access-date=27 November 2023 |website=Sky News |language=en}}</ref> In England, 3.6% of white Britons have harmful or dependant drinking behaviours compared to 2.3% of Black people.<ref>{{Cite web |date=22 August 2018 |title=Harmful and probable dependent drinking in adults |url=https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/health/alcohol-smoking-and-drug-use/harmful-and-probable-dependent-drinking-in-adults/latest |access-date=27 November 2023 |website=www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk |language=en}}</ref> In 2019, 14.4% of whites in England smoked cigarettes, compared to 9.7% of Black people.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2 February 2021 |title=Cigarette smoking among adults |url=https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/health/alcohol-smoking-and-drug-use/adult-smokers/latest#by-ethnicity-over-time |access-date=27 November 2023 |website=www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk |language=en}}</ref>

Black Britons face worse outcomes in some health measurements compared to the rest of the population. Out of all ethnicity groups, lack people were the most likely to be overweight or obese, the most likely to be dependant on drugs, as well as the most likely to have common mental disorders. 72% of bBlack people in Britain are overweight or obese compared to 64.5% of White British people<ref>{{cite web |title=Ethnicity facts and figures: Overweight adults |url=https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/health/diet-and-exercise/overweight-adults/latest#by-ethnicity-over-time |website=gov.uk |date=24 March 2023 |publisher=Office for Health Improvement and Disparities |access-date=27 May 2023}}</ref> and 7.5% of Black people are dependant on drugs compared to 3.0% of White British people.<ref>{{cite web |title=Drug dependency in adults |url=https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/health/alcohol-smoking-and-drug-use/drug-dependency-in-adults/latest |website=gov.uk |date=10 October 2017 |publisher=NHS Digital |access-date=27 May 2023}}</ref> 22.5% of Black people experienced a common mental disorder (including depression, OCD and life anxiety) in the past week compared to 17.3% of White British people, with this figure rising to 29.3% for Black women.<ref>{{cite web |title=Common mental disorders |url=https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/health/mental-health/adults-experiencing-common-mental-disorders/latest#by-ethnicity-and-sex |website=gov.uk |date=10 October 2017 |publisher=NHS Digital |access-date=27 May 2023}}</ref> Black women are also 3.7 times more likely to die from childbirth than white women in the UK, equating to 34 women per 100,000 giving birth.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Lay |first1=Kat |title=NHS racism blamed for high death rates in Black mothers |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcare/article/nhs-racism-blamed-for-high-death-rates-in-black-mothers-5zqxc2hfj |work=The Times |date=18 April 2023}}</ref> Racist attitudes towards the pain tolerances of Black women have been cited as one reason why this disparity exists.<ref>{{cite news |title='Racism in maternity care means even Black midwives think our pain threshold is higher' |url=https://inews.co.uk/news/pregnant-black-women-treated-differently-medics-pain-threshold-2313336 |work=i News |date=14 May 2023}}</ref> In 2021, Black Britons had the highest rate of STIs with a new STI rate of 1702.6 per 100,000 population compared to 373.9 per 100,000 population in the White British population.<ref>{{cite web |title=Table 2: New STI diagnosis numbers and rates in England and regions by gender, sexual orientation, age group and ethnic group, 2017 to 2021 |url=https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1116806/2021-Table-2-Selected-STI-diagnoses-and-rates-by-gender-sexual-orientation-age-group-and-ethnic-group.ods |publisher=UK Health Security Agency |access-date=4 October 2022}}</ref> This is consistent with data since at least 1994, and potential reasons to explain the difference include poor healthy literacy, underlying socioeconomic factors, and racism in healthcare settings.<ref>{{cite news |last1=White |first1=Nadine |title=Black people have highest rate of STIs in Britain. Not enough is being done to change that. |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/sex-sti-chlamydia-gonorrhoea-black-people-b2243981.html |work=The Independent |date=19 February 2023}}</ref> In 2022, the British Medical Journal reported findings from a survey revealing 65% of Black people have said that they had experienced prejudice from doctors and other staff in healthcare settings, rising to 75% among Black 18-34 year olds.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Most Black people in UK face discrimination from healthcare staff, survey finds |url=https://www.bmj.com/content/378/bmj.o2337 |journal=BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.) |year=2022 |publisher=British Medical Journal |pmid=36167411 |access-date=27 September 2022 |last1=Iacobucci |first1=G. |volume=378 |article-number=o2337 |doi=10.1136/bmj.o2337 |s2cid=252545991 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Another survey found that 64% of Black people in the UK believe that the NHS provides better care to white people.<ref>{{cite news |title=Two-thirds of Black Britons believe NHS gives white people better care, finds survey |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/07/two-thirds-of-black-britons-believe-nhs-gives-white-people-better-care-finds-survey |work=The Guardian |date=7 September 2020}}</ref>

During the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, the Black population faced severe disparity in outcomes compared to the white population, with early data between March and April 2020 revealing that black people were four times more likely to die with Covid-19 than white people.<ref>{{cite news |title=Black people in the UK four times more likely to die from Covid-19 than white people, new data shows |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/07/uk/uk-coronavirus-ethnicity-deaths-ons-scli-gbr-intl/index.html |work=CNN |date=7 May 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Coronavirus (COVID-19) related deaths by ethnic group, England and Wales: 2 March 2020 to 10 April 2020 |url=https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/articles/coronavirusrelateddeathsbyethnicgroupenglandandwales/2march2020to10april2020 |publisher=Office for National Statistics |access-date=7 May 2020}}</ref> An inquiry commissioned for the government found that racism contributed to the disproportionate death of Black people.<ref>{{cite news |title=Racism contributed to disproportionate UK BAME coronavirus deaths, inquiry finds |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/14/racism-disproportionate-uk-bame-coronavirus-deaths-report |work=The Guardian |date=14 June 2020}}</ref> As the Covid-19 vaccine began to be distributed, the UK Household Longitudinal Study found that 72% of Black people were unlikely or very unlikely to get vaccinated compared to 82% of all people saying they were likely or very likely to get the jab.<ref>{{cite news |title=Covid vaccine: 72% of Black people unlikely to have jab, UK survey finds |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/16/covid-vaccine-black-people-unlikely-covid-jab-uk |work=The Guardian |date=16 January 2021}}</ref> In March 2021, uptake was 30% lower for the Black population aged 50–60 compared to the same age group in the white population. Vaccine hesitancy was driven by unethical health treatments towards Black people in the past, with many surveyed citing the Tuskegee Syphilis Study in the United States as an example. Another reason given was the lack of trust in the authorities and the perception that Black people were being targeted as guinea pigs for the vaccine which was spurred by misinformation online and some religious organisations.<ref>{{cite news |title=Covid: Black leaders fear racist past feeds mistrust in vaccine |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/health-56813982 |work=BBC News |date=6 May 2021}}</ref> Analysis from the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities found that the increased risk of dying from COVID-19 was mainly due to the increased risk of exposure. Black people were more likely to live in urban areas with higher population densities and levels of deprivation; work in higher risk occupations such as healthcare or transport; and to live with older relatives who themselves are at higher risk due to their age or having other comorbidities such as diabetes and obesity.<ref>{{cite web |title=Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities: The Report |url=https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/974507/20210331_-_CRED_Report_-_FINAL_-_Web_Accessible.pdf |website=service.gov.uk |publisher=Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities |access-date=31 March 2021}}</ref>

==Notable Black British people== {{Cleanup list|section|date=December 2022}}

===Pre-20th century=== [[File:Seacole - Challen.jpg|thumb|A Crimean War nurse, Mary Seacole has been dubbed the "Greatest Black Briton."]] [[File:Olaudah Equiano - Project Gutenberg eText 15399.png|thumb|Olaudah Equiano, a significant figure involved with the abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade.]] [[File:John Sentamu.jpg|thumb|Lord Sentamu, a former archbishop of York, the second most senior clerical position in the Church of England.]] Well-known Black Britons living before the 20th century include the Chartist William Cuffay; William Davidson, who was executed as a Cato Street conspirator; Olaudah Equiano (also called Gustavus Vassa), a former enslaved man who bought his freedom, moved to England, and settled in Soham, Cambridgeshire, where he married and wrote an autobiography, dying in 1797; Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, pioneer of the slave narrative; and Ignatius Sancho, a grocer who also acquired a reputation as a man of letters.

In 2004, a poll found that people considered the Crimean War heroine Mary Seacole to be the greatest Black Briton.<ref name="Seacole statue">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8106416.stm|title=Seacole sculpture design revealed|work=BBC News|date=18 June 2009|access-date=19 June 2009}}</ref> Seacole was born in Jamaica in 1805 to a white father and Black mother.<ref name="Seacole profile">{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/seacole_mary.shtml|title=Historical figures: Mary Seacole (1805–1881)|publisher=BBC History|access-date=19 June 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090424064134/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/seacole_mary.shtml|archive-date=24 April 2009|url-status=live}}</ref> A statue of her, designed by Martin Jennings, was unveiled in the grounds of St. Thomas' Hospital opposite the Houses of Parliament in London in June 2016, following a 12-year campaign that raised £500,000 to honour her.<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-36663206 "Mary Seacole statue unveiled in London"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180501042345/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-36663206 |date=1 May 2018 }}, BBC News, 30 June 2016.</ref>

===Recognition=== A number of awards and honours exist to recognise talent and influence of the Black British community. The MOBO Awards, was the first awards ceremony that celebrates the achievements in music of Black origin, launched in 1996. Founder Kanya King has subsequently been awarded both a MBE and a CBE for her services to the music industry, and the awards have taken place annually since its inauguration.<ref>{{cite web |title=How Kanya King MBE Grew The MOBO Awards into The Biggest Celebration of Black British Music |url=https://www.complex.com/music/2017/11/kanya-king-mobo-awards-interview |first=Ajay|last=Rose |website=Complex |date=28 November 201|access-date=17 April 2020 |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180104233453/http://www.complex.com/music/2017/11/kanya-king-mobo-awards-interview |archive-date=4 January 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The ''Powerlist'' is an annual list of the 100 most influential people of African or African Caribbean heritage in the UK. The list was first created in 2007 by Michael Eboda, then editor of the ''New Nation'', a weekly newspaper published in the UK for the Black British community, as a way to profile and celebrate influential Black Britons, and inspire and influence the next generation. The list is updated annually and has been published in book format by Powerful Media since 2007. The ''Powerlist'' is not limited to British born citizens and it includes individuals born overseas who have emigrated to the UK.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Eboda |first1=Michael |title=How has black people's representation changed in the last 10 years? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/23/black-powerlist-10-years-on-michael-eboda |website=The Observer |access-date=16 April 2020 |date=22 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200426070619/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/23/black-powerlist-10-years-on-michael-eboda |archive-date=26 April 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref> The 50 highest rated nominees, along with updates on the previous year's Powerlistees from rank 2–100, are then ranked by an independent panel in the summer, with the list being produced each autumn. Each year's highest ranking individual is added to the Powerlist Hall of Fame.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Eboda |first1=Michael |title=The Powerlist: 10 years of Black Power |url=https://www.obv.org.uk/news-blogs/powerlist-10-years-black-power |website=Operation Black Vote |access-date=16 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181225005712/https://www.obv.org.uk/news-blogs/powerlist-10-years-black-power |archive-date=25 December 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=An Introduction to the Powerlist |url=https://www.powerlist.co.uk/introcution |website=www.powerlist.co.uk |access-date=16 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200118154234/https://www.powerlist.co.uk/introcution |archive-date=18 January 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2014, Melanie Eusebe and Sophie Chandauka co-founded the Black British Business Awards, to celebrate the contributions of inspiring professionals across all UK Industries.<ref>{{cite web |title=First ever Black British Business Awards held in London |url=https://www.virgin.com/entrepreneur/first-ever-black-british-business-awards-held-in-london |website=Virgin |access-date=17 April 2020 |language=en |date=10 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190617105627/https://www.virgin.com/entrepreneur/first-ever-black-british-business-awards-held-in-london |archive-date=17 June 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Fawehinmi |first1=Yolanthe |title=Black British Business Awards announce 2019 finalists |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2019/07/18/black-british-business-awards-announce-2019-finalists/ |website=The Telegraph |access-date=17 April 2020 |date=18 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200222080722/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2019/07/18/black-british-business-awards-announce-2019-finalists/ |archive-date=22 February 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=A triumphant night at the Sporting Equals British Ethnic Diversity Sports Awards 2019 |url=https://www.englandathletics.org/about-us/news/a-triumphant-night-at-the-sporting-equals-british-ethnic-diversity-sports-awards-2019/ |website=England Athletics |access-date=17 April 2020 |date=10 April 2019}}</ref>

The British Ethnic Diversity Sports Awards (BEDSA) were launched in 2016, celebrating the contribution of and achievements of ethnic minority sportspeople and have included awards presented to cricketer Jofra Archer and athlete Christine Ohuruogu.<ref>{{cite web |title=Jofra Archer and Dina Asher-Smith win big at British Ethnic Diversity Sports Awards |url=https://www.skysports.com/more-sports/news/12040/11957677/jofra-archer-and-dina-asher-smith-win-big-at-british-ethnic-diversity-sports-awards |website=Sky Sports |access-date=17 April 2020 |language=en}}</ref>

The inaugural Black British Theatre Awards, co-founded by activist Solange Urdang and theatre director and choreographer Omar F. Okai, took place in October 2019 at Old Finsbury Town Hall hosted by Ore Oduba, with winners including Lynette Linton for best Director, Beverley Knight MBE for supporting actress and ''Hamilton'' as best musical production.<ref>{{cite web |title=Team |url=https://www.blackbritishtheatreawards.com/our-team |website=Black British Theatre Awards |access-date=17 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191230061819/https://www.blackbritishtheatreawards.com/our-team |archive-date=30 December 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Black British Theatre Awards 2019: the winners in full |url=https://www.thestage.co.uk/news/black-british-theatre-awards-2019-the-winners-in-full|date=27 October 2019|first= Giverny |last=Masso |website=The Stage |access-date=17 April 2020 |language=En}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Who won at the 2019 Black British Theatre Awards? |url=https://www.londontheatredirect.com/news/who-won-at-the-2019-black-british-theatre-awards |website=www.londontheatredirect.com |access-date=17 April 2020 |language=en |date=28 October 2019}}</ref>

===Nobility=== {{See also|Black British elite}}

Some British aristocrats descend from the Afro-Russian courtier General Abram Petrovich Gannibal, including Natalia Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster and her sister Alexandra Hamilton, Duchess of Abercorn – the daughters of Georgina, Lady Kennard – and their descendants (such as Natalia's son Hugh Grosvenor, 7th Duke of Westminster).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rbth.com/politics_and_society/2016/08/12/descendant-of-pushkin-and-the-romanovs-becomes-worlds-youngest-billionaire_620511|title=Descendant of Pushkin and the Romanovs Becomes The World's Youngest Billionaire|website=rbth.com|date=12 August 2016|access-date=22 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190409225734/https://www.rbth.com//politics_and_society/2016/08/12/descendant-of-pushkin-and-the-romanovs-becomes-worlds-youngest-billionaire_620511|archive-date=9 April 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> George Mountbatten, 4th Marquess of Milford Haven and his brother Lord Ivar Mountbatten are also direct descendants as the grandsons of Nadejda Mountbatten, Marchioness of Milford Haven.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/marquess-of-milford-haven_b_599c0c18e4b0521e90cfb506|title=Marquess of Milford Haven|website=huffpost.com|access-date=December 13, 2023}}</ref>

In addition to this, both the bi-racial royal Prince Archie of Sussex and the bi-racial aristocrat John Thynn, Viscount Weymouth are heirs apparent to the dukedom of Sussex and the marquessate of Bath, respectively.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.hellomagazine.com/healthandbeauty/mother-and-baby/2019101979212/strictly-star-emma-weymouth-sons-john-henry/|title=Strictly Star Emma Weymouth sons, John and Henry|work=Hello|access-date=16 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200416103205/https://www.hellomagazine.com/healthandbeauty/mother-and-baby/2019101979212/strictly-star-emma-weymouth-sons-john-henry/|archive-date=16 April 2020|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/apr/05/the-marquess-of-bath-obituary|title=The Marquess of Bath: An Obituary|work=The Guardian|access-date=16 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200409072054/https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/apr/05/the-marquess-of-bath-obituary|archive-date=9 April 2020|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.express.co.uk/news/royal/1268558/Archie-Harrison-title-Is-Archie-a-prince-surname-Meghan-Markle-son|title=Archie Harrison title|work=The Express|access-date=16 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200416204216/https://www.express.co.uk/news/royal/1268558/Archie-Harrison-title-Is-Archie-a-prince-surname-Meghan-Markle-son|archive-date=16 April 2020|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.itv.com/news/2019-05-08/no-title-for-archie-inspired-by-harrys-struggles-growing-up/|title=No Title For Archie Inspired By Harry's Struggles Growing Up|work=ITV|access-date=16 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200101134748/https://www.itv.com/news/2019-05-08/no-title-for-archie-inspired-by-harrys-struggles-growing-up/|archive-date=1 January 2020|url-status=live}}</ref> Other mixed-race descendants of British nobles include the philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah (who is the great-grandson of Charles Cripps, 1st Baron Parmoor),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/peggy-appiah-345906.html%3famp|title=Peggy Appiah|website=Independent.co.uk|date=17 February 2006|access-date=7 October 2020}}</ref> the actor Adetomiwa Edun (who is the aforementioned Lord Parmoor's great-great-grandson),<ref>Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage 2003, vol. 3, p. 3063</ref><ref>Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage, 1995, ed. Patrick Montague-Smith, Debrett's Peerage Ltd, p. 986</ref> the writer James Forman Jr. (who is the great-grandson of David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale), the actress Lady Naomi Gordon-Lennox (the adopted daughter of Charles Gordon-Lennox, 10th Duke of Richmond),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/news/march-to-the-top-7303186.html|website=standard.co.uk.|first=Victoria |last=Young|date=13 April 2012|title=March To The Top|access-date=September 15, 2024}}</ref> and the models Adwoa and Kesewa Aboah (who are the great-granddaughters of Anthony Lowther, Viscount Lowther).<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.cwherald.com/a/archive/woman-with-great-literary-mind.167321.html|title=Woman With Great Literary Mind|work=Cumberland and Westmorland Herald|date=11 January 2003|access-date=19 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200214175603/https://www.cwherald.com/a/archive/woman-with-great-literary-mind.167321.html|archive-date=14 February 2020|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Politics === {{multiple image | perrow = 2 | total_width = 270 | image1 = Official portrait of Kemi Badenoch MP crop 3, 2024 (cropped).jpg | caption1 = Kemi Badenoch, the current Leader of the Conservative Party, the first Black woman to lead a major British party | image2 = Kwasi Kwarteng Official Cabinet Portrait, September 2022 (cropped) 2.jpg | caption2 = Kwasi Kwarteng, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, the first Black Chancellor | image3 = Official portrait of First Minister Vaughan Gething 05 (cropped).jpg | caption3 = Vaughan Gething, the former First Minister of Wales, the first Black leader of any European country | image4 = Official portrait of Ms Diane Abbott crop 2.jpg | caption4 = Diane Abbott, the current Mother of the House, the first Black woman elected to parliament and longest-serving black MP}} People of Black African and Caribbean ancestry such as Bernie Grant, Valerie, Baroness Amos, David Lammy, Dawn Butler, Sir Mark Hendrick and Diane Abbott, as well as Oona, Baroness King, and Paul, Lord Boateng, who are bi-racial, have made significant contributions to British politics and trade unionism. Boateng became the United Kingdom's first biracial cabinet minister in 2002 when he was appointed as Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Abbott became the first Black female Member of Parliament when she was elected to the House of Commons in the 1987 general election. [[File:Baron Adebowale byline.JPG|thumb|A prominent social care charity administrator, Lord Adebowale is currently a Crossbench member of the House of Lords.]]

Bill, Lord Morris, was elected general secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union in 1992 and became the first Black leader of a major British trade union. He was knighted in 2003, and in 2006 he took a seat in the House of Lords as a working life peer, Baron Morris of Handsworth.

The Trinidadian cricketer Learie, Lord Constantine, was ennobled in 1969 and took the title Baron Constantine of Maraval in Trinidad and Nelson in the County Palatine of Lancaster.

David, Lord Pitt, became a member of the House of Lords when he became a life peer for the Labour Party in 1975. He was also President of the British Medical Association. The first Black Conservative Peer was John, Lord Taylor.<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13599624 "Ex-Tory Peer Lord Taylor Jailed for Expenses Fraud"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180731094409/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13599624 |date=31 July 2018 }}, BBC News, 31 May 2011.</ref> Valerie Amos became the first Black woman cabinet minister and the first Black woman to become leader of the House of Lords. Patricia, Baroness Scotland, became a Labour life peer in 1997 and became the first female secretary-general of the Commonwealth of Nations.

===Television=== {{See also|Category:Black British television personalities}} Jamaican-born Barbara Blake-Hannah was the first Black person to be an on-camera reporter and interviewer on British television in 1968.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Jolaoso |first=Simi |date=23 October 2020 |title=Barbara Blake Hannah: The first Black female reporter on British TV |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-54623417 |access-date=1 March 2022}}</ref> Television reporter and newsreader Sir Trevor McDonald, born in Trinidad, was knighted in 1999. Pogus Caesar producing and directing multicultural series for Central Television, Carlton Television and BBC. Also notable is Moira Stuart, OBE, the first female newsreader of African-Caribbean heritage on British television. Clive Myrie, of Jamaican heritage, is another notable newsreader and reporter. He is also the host of the long-running BBC quiz shows ''Mastermind'' and ''Celebrity Mastermind''. Other high-profile television personalities and entertainers include comedian Sir Lenny Henry, Rudolph Walker, Joseph Marcell, Nabil Elouahabi and chef Ainsley Harriott.

===Singers=== {{See also|Category:Black British male singers|Category:Black British women singers}} Marsha Ambrosius, Joan Armatrading, Pato Banton, Dame Shirley Bassey, Mel B, Alexandra Burke, Celeste, Diane Charlemagne, Taio Cruz, Craig David, Des'ree, Fleur East, Estelle, Gabrielle, Roland Gift, Jaki Graham, David Grant, Eddy Grant, Pauline Henry, Dev Hynes, Jamelia, KSI, Leona Lewis, Lianne La Havas, Shaznay Lewis, Mahalia, Ella Mai, MNEK, Maxine Nightingale, Billy Ocean, Mica Paris, Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Maxi Priest, Corinne Bailey Rae, Andrew Roachford, Sade, Emeli Sande, Seal, Skepta, Heather Small, Jorja Smith, 21 Savage, Digga D, Benji Webbe, Simon Webbe, Caron Wheeler, Dave and Young MC are among the popular singers not mentioned in the music section above.{{citation needed|date=April 2023}}

===Film=== {{See also|Category:Black British filmmakers}} Sir Horace Ové was the first Black British filmmaker to direct a feature-length film, ''Pressure,'' in 1976. Considered a pioneer in Black British filmmaking, Ové was awarded a knighthood for his services to media.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bedigan |first=Mike |date=31 December 2021 |title=Pioneering director Horace Ove given knighthood in New Year Honours |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/british-tony-trinidad-guinness-world-records-london-b974511.html |access-date=23 May 2022 |website=Evening Standard |language=en}}</ref> Inspired by Ové, Menelik Shabazz became the second Black filmmaker to direct a feature film in the UK, ''Burning an Illusion,'' in 1981.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Pulver |first=Andrew |date=29 June 2021 |title=Menelik Shabazz, pioneering Black British film-maker, dies aged 67 |url=http://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/jun/29/menelik-shabazz-pioneering-black-british-film-maker-dies-aged-67 |access-date=23 May 2022 |website=The Guardian |language=en}}</ref> The film received critical acclaim and is considered an important landmark in UK cinema.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Grater |first=Tom |date=29 June 2021 |title=Menelik Shabazz Dies: Pioneering Filmmaker Of Black British Cinema Was 67 |url=https://deadline.com/2021/06/menelik-shabazz-dies-pioneering-filmmaker-of-black-british-cinema-1234783228/ |access-date=23 May 2022 |website=Deadline |language=en-US}}</ref> ''Burning an Illusion'' won the Grand Prix at the Amiens International Film Festival in France.<ref>{{Cite web |date=29 June 2021 |title=OBITUARY FOR MENELIK SHABAZZ - PIONEER IN BLACK BRITISH FILM {{!}} London Film School |url=https://lfs.org.uk/content/obituary-menelik-shabazz-pioneer-black-british-film |access-date=23 May 2022 |website=lfs.org.uk}}</ref>

The most prominent Black British filmmaker is Sir Steve McQueen, who after initially receiving acclaim as a visual artist and winning the Turner Prize in 1999, went on to direct his first feature ''Hunger'' (2008), which earned him the Caméra d'Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. His third feature film, ''12 Years a Slave'' (2013), won several major international awards, and McQueen became the first Black filmmaker to win an Academy Award for Best Picture.<ref>{{cite news|last=Lacob|first=Jace|title='12 Years A Slave' Wins Best Picture And Makes Oscars History|url=https://www.buzzfeed.com/jacelacob/12-years-a-slave-wins-best-picture-and-makes-oscars-history|access-date=13 March 2014|newspaper=Buzzfeed|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140306170737/http://www.buzzfeed.com/jacelacob/12-years-a-slave-wins-best-picture-and-makes-oscars-history|archive-date=6 March 2014|url-status=live}}</ref> Other notable Black British filmmakers include Richard Ayoade, Amma Asante, debbie tucker green, Ngozi Onwurah, and Destiny Ekaragha.

===Actors=== {{See also|Category:Black British actors|Category:Black British actresses}} Numerous Black British actors have experienced success in US television, such as Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Idris Elba, Alfred Enoch, Damson Idris, Lennie James, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Regé-Jean Page, and Marsha Thomason. Black British actors are also increasingly found starring in major Hollywood films, notable examples include Kingsley Ben-Adir, John Boyega, Franz Drameh, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Cynthia Erivo, David Harewood, Naomie Harris, Paterson Joseph, Daniel Kaluuya, Adrian Lester, Delroy Lindo, Lashana Lynch, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Thandiwe Newton, Sophie Okonedo, Eunice Olumide, David Oyelowo, Aaron Pierre, Hugh Quarshie, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, Colin Salmon, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Antonia Thomas, Eamonn Walker, Ashley Walters, and Letitia Wright. Looking to join the listed above are young stars such as Ricardo P. Lloyd who spoke about the challenges many Black British actors face in the UK industry compared to the US in an article by ''The Independent''.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2021-07-13|title=As a Black British actor, I've been stereotyped one too many times. I'm moving to America |first= Ricardo P. |last=Lloyd|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/black-british-actor-moving-hollywood-racism-b1883307.html|access-date=2021-07-14|website=The Independent|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=David Harewood: 'We're still dealing with perceptions of what Black can be' {{!}} Stage |first=Sasha |last=Mistlin |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/nov/05/david-harewood-were-still-dealing-with-perceptions-of-what-black-can-be|access-date=2021-11-08|website=The Guardian|date=5 November 2021 }}</ref>

===Visual artists=== {{See also|Category:Black British artists}} Among notable Black British visual artists are painters such as Chris Ofili, Frank Bowling, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Keith Piper, Sonia Boyce, Paul Dash, Kimathi Donkor, Claudette Johnson, Winston Branch, Lina Iris Viktor Pogus Caesar; sculptors including Sokari Douglas Camp, Ronald Moody, Fowokan, Yinka Shonibare, Hew Locke and Zak Ové{{citation needed|date=April 2023}}; designers including Yinka Ilori, Samuel Ross, Mac Collins, and the architect David Adjaye.

===Fashion=== {{See also|Category:Black British people in fashion}} Naomi Campbell was the first Black model to appear on the front cover of ''Time'', French ''Vogue'', and the September issue of American ''Vogue''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.models.com/models/naomi-campbell |publisher=Models.com |title=Naomi Campbell |access-date=17 March 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140314153701/http://models.com/models/naomi-campbell |archive-date=14 March 2014 }}</ref> Other notable models include Leomie Anderson, Jourdan Dunn, Paloma Elsesser and Munroe Bergdorf.

===Writers=== {{See also|Category:Black British writers|Writing Black Britain}} Britain's first major Black newspaper, the ''West Indian Gazette'' (WIG), was founded by communist activist Claudia Jones in 1958.<ref>{{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|page=106}}</ref> Notable Black British writers include Andrea Levy, whose best selling book, ''Small Island'' (2004)'','' won the Whitbread Book of the Year, the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. Levy became the first Black writer whose pen would join the Royal Society of Literature's historic collection, which includes pens belonging to Charles Dickens, George Eliot, T. S. Eliot and Lord Byron.<ref>{{Cite web |date=30 November 2020 |title=Andrea Levy becomes first writer of colour to have pen added to Royal Society of Literature collection |url=https://www.voice-online.co.uk/entertainment/arts-culture/2020/11/30/andrea-levy-becomes-first-writer-of-colour-to-have-pen-added-to-royal-society-of-literature-collection/ |access-date=26 May 2022 |website=Voice Online |language=en}}</ref> Bernardine Evaristo's novel ''Girl, Woman, Other'' won the Man Booker Prize in 2019, making Evaristo the first Black British writer to win the Man Booker. In 2020, Evaristo was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for her services to literature.<ref>{{Cite news |date=10 October 2020 |title=Birthday Honours 2020: Marcus Rashford, Joe Wicks and key workers honoured |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-54468492 |access-date=26 May 2022}}</ref> Zadie Smith won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the Commonwealth Writers' Best Book Award (Eurasia Section) and the Orange Prize for ''On Beauty''. Smith's acclaimed first novel, ''White Teeth'' (2000) was an international best seller and won multiple accolades, including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction, the Whitbread Book Award in category best first novel, the Guardian First Book Award and the Betty Trask Award.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Zadie Smith - Literature |url=https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/zadie-smith |access-date=2022-05-26 |website=literature.britishcouncil.org}}</ref> ''Time'' magazine included the novel in its list of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Grossman |first=Lev |date=11 January 2010 |title=Is White Teeth one of the All-TIME 100 Best Novels? |language=en-US |magazine=Time |url=https://entertainment.time.com/2005/10/16/all-time-100-novels/slide/white-teeth-2000-by-zadie-smith/ |access-date=26 May 2022 |issn=0040-781X}}</ref> Dreda Say Mitchell became the first Black British writer to be awarded the Crime Writers Association's John Creasey Dagger for her debut book ''Running Hot,'' in 2005.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022 |title=Dreda Say Mitchell - Literature |url=https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/dreda-say-mitchell |access-date=26 May 2022 |website=literature.britishcouncil.org}}</ref> Mitchell's 2019 psychological thriller, ''Spare Room,'' became a critically acclaimed international best seller and she was honoured with an MBE for services to literature.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Psychological Thrillers – Dreda Say Mitchell and Ryan Carter |url=https://dredamitchell.com/psychological-thrillers/ |access-date=26 May 2022 |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=13 January 2020 |title=Interview: Dreda Say Mitchell {{!}} Crime Fiction Lover |url=https://crimefictionlover.com/2020/01/interview-dreda-say-mitchell/ |access-date=26 May 2022 |website=crimefictionlover.com |language=en-US}}</ref> At the 2020 British Book Awards, Candice Carty-Williams became the first Black woman to win the "Book of the Year" accolade, for her novel ''Queenie.''<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sherwin |first=Adam |date=29 June 2020 |title=Candice Carty-Williams named first black female Book of the Year winner for Queenie |url=https://inews.co.uk/culture/books/candice-carty-williams-first-black-female-book-of-the-year-queenie-454668 |access-date=26 May 2022 |website=inews.co.uk |language=en}}</ref> ''Queenie'' entered the ''Sunday Times'' Bestseller hardback chart at number two and has gone on to win numerous accolades.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wood |first=Heloise |date=12 June 2019 |title=Candice Carty-Williams leaves Vintage |url=https://www.thebookseller.com/news/carty-williams-leaves-vintage-1022341 |access-date=26 May 2022 |website=The Bookseller |language=En}}</ref> Other notable novelists include Caryl Phillips, Victor Headley, Alex Wheatle, Ferdinand Dennis (winner of the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize for his 1988 travelogue ''Behind the Frontlines: Journey into Afro-Britain''), George Lamming, Samuel Selvon (who wrote the groundbreaking novel ''The Lonely Londoners),'' Andrew Salkey, Sir Wilson Harris (who was knighted and received a Lifetime Achievement Prize from the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards), Mike Phillips, Booker Prize nominee Nadifa Mohamed and Diran Adebayo (first winner in 1995 of the Saga Prize, which was set up by Marsha Hunt to encourage Black British writing and ran for four years).<ref>Mark Stein, [https://books.google.com/books?id=VfdpdZ9DwH0C&dq=%22saga+prize%22&pg=PA270 "Saga Prize"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161224010103/https://books.google.com/books?id=VfdpdZ9DwH0C&pg=PA270&lpg=PA270&dq=%22saga+prize%22&source=bl&ots=n9BUw0jE4M&sig=dOv-miVQEotVUn57_NvRxe67QKs&hl=en&sa=X&ei=dx9FVOW0EMHpasL9gNgJ&ved=0CFUQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=%22saga%20prize%22&f=false|date=24 December 2016}}, in Alison Donnell (ed.), ''Companion to Contemporary Black British Culture'', Routledge, 2013 reprint, p. 270.</ref>

Jackie Kay was Scots Makar, the national poet laureate of Scotland, between 2016 and 2021. Other notable poets include Roger Robinson (won the prestigious T. S. Eliot Prize 2019), Benjamin Zephaniah, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Lemn Sissay, Salena Godden, Warsan Shire, Patience Agbabi, Kamau Brathwaite (won the 2006 International Griffin Poetry Prize, for his volume of poetry ''Born to Slow Horses)'' and James Berry, who was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to poetry'''.''' Notable playwrights include Mustapha Matura, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Roy Williams, Winsome Pinnock, Patricia Cumper and Bola Agbaje. Other contributors include journalists such as Reni Eddo-Lodge, Gary Younge, Afua Hirsch, Ekow Eshun, and Children's Laureate Malorie Blackman. Onyeka Nubia is the author of fictional trilogy ''Waiting to Explode'', ''The Black Prince'', and ''The Phoenix'', for which he won the 2009 African Achievers award for Communication and Media. ''Blackamoores: Africans in Tudor England, their Presence, Status and Origins'' is his latest book, published by Narrative Eye<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.narrative-eye.org.uk/|title=Narrative Eye – Propelling the written word|website=narrative-eye.org.uk|access-date=31 May 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150621072604/http://www.narrative-eye.org.uk/|archive-date=21 June 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> in 2013, in which he proves that Black people in Tudor England had free status and were not slaves. ''Blackamoores'' was runner-up in the 2013/14 People's Book Prize.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.peoplesbookprize.com/winners2013.htm |title=2013/14 People's Book Prize |access-date=31 May 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150617214036/http://www.peoplesbookprize.com/winners2013.htm |archive-date=17 June 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Police service=== Norwell Roberts was one of the first Black police officers to join the Metropolitan Police in 1967, eventually rising to the rank of Detective Sergeant. Roberts was awarded the Queen's Police Medal for distinguished service in 1996 and retired from duty in 1997.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Royal British Legion |date=26 August 2021 |title=Detective Sergeant Norwell Roberts QPM (retired) |url=https://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/article/section/100-years-of-service-and-sacrifice/detective-sergeant-norwell-roberts-qpm-retired/ |access-date=24 May 2022 |website=Black History Month 2022 |language=en}}</ref> Michael Fuller, after a career in the Metropolitan Police, served as the Chief Constable of Kent from 2004 to 2010. He is the son of Jamaican immigrants who came to the United Kingdom in the 1950s. Fuller was brought up in Sussex, where his interest in the police force was encouraged by an officer attached to his school. He is a graduate in social psychology.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Alumni and friends | Notable Alumni | Michael Fuller |url=http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Units/alumni/notable_alumni/interviews/Fuller_interview.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071027143334/http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Units/alumni/notable_alumni/interviews/Fuller_interview.html |archive-date=27 October 2007}}</ref> Leroy Logan served as a Metropolitan Police superintendent and was a founding member and chairman of the National Black Police Association. Logan was awarded an MBE for his fight against racism within the police force.<ref>{{Cite news |date=29 November 2020 |title=Leroy Logan: Who is the Met Police officer in Steve McQueen's Red, White and Blue? |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-55109363 |access-date=24 May 2022}}</ref> Janet Hills was the first woman to chair the National Black Police Association and was awarded an MBE for her services to policing and to community relations.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Talora |first=Joe |date=31 December 2020 |title=Met police officers recognised in Queen's New Year Honours |url=https://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/18979107.met-police-officers-recognised-queens-new-year-honours/ |access-date=24 May 2022 |website=East London and West Essex Guardian Series |language=en}}</ref>

===Military services=== [[File:Johnson_Beharry,_VC.jpg|thumb|upright|Johnson Beharry, VC.]] British communist activist Charlie Hutchison, born in Witney and raised in an orphanage, was the only Black British volunteer to join the British Battalion of the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. He spent almost 10 years uninterruptedly fighting fascists, taking part in the Battle of Cable Street, and fighting in numerous battles including the Dunkirk evacuation, and the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.<ref>{{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=97–98}}</ref>

In 2005, soldier Johnson Beharry, born in Grenada, became the first man to win the Victoria Cross, the United Kingdom's foremost military award for bravery, since the Falklands War of 1982. He was awarded the medal for service in Iraq in 2004. Air Commodore David Case is the highest ranking black officer in the forces.<ref>{{Cite news|date=2007-08-20|title=Black army officers recruited to help stop gang violence|url=http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/aug/20/ukcrime.race|first=Hugh |last=Muir|access-date=2021-06-02|newspaper=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref> He joined the RAF as a 19-year-old cadet to read aeronautical engineering at the Queen's University Belfast. He received his commission in 1975 and was awarded the distinguished Sword of Honour, which is bestowed upon the top cadet officer of the year.<ref>{{cite web|last=Hudson-Knight|first=Paul|date=1 November 2013|title=Pilots of the Caribbean – The Sword of Honour|url=https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/blog/pilots-of-the-caribbean-the-sword-of-honour/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160617101734/https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/blog/pilots-of-the-caribbean-the-sword-of-honour/|archive-date=17 June 2016|access-date=3 December 2020|publisher=Royal Air Force Museum}}</ref>

===Sport=== {{See also|Category:Black British sportspeople}} In the sport of boxing, there have been multiple Black British world champions, including Lennox Lewis (three-time heavyweight world champion, two-time lineal champion, the most recent heavyweight to hold the undisputed championship, and widely viewed as one of the greatest boxers of all-time),<ref>{{Cite web|date=2013-05-03|title=Lennox Lewis: One of the greatest ever ⋆ Boxing News 24|url=https://www.boxingnews24.com/2013/05/lennox-lewis-one-of-the-greatest-ever/|access-date=2021-06-03|website=Boxing News 24|language=en-US}}</ref> Frank Bruno, Chris Eubank Sr., Nigel Benn, David Haye, Kell Brook, James DeGale, Anthony Joshua and Lawrence Okolie.

Benjamin Odeje became the first Black player to represent England at any level when he played for the England schoolboys team in 1971.<ref>{{cite web |title=Benjamin Odeje: England's first black footballer |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/54398933 |publisher=BBC Sport |access-date=6 April 2026}}</ref> There are many notable Black British footballers, some of whom have played for England, including Reece James, Tammy Abraham, Fikayo Tomori, Marcus Rashford, Paul Ince, Sol Campbell, John Barnes, Dion Dublin, Rio Ferdinand, Viv Anderson, Des Walker, Ashley Cole, Ian Wright, Daniel Sturridge, Daniel Welbeck, Joe Gomez, Micah Richards, Bukayo Saka, Raheem Sterling, Jesse Lingard, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Danny Rose, Ryan Bertrand, Kyle Walker, Dele Alli and David James. Andrew Watson who is widely considered to be the world's first association footballer of Black heritage, Chris Iwelumo and Ikechi Anya among others have all played for Scotland. Eddie Parris, Danny Gabbidon, Nathan Blake and Ashley Williams have played for Wales.

Black British people have performed well in track and field. Daley Thompson was the gold medallist for the Great Britain team in the decathlon in the 1980 and 1984 Olympics. The most decorated British athlete is Jamaica-born Linford Christie, who moved to the United Kingdom at age seven. He was winner of the gold medal in the 100 meters at the 1992 Olympics, the World Championships, the European Championships and the Commonwealth Games. Sprinter Dwain Chambers grew up in London. His early achievements winning a world junior record for the 100 meters in 1997, as the youngest medal winner in the 1999 world championships, and fourth place at the 2000 Olympics were marred by a later scandal over the use of performance-enhancing drugs, like Christie before him. Kelly Holmes won Olympic gold in both the 800m and 1500m, and set many British records. Mo Farah, his ten global championship gold medals (four Olympic and six World titles) make him the most successful male track distance runner ever, and he is the most successful British track athlete in modern Olympic Games history.

In cricket, many have represented England: Mark Alleyne, Jofra Archer, Mark Butcher, Michael Carberry, Norman Cowans, Phillip DeFreitas, Dean Headley, Chris Jordan, David Lawrence, Chris Lewis, Devon Malcolm, Gladstone Small, and Alex Tudor to name a few.

In Formula 1, the highest rank of motorsport sanctioned by the FIA, Sir Lewis Hamilton from Stevenage is a seven-time champion, having won the championship in {{F1|2008}}, {{F1| 2014}}, {{F1|2015}}, {{F1|2017}}, {{F1|2018}}, {{F1|2019}} and {{F1|2020}}. With seven titles, over 100 wins and pole positions, he is the most successful driver in the sport's history.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/nov/04/race-lewis-hamilton-barack-obama|title=Will Lewis Hamilton's success inspire young black Britons?|last=Edemariam|first=Aida|author-link=Aida Edemariam|date=3 November 2008|work=The Guardian|access-date=5 July 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|work=BBC|title=Lewis Hamilton on Hungarian Grand Prix pole position|date=18 July 2020|first=Andrew |last=Benson|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/53456930|access-date=23 July 2020}}</ref>

===Business=== Dyke, Dryden and Wade created Britain's first Black multi-million-pound business and laid the foundations for future UK black enterprise.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Reynolds |first=Nia |date=14 August 2006 |title=Obituary: Len Dyke |url=http://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/aug/14/guardianobituaries.mainsection |access-date=22 May 2022 |website=The Guardian |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Louis |first=Nathan |date=15 November 2020 |title=Three haircare businessmen honoured with black plaque |url=https://www.enfieldindependent.co.uk/news/18872917.three-haircare-businessmen-honoured-black-plaque-tottenham/ |access-date=22 May 2022 |website=Enfield Independent |language=en}}</ref>

Sir Damon Buffini heads Permira, one of the world's largest private equity firms. He topped the 2007 ''Powerlist'' as the most powerful Black male in the United Kingdom by ''New Nation'' magazine and was appointed to then Prime Minister Gordon Brown's business advisory panel.

Ismail Ahmed, is the founder and chairman of WorldRemit, a money transfer company, and Director of the Sahan Foundation International. In October 2019, Ahmed was named first in the Powerlist 2020, an annual list of the 100 most powerful people of African heritage in the UK.

René Carayol is a broadcaster, broadsheet columnist, business and leadership speaker and author, best known for presenting the BBC series ''Did They Pay Off Their Mortgage in Two Years?'' He has also served as an executive main board director for blue-chip companies as well as the public sector.

Wol Kolade is council member and Chairman of the BVCA (British Venture Capital Association) and a Governor and council member of the London School of Economics and Political Science, chairing its Audit Committee.

Adam Afriyie is a politician, and Conservative Member of Parliament for Windsor. He is also the founding director of Connect Support Services, an IT services company pioneering fixed-price support. He was also Chairman of DeHavilland Information Services plc, a news and information services company, and was a regional finalist in the 2003 Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards.

Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones is a businessman, farmer and founder of the popular Black Farmer range of food products, which has annual revenues of more than £7m.<ref>{{Cite news |date= |title=My First Million – Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones |work=Financial Times |url=https://www.ft.com/content/d6f2361a-6356-11e4-8a63-00144feabdc0 |access-date=21 May 2022}}</ref>

Following its success in 2007 on TV show ''Dragons' Den'', the Levi Roots brand has grown into a multi-million-pound enterprise.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dunsby |first=Megan |date=21 May 2021 |title=Dragons' Den success stories: Levi Roots |url=https://startups.co.uk/dragons-den/levi-roots/ |access-date=21 May 2022 |website=Startups.co.uk |language=en-GB}}</ref>

Dame Pat McGrath, who has been described as the most influential make-up artist in the world by ''Vogue'' magazine, owns a business with an estimated value of $1 billion.<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=7 March 2019 |title=Pat McGrath Labs is worth more than Kylie Cosmetics (and it's finally coming to the UK) |url=https://www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/beauty/make-up-nails/a26748058/pat-mcgrath-labs-kylie-cosmetics/ |access-date=21 May 2022 |magazine=Harper's BAZAAR |language=en-GB}}</ref>

Mo Ibrahim is a telecommunications billionaire businessman and was listed by ''TIME'' magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.<ref>{{Cite web |date=23 May 2022 |title=Mohammed Ibrahim |url=https://www.forbes.com/profile/mohammed-ibrahim/ |access-date=23 May 2022 |website=Forbes |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2022 |title=Dr. Mo Ibrahim |url=https://www.one.org/international/person/dr-mo-ibrahim/ |access-date=23 May 2022 |website=ONE |language=en-US}}</ref>

Strive Masiyiwa is a billionaire businessman and founder and executive chairman of the international technology group Econet Global. He became the first Black billionaire to enter the ''Sunday Times Rich List in 2021.''<ref>{{Cite news |last=Watts |first=Robert |date=22 May 2021 |title=Strive Masiyiwa: the first black billionaire to make the Rich List. This is his story |newspaper=The Times |language=en |url=https://www.thetimes.com/sunday-times-rich-list/article/first-black-billionaire-rich-list-2021-v8kj6z73z |access-date=23 May 2022 |issn=0140-0460}}</ref>

Jacky Wright is chief digital officer and a corporate vice president at Microsoft US. She has been named the most influential Black person in the UK, ranking at the top of the annual Powerlist in 2022.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Azeez |first=Walé |date=14 October 2021 |title=Microsoft's Jacky Wright had to leave the UK to become its most influential Black person |url=https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/14/tech/jacky-wright-microsoft-powerlist/index.html |access-date=22 May 2022 |website=CNN}}</ref>

Dame Sharon White, the first ever female chair of John Lewis Partnership, she topped the 2023 Powerlist.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-10-27 |title=John Lewis chair Sharon White tops list of influential Black Britons|first= Aina J|last=Khan|url=https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/oct/28/powerlist-award-sharon-white-john-lewis-chair-black-britons |access-date=2022-11-08 |website=The Guardian |language=en}}</ref>

In 2004, Greater London Authority Economics produced a report to examine the economic contribution Black [owned] businesses made to London's economy. The report found that Black businesses made up 4% of all London's businesses, provided more than 70,000 jobs and had a total turnover of almost £4.5 billion.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2004 |title=The contribution of Black businesses to London's economy |url=https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/ready_for_business.pdf |access-date=21 May 2022}}</ref>

Businesses owned by Black Britons generate more than £10bn for the UK each year, according to the Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship (CREME).<ref>{{Cite web |last=Houghton |first=Tom |date=26 October 2021 |title=17 young black entrepreneurs who are changing industries across the North West |url=https://www.business-live.co.uk/enterprise/17-young-black-entrepreneurs-who-21962328 |access-date=21 May 2022 |website=Business Live |language=en}}</ref>

==See also== {{Portal|United Kingdom|Africa}} * Black and Asian Studies Association * Black Cultural Archives *Black Scottish people *Black Welsh people * Ethnic groups in the United Kingdom * London Black Revolutionaries * Racism in the United Kingdom#Black

== Notes == {{notelist}} {{reflist|group=lower-greek}}

==References==  {{Reflist|refs= <ref name="ONS Census 2021">{{cite web |url=https://www.ons.gov.uk/census/maps/choropleth/identity/ethnic-group/ethnic-group-tb-6a/black-black-british-black-welsh-caribbean-or-african |title=Black, Black British, Black Welsh, Caribbean or African |publisher=Office for National Statistics |date=29 November 2022 |access-date=7 December 2025}}</ref> <ref name="Scotland Census 2022">{{cite web |url=https://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/atlas/choropleth/ethnic_group,_national_identity,_language_and_religion/ethnic-group/ethnic-cat-p-19/african-other-african?lad=S12000049 |title=Ethnic group: African and other African (Glasgow City Local Authority) |publisher=National Records of Scotland |date=21 September 2023 |access-date=7 December 2025}}</ref> }}

== External links == * [https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/summaries/black-caribbean-ethnic-group Black Caribbean ethnic group: facts and figures] (Race Disparity Unit, gov.uk) {{Commons category}} {{Prone to spam|date=March 2023}} <!-- {{No more links}}

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--> * [https://artsandculture.google.com/story/cgWRQaOk8Op2JA 200 years of Black British History], Google Arts & Culture * [https://web.archive.org/web/20131206230912/http://www.bbohp.org.uk/ Birmingham Black Oral History Project] * [http://www.blackpresence.co.uk The Black Presence in Britain – Black British History] * Onyekachi Wambu, [https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/modern/literature_01.shtml "Black British Literature since Windrush"], BBC, 3 March 2011. * [https://books.google.com/books?id=inKwAAAAIAAJ&q=scarman+report The Scarman Report] into the Brixton Riots of 1981. * [http://www.archive.official-documents.co.uk/document/cm42/4262/4262.htm The Macpherson Report] into the death of Stephen Lawrence. * [http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/English/Collections/OnlineResources/RWWC/Themes/1078/ Reassessing what we collect website – The African Community in London]. History of African London with objects and images * [http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/English/Collections/OnlineResources/RWWC/Themes/1102/ Reassessing what we collect website – Caribbean London]. History of Caribbean London with objects and images.

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