Cy Grant

Historycal Roots were very pleased to attend a meeting at the Guyanese High Commission in London recently. We were there to meet the High Commissioner and to support Arthur Torrington of The Windrush Foundation. Arthur was seeking to gain the High Commissioner’s support for hosting an exhibition at the High Commission about the life and work of Cy Grant.

Cy, born in British Guiana in 1919, lived a full and varied life: flying with the RAF during World War Two; qualifying as a barrister after the war; before moving on to a career on television, in films and as a singer. He also wrote prolifically and was an activist, playing a leading role in setting up the DRUM Black Arts Centre in London.

The exhibition, ‘The Life and Times of Cy Grant’ is currently on display at Hornsey Library and will shortly be moving to The London Metroplitan Archive in Clerkenwell – well worth a visit if you are in the vicinity.

David Olusoga in Brighton

It was a real pleasure to hear David Olusoga speaking at an event in Brighton on 30th November. The event was hosted by the University of Brighton in conjunction with City Books (Brighton’s ‘largest and liveliest independent bookshop’). David is a lively and engaging speaker but, best of all, thought provoking. Anyone who has seen him on television, most recently in the BBC series ‘Black and British – a forgotten history’, will know how passionate he is about Black history. He takes a very global view and chose examples that drew out how interconnected the histories of different parts of the world are. He quoted Professor Stuart Hall: ‘we’re here because you were there’.

Afterwards David signed copies of the book that supports the series.

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On the train journey home I was reminded of another recent BBC series ‘Back in time for Brixton’, which took a modern Black family and showed them what it was like to be Black in Britain from the time of the Windrush up to the present day. What struck me most forcibly about that series was the massive change that post-war immigration has brought about. Change for the better without a shadow of a doubt in my view. I genuinely wonder whether anything since the industrial revolution has changed the shape of British society in quite such a dramatic way.

Historycal Roots welcomes Bill Hern to the team

We started out as a husband and wife team but we are very pleased to welcome Bill Hern, who has joined us in our work. Working closely with Bill on another project, we have seen at first hand how diligent and persistent he is as a researcher. His dedication to the cause of Black history was demonstrated recently when a ‘holiday’ to Barbados turned, effectively, into a ten day research trip! You will be seeing the fruits of some of his work here soon. Welcome aboard, Bill!

Ray Costello – Author

This week we attended a talk given by Ray Costello at the Central Library in Manchester. Ray is a historian who has had several books published about the history of Liverpool, focusing particularly on the long established Black community there. Ray talked about the difficulties faced by anyone who is interested specifically in Black British history and then went on to talk about some specific examples drawn from his excellent book, ‘Black Tommies’. Walter Tull was long thought to be the only example of a Black officer on the Western Front during World War One, the research done by Ray and other historians recently has proved that Walter Tull was not unique. It was a fascinating talk and it was lovely to have the opportunity to chat to Ray afterwards as his work has been a real inspiration for us.

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The Central Library in Manchester really is a very impressive place and was an absolute hive of activity in the early evening when we were there. It brought home to us what a tremendous resource libraries are, which made it all the sadder to read in the paper on the train coming back to London of a local authority that is planning to close sixteen of its seventeen libraries, in spite of their popularity, as a means of saving money. It’s a real shame that local authorities are being placed in an impossible position by repeated budget cuts imposed by central government.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Composer of the week on Radio 3

You can tell ‘Black History Month’ has come around again because there are all sorts of interesting events going on at the moment. It’s a shame some of this activity can’t be spread throughout the year as it is very difficult to get to all the events that interest us.

We are very much looking forward to hearing Ray Costello (author of ‘Black Tommies’) speak in Manchester on Tuesday 24th October as his book has very much been our ‘bible’ for the work we have been doing recently on Black soldiers in World War One.

But the highlight for us so far has been the music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor on Radio 3 throughout week commencing 17th October as he was featured as ‘composer of the week’. The programmes will be available on i-player for thirty days following broadcast, do catch them if you can.

News for teachers

If you are a teacher we can offer a range of resources and support tailored to you specific needs. To find out more contact us at historycalroots(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)gmail.com or use this site’s contact form.

Forthcoming titles

We are currently working on two new titles in the ‘Fern and Kate meet …’ series. They will meet Walter Tull (who fought in the First World War and was one of the first black or mixed race officers) and Mary Seacole, a nurse at the time of the Crimean War.