Caribbean Saturday Schools and Black Youth Clubs 1970s and 1980s in Northants (JUSWAC, 2024)

Paper presented to the Joint Universities Social Work Association Confrence [JUSWAC] at Kingston University

This paper frames Caribbean Saturday Schools and Black youth clubs in 70s and 80s Northampton and Wellingborough withing obscured histories of social work and the green unpleasant land (Fowler, 2020).

After local schools were caught beating Black children with the pervading racist logic of ‘educationally subnormal’ parents, activists and concerned residents organised. In fact, for Bajan children arriving in Northampton, being educationally one year ahead, teachers were challenged and labelled many ‘educationally subnormal’ for their non-compliance (Berry, 2023). Moreover, the founding of West Indian Parents Association in 1974 was designed to mitigate against. Further to educate Black parents on their rights in schools. It became social work of a different kind – a task motivated by survival.

The Black community in Wellingborough were in a similar fight with local schools. Trained social workers like Mike Prescod were running Saturday School from home. Meanwhile, youth clubs like Persuaders and Steps in Northampton were a lifeline for Black youngsters. Wellingborough’s youth provision was run by Graham Sherwood from Rock Street – predominantly Black children. In both towns, many Black children disadvantaged by white supremacy, were saved by Caribbean Saturday Schools and youth clubs.

Forward-thinking individuals, few of whom were trained social workers, saved lots of that second generation of Black children in 1970s and 1980s Northants. This paper is one story of a wider Creative Writing PhD about post-war Caribbean Northants, 1948-1985 – based on 100+ oral history testimonies and limited secondary sources, including local news media. It aims to offer alternative epistemologies of postwar Black Britain outside of geographies of Black London and other major English cities.

Resources

Matta Fancanta -    • Northampton Matta Fancanta 1977  
Writing -   / black-lives-in-the-stix-caribbean-northant...