Witness History: Black history
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Witness History: Black history
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Viv Anderson - first black England footballer
In November 1978, Viv Anderson became the first black footballer to play a full England international. The son of Jamaican immigrants, Anderson had to...
The Immortal Cells of Henrietta Lacks
In 1951 cells taken from an African American woman suffering from cancer were found to be unique because they carried on reproducing endlessly in the...
Roots - The TV Series
The epic mini-series about slavery in the USA hit TV screens in January 1977. Based on a novel by Alex Haley it imagined the lives of his ancestors wh...
The Dance Theatre of Harlem
In August 1969, Arthur Mitchell founded the Dance Theatre of Harlem - the first classical ballet company to focus on black dancers. Virginia Johnson,...
Race Riots in Liverpool
In July 1981 race riots broke out on the streets of Liverpool. It was the first time that British police used CS gas to control civil unrest in mainla...
Black in the USSR
Robert Robinson, a Jamaican born engineer, was recruited to work in the USSR from a factory in Detroit in 1930. Having had his US citizenship revoked,...
Marcus Garvey
In 1916 Marcus Garvey arrived in the US and began a movement for black pride. His dream was that black people would live independently of whites in a...
Haile Selassie In Jamaica
In April 1966, Ethiopia's emperor Haile Selassie made a spectacular arrival in Jamaica. It was his first and only visit to the birthplace of the Rasta...
The Back to Africa Movement
At the end of the 19th Century, African-Americans in the southern states of the US faced a wave of political and racial violence. Lynchings reached a...
The Scottsboro Boys: A Miscarriage of Justice in the US
In 1931, nine black teenagers were convicted of raping two white girls in the southern US state of Alabama.
Eight were sentenced to death by an...
Josephine Baker - Black American Superstar
In 1925 a young black American dancer became an overnight sensation in Paris. Her overtly sexual act soon made her one of the most famous women in Eur...
The Children's Crusade
Birmingham in Alabama was one of the most segregated cities in the USA in 1963. In May that year thousands of black schoolchildren responded to a call...
Mixed race marriage victory in US
In 1958, a mixed-race couple, Mildred and Richard Loving, were arrested and then banished from the US state of Virginia for breaking its laws against...
Greensboro Lunch Counter Sit-ins
On 1 February 1960, four young black men began a protest in Greensboro, North Carolina against the racial segregation of shops and restaurants in the...
The Freedom Riders
The Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode on buses, testing out whether bus stations were complying with the Supreme Court ruling that b...
The Mississippi Burning Case
Andrew Goodman was one of the three civil rights workers killed by the Klu Klux Klan in Mississippi in 1964. He and the other two victims, James Chane...
Petula Clark touches Harry Belafonte's arm
In 1968, when Petula Clark touched Harry Belafonte's arm during a duet, it was the first time a white woman had touched a black man on US television.<...
John Howard Griffin: Black Like Me
John Howard Griffin, a white journalist, dyed his skin black to experience segregation in America's Deep South. John Howard Griffin wrote a book about...
Beverly Johnson - Vogue's First Black Covergirl
In 1974 American Vogue put a black model on its cover for the first time. We hear how Beverly Johnson made it to the front of the world's most famous...
Black Golfer at the US Masters
In 1975, Lee Elder braved death threats to become the first African-American golfer to play at the prestigious US Masters in Augusta.
It was one...
Jamaica Slave Rebellion
*** Contains descriptions that some listeners may find upsetting ***
Enslaved Africans are forced to work in sugar cane fields - the hours are...
The Voyage of the Empire Windrush
In 1948 nearly 500 pioneers travelled from the Caribbean on the Empire Windrush. The passage cost £28, 10 shillings.
Passenger Sam King describ...
The Attica Prison Riot
In September 1971 prisoners in a high security jail in the US rose up against their guards taking 42 people hostage. After 4 days of negotiations, ar...
I Have a Dream
On August 28th 1963, the American civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, made his historic plea for an end to racial discrimination in the USA. Sta...
Muhammad Ali and the Draft
In 1967, the world heavyweight champion, Muhammad Ali, refused to be indicted into the American military. His decision to follow his conscience and no...
James Brown Concert at the Boston Garden
The soul singer's April 1968 concert was held amid rioting and violence provoked by the assassination of Martin Luther King. But despite the fears of...
The Tuskegee Syphilis Study
For nearly 40 years, the US government conducted an experiment on a group of African-American men without their knowledge - to see what would happen i...