Category: News

Bill Hern, our northern correspondent, has this to say about a current exhibition in Leeds:

On 9 August I had the pleasure of visiting Leeds City Museum to listen to a fascinating presentation called “300 Years of Migrating to Leeds.”

It was virtually standing room only as an enthralled audience heard curators Adam Jaffer and Ruth Martin describe Leeds’ proud history in welcoming migrants and refugees over the centuries. There is evidence of migrants coming to Leeds tens of thousands of years ago, but the first large waves of migrants came over in the 19th century from Ireland and also Jewish refugees mainly from Russia and Poland.

Leeds has benefited greatly from migration particularly through the Jewish community, Montague Burton (originally Meshe Osinsky) founded Burton Menswear and of course Michael Marks of Marks and Spencer fame was another famous Jewish migrant to Leeds.

Ruth and Adam also covered the migration of Belgians during World War 1, Ukrainians immediately after World War 2, West Indians and South Asians.

The reasons for people moving to Leeds often involve escape from War or persecution but Adam stressed the impact the building of the Mangla Dam in Mirpur, Pakistan in the 1960s had on immigration from that country. Over 100,000 people were left permanently displaced after 280 villages were flooded in order to create the Dam. Many used their compensation payments to move to Yorkshire.

More recently Leeds has maintained its reputation as a city which welcomes migrants receiving people from East European EU countries. It is the 6th most popular British city for Polish immigrants.

Migrants have also been received from Iraq, China and Syria with Leeds being named one of the most welcoming cities for Syrian refugees. Leeds is currently a City of Sanctuary, part of a national movement to build a culture of welcome for people seeking sanctuary in the UK.

It is impossible to do justice to the information-packed hour long presentation in only a few paragraphs but the good news is that the Museum has a free exhibition called ‘A city & its welcome – Three centuries of migrating to Leeds.’ The Museum’s publicity material sums up the exhibition perfectly – “A city and its welcome’ tells the stories and experiences of those who have made a home in Leeds over the past three centuries, and how they have helped shape the city that we recognise today. Come on a journey with us to see the differences between their hopes and expectations and the realities of life in a new place, plus treasured objects brought from afar.”

The exhibition is open until 5 January 2020 and really is not to be missed. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

All three of the Historycal Roots team recently attended a ‘What’s Happening In Black British History?’ event hosted by Huddersfield University.

http://www.mirandakaufmann.com/blog/agenda-announced-for-whats-happening-in-black-british-history-viii-at-the-university-of-huddersfield

There was a packed programme of talks throughout the day and one of the speakers (Testament, writer of ‘Black Men Walking’) posed the question ‘How long? How long does there have to be a Black presence in Britain before Black people are simply accepted as ‘people’ without having to explain or justify their presence and facing a battle to be accepted?’

A number of the presentations were relevant to this question as they illustrated that Black people have been a sizeable part of the British community for centuries:

• in regular regiments of the British Army since the 1700s (John Ellis, Historian and Teacher);
• as members of the Yorkshire community dating back several centuries (Audrey Dewjee, Independent Historian);
• as prisoners of war held at Porchester Castle between 1793 and 1814 (Abigail Coppins (Curator).

Of course it would have been possible to have sessions illustrating a Black presence in Roman and even pre-Roman times (maybe next time).

During a presentation delivered by Milton Brown (University of Huddersfield and Kirklees Local TV), one of the pre-recorded vox pop interviews featured a Black woman with a heavy Yorkshire accent saying that whenever she goes into a meeting the first question is always ‘where are you from?’. In a 45 year career in the civil service during which I must have attended thousands of meetings I don’t think I was ever asked that question. As a white male it was no doubt considered redundant but why does a Black person need to be ‘from’ anywhere? The question implies: you don’t belong here, you are not one of us, you must be from somewhere else.

The whole day was thought provoking and interesting and it was followed by a small party to mark the opening of an exhibition: ‘Let’s Play Vinyl’.

The ‘how long does it take?’question assumed a more personal perspective as two of us made our way from the hotel to Huddersfield station the following day. A passenger in a passing car hurled random racist abuse in our direction before speeding off. Was it the mix of Black and White that he found so offensive? We’ll never know as he didn’t stop to explain his ‘thought’ processes.

‘How long?’ indeed.

One third of Historycal Roots visited Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery last week to view The Past is Now – Birmingham and the British Empire exhibition.

The exhibition makes links between famous figures from the city’s past and the slave trade. For example, Birmingham-born Francis Galton who coined the term eugenics which involved forced sterilisation, controlled breeding and restricting marriages.

Another is Joseph Chamberlain who as a former Colonial Secretary of Britain was considered by many to be responsible for British brutality in South Africa particularly during the 2nd Boer War in 1899 which was known as “Joe’s War”. Ironically the Museum is situated in Chamberlain Square, named after Joseph.

The exhibition also shows how some of the products of Birmingham’s thriving industry in the 19th century was used to support the slave trade. This included guns and leg irons.

The exhibition doesn’t attempt to impose views on others but encourages visitors to think. There is a white board where people can write down their feelings.

The rest of the Museum and Art Gallery has much of interest in terms of Black History. You can learn about William Davidson who, after being born a slave moved to Scotland where he became a lawyer before moving to Birmingham in the early 1800s where he became a cabinet maker. Or another former slave Peter Stanford. Born in America, he became Birmingham’s first black Christian minister in 1887.

If art is your subject then look out for the painting of Joseph Sturge and a young black girl (below). Sturge was a prominent member of the Birmingham Anti-Slave Society.

The Past is Now runs until 12 March 2018 and is worth a visit. But be warned, there is very little publicity about it in the Museum itself and nor is it well sign-posted so don’t give up if at first you can’t locate it.

You should be able to find out more about the exhibition here:

http://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/bmag/whats-on/the-past-is-now-birmingham-and-the-british-empire