Notting Hill Race Riots (1958)
Sat Aug 30, 1958
Image: Graffiti from the time period, saying "No colour bar here". Titled "Beating back Mosley at Notting Hill 1958" - Baker Baron
On this day in 1958, an ad-hoc community militia led by Baker Baron, a British-Jamaican veteran, drove off a lynch mob with guns and molotov cocktails during the Notting Hill Race Riots.
The Notting Hill race riots were a series of racially motivated riots that took place in Notting Hill, England between August 23rd and September 5th, 1958.
Although the racial uprising was initially sporadic, one of the primary triggers is often thought to be an assault against Majbritt Morrison, a white Swedish woman who came to the attention of local white supremacists while arguing with her Jamaican husband, Raymond Morrison.
Following this incident, a white mob several hundred strong formed (associated with the racist "Teddy Boys" movement) and began to terrorize people of color in the area.
One resident, Baker Baron, born in Jamaica and a veteran of the Royal Air Force (RAF), decided to organize violent resistance to the mob violence. On this day in 1958, his force drove off a lynch mob with molotov cocktails. Here is what happened in Baron's own words:
"When they told us that they were coming to attack that night I went around and told all the people that was living in the area to withdraw that night. The women I told them to keep pots, kettles of hot water boiling, get some caustic soda and if anyone tried to break down the door and come in, to just lash out with them.
The men, well we were armed...Make no mistake, there were iron bars, there were machetes, there were all kinds of arms, weapons, we had guns. We made preparations at the headquarters for the attack. We had men on the housetop waiting for them...'Let's burn the removeds, let's lynch the removeds.' That's the time I gave the order for the gates to open...I says, 'Start bombing them.' When they saw the Molotov cocktails coming and they start to panic and run.
...I knew one thing, the following morning we walked the streets free because they knew we were not going to stand for that type of behaviour."
- Date: 1958-08-30
- Learn More: libcom.org, en.wikipedia.org, www.blackpast.org, warwick.ac.uk.
- Tags: #Riots.
- Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org