1919, the Year History Forgot (Interactive Dissertation Summary)

Today, Mixed-Race people are still talked about “...like love bombs planted in the minefield of black and white.” (Godden, 2018: 193).

However, England has had Black and Mixed-Race populations going back centuries, their existence often provoking xenophobia amongst homogenously white communities. Part historical study, part autoethnography; I want to use the Liverpool Race Riots (1919) to show the precedent that Black Lives Matter has in Britain, making the case that it should be part of the curriculum.

1919 is a year where a Black man was lynched by a white mob (Fryer, 1984; Olusoga, 2017), fitting into a historical context of British racism that isn’t taught. Furthermore, what happened in Liverpool happened in other port communities, including Cardiff, Barry, and Glasgow (Belchem, 2014: 5).

In short, I intend to author a thesis through an autoethnographic lens of the Black Lives Matter movement to discuss 1919 and the events that followed a British lynching of a Black veteran, making the case for its implementation on the national curriculum in how we teach World War One.

Works Cited

Belchem, J (2014). Before the Windrush. Liverpool: UoL Press
Fryer, P (1984) Staying Power. London: Pluto.
Godden, Salena (2017). Shade. In: Shukla, N (ed). The Good Immigrant. London: Unbound. pp.181-197
Olusoga, D (2017) Black and British. London: Pan.