Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain

Last updated

Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain
Staying Power The History of Black People in Britain.jpg
Author Peter Fryer
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Subject Black British history
Published1984;40 years ago (1984)
Publisher Pluto Press
Media typePrint
Pages656
ISBN 9780745338316

Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain is a book written by Peter Fryer that is considered a definitive history of the Black presence in Britain, beginning with the Roman conquest. First published by Pluto Press in 1984, Staying Power was reissued in 2010 in a new edition with a foreword by Gary Younge and introduction by Paul Gilroy "explaining the genesis of the book and its continuing significance in black history today". [1] [2]

Contents

Reception

As stated by Rob Waters in his article "Thinking Black: Peter Fryer's Staying Power and the Politics of Writing Black British History in the 1980s" (2016), published in History Workshop Journal : "The book was widely praised at the time of publication for its historical reach and magisterial prose, and it has remained a foundational text of black British history." [3]

Notable writers and scholars who have endorsed Staying Power include C. L. R. James ("Rare in its mastery"), David Olusoga ("Encyclopedic, courageous and passionately written.... Everyone who has researched or written on the subject since its publication in 1984 owes something to Fryer'") and Salman Rushdie ("An invaluable book, which manages the rare feat of combining scholarship with readability"). [4]

Historian David Horsley notes that it is strange the book has no mention of leading black civil rights leader Billy Strachan, a man whom Fryer would most likely have known personally during his time in the Communist Party of Great Britain. [5] [6]

Contents

The author's Preface begins with the sentence: "Black people – by whom I mean Africans and Asians and their descendants – have been living in Britain for close on 500 years." Twelve chapters follow:

  1. "'Those Kinde of People'"
  2. "'Necessary Implements'"
  3. "Britain's Slave Ports"
  4. "The Black Community Takes Shape"
  5. "Eighteenth-Century Voices"
  6. "Slavery and the Law"
  7. "The Rise of English Racism"
  8. "Up from Slavery"
  9. "Challenges to Empire"
  10. "Under Attack"
  11. "The Settlers"
  12. "The New Generation"

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grantley Herbert Adams</span> Barbadian politician

Sir Grantley Herbert Adams, CMG, QC was a Barbadian politician. He served as the inaugural premier of Barbados from 1953 to 1958 and then became the first and only prime minister of the West Indies Federation from 1958 to 1962. He was a founder of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP), and he was named in 1998 as one of the National Heroes of Barbados.

<i>Daily Sketch</i> British national tabloid newspaper (1909–1971)

The Daily Sketch was a British national tabloid newspaper, founded in Manchester in 1909 by Sir Edward Hulton, 1st Baronet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ottobah Cugoano</span> African abolitionist in England (c.1757–after 1791)

Ottobah Cugoano, also known as John Stuart, was an abolitionist, political activist, and natural rights philosopher from West Africa who was active in Great Britain in the latter half of the 18th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Fryer</span> English writer and journalist (1927–2006)

Peter Fryer was an English Marxist writer and journalist. Among his most influential works is the 1984 book Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain.

The League of Coloured Peoples (LCP) was a British civil-rights organization that was founded in 1931 in London by Jamaican-born physician and campaigner Harold Moody with the goal of racial equality around the world, a primary focus being on black rights in Britain. In 1933, the organization began publication of the civil-rights journal, The Keys. The LCP was a powerful civil-rights force until its dissolution in 1951.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Television House</span> Building in London, England

Television House is the former name of a building on Kingsway in London. From 1918, it was the base of the Air Ministry, and later from 1955, was the headquarters of Associated-Rediffusion/Rediffusion London, Independent Television News (ITN), TV Times magazine, the Independent Television Companies Association and, at first, Associated Television. Later, it was the initial base for Rediffusion's successor, Thames Television. After Thames moved out, it was the headquarters of the General Register Office for England and Wales and subsequently of ExxonMobil. It is now known as 61 Aldwych.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hakim Adi</span> British historian and scholar

Hakim Adi is a British historian and scholar who specializes in African affairs. He is the first African-British historian to become a professor of history in the UK. He has written widely on Pan-Africanism and the modern political history of Africa and the African diaspora, including the 2018 book Pan-Africanism: A History. Currently a professor at the University of Chichester, Adi is an advocate of the education curriculum including the history of Africa and its diaspora.

Obi Benue Egbuna was a Nigerian-born novelist, playwright and political activist known for leading the Universal Coloured People's Association (UCPA) and being a member of the British Black Panther Movement (1968–72) during the years when he lived in England, between 1961 and 1973. Egbuna published several texts on Marxist–Black Power, including Destroy This Temple: The Voice of Black Power in Britain (1971) and The ABC of Black Power Thought (1973).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Billy Waters (busker)</span> Beggar, actor and musician (c. 1778–1823)

Billy Waters was a black man who busked in London in the nineteenth century by singing, playing the violin and entertaining theatre goers with his "peculiar antics". He became famous when he appeared as a character in William Thomas Moncrieff's Tom and Jerry, or Life in London in 1821.

Richard Hart was a Jamaican historian, solicitor and politician. He was a founding member of the People's National Party (PNP) and one of the pioneers of Marxism in Jamaica. He played an important role in Jamaican politics in the years leading up to Independence in 1962. He subsequently was based in Guyana for two years, before relocating to London in 1965, working as a solicitor and co-founding the campaigning organisation Caribbean Labour Solidarity in 1974. He went on to serve as attorney-general in Grenada under the People's Revolutionary Government in 1983. He spent the latter years of his life in the UK, where he died in Bristol.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Pan-African Conference</span> International conference held in London, July 1900

The First Pan-African Conference was held in London from 23 to 25 July 1900. Organized primarily by the Trinidadian barrister Henry Sylvester Williams, the conference took place in Westminster Town Hall and was attended by 37 delegates and about 10 other participants and observers from Africa, the West Indies, the US and the UK, including Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, John Alcindor, Benito Sylvain, Dadabhai Naoroji, John Archer, Henry Francis Downing, Anna H. Jones, Anna Julia Cooper, and W. E. B. Du Bois, with Bishop Alexander Walters of the AME Zion Church taking the chair.

For a history of Afro-Caribbean people in the UK, see British African Caribbean community.

Stella Dadzie is a British educationalist, activist, writer and historian. She is best known for her involvement in the UK's Black Women's Movement, being a founding member of the Organisation of Women of African and Asian Descent (OWAAD) in the 1970s, and co-authoring with Suzanne Scafe and Beverley Bryan in 1985 the book The Heart of the Race: Black Women's Lives in Britain. In 2020, Verso published a new book by Dadzie, A Kick in the Belly: Women, Slavery & Resistance.

Ranji Chandisingh was a political leader in Guyana. He was born on 5 January 1930 at San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago, and died on 15 June 2009 at his home at Waterloo Street, Guyana. He was the son of Dr. Charles Washington Chandisingh and Amelia Chandisingh. Chandisingh is survived by his wife Veronica and son Yuri. He was among only a few that mastered the pragmatics of communist ideology in Guyana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Celestine Edwards</span> Methodist evangelist and journal editor (born late 1850s)

Samuel Jules Celestine Edwards was a Dominican editor, public speaker, author, and anti-racist activist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trevor Carter</span> Trinidadian-British community activist (1930–2008)

Trevor Carter was a British communist party leader, educator, black civil rights activist, and co-founder of the Caribbean Teachers Association. He served as the head of equal opportunities for the Inner London Education Authority. He co-authored the 1986 book Shattering Illusions: West Indians in British Politics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Billy Strachan</span> RAF officer and civil rights activist

William Arthur Watkin Strachan was a British communist, civil rights activist, and pilot. He is most noted for his achievements as a bomber pilot with the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War, and for his reputation as a highly influential figure within Britain's black communities.

Caribbean News (1952–1956) was a Black British newspaper, notable for being one of the first Black British newspapers in the United Kingdom. Caribbean News was founded and published by the London branch of the Caribbean Labour Congress under the guidance of Black British civil rights leader and communist activist Billy Strachan, and existed between 1952 and 1956.

Winston Pinder is a black civil rights activist, communist, and youth worker, most notable for his work alongside Billy Strachan, Claudia Jones, and his campaigns against racism in Britain. Originally from Barbados, Pinder has spent most of his life has been spent in the United Kingdom, involved in various political campaigns, trade union activities, and left-wing activism.

Cleston Taylor (1926–2010) was a communist and Black civil rights activist, political prisoner, and trade unionist, who was most notable for his activities in Jamaica and the United Kingdom. Taylor was also a founding member of the British organisation Caribbean Labour Solidarity, and a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. He held close personal connections with many leading Black British and Caribbean civil rights leaders such as Billy Strachan, Trevor Carter, Richard Hart, and Claudia Jones.

References

  1. "Staying Power: The History Of Black People In Britain" via New Beacon Books.
  2. "Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain". Pluto Press.
  3. Waters, Rob (2016). "Thinking black: Peter Fryer's Staying power and the politics of writing black British history in the 1980s" (PDF). History Workshop Journal. Sussex Research Online. 1 (82): 104–120. ISSN   1363-3554.
  4. "Staying Power – Endorsements". Pluto Press.
  5. Horsley, David (2019). Billy Strachan 1921-1988 RAF Officer, Communist, Civil Rights Pioneer, Legal Administrator, Internationalist and Above All Caribbean Man. London: Caribbean Labour Solidarity. p. 3. ISSN   2055-7035.
  6. Soton, Ben (30 August 2019). "A remarkable life | Review" . Retrieved 5 April 2023.