Black Diaspora in the UK/Black British History Resources

This book represents the first systematic attempt to analyse media and public communications published in Britain by people of African and Afro-Caribbean origin during the aftermaths of war, presenting an in-depth study of print publications for the period 1919-1924. This was a period of post-conflict readjustment that experienced a transnational surge in special interest newspapers and periodicals, including visual discourse.   This study provides evidence that the aftermath of war needs to be given more attention as a distinctly defined period of post-conflict adjustment in which individual voices should be highlighted. As such it forms part of a continuing imperative to re-discover and recuperate black history, adding to the body of research on the aftermaths of The First World War, black studies, and the origins of diaspora. Jane L. Chapman analyses how the newspapers of black communities act as a record of conflict memory, and specifically how physical and political oppression was understood by members of the African Caribbean community. Pioneering black activist journalism demonstrates opinions on either empowerment or disempowerment, visibility, self-esteem, and economic struggles for survival.

Examining the growth of the black media in Britain from 1901 to today, this book traces the struggles and successes of the owners and controllers of the major black media, their history and current status. The book considers the portrayal in the mainstream media of black people and finds a pattern of gross omission and stereotypical racist distortion. It links this misrepresentation to the growth of separate media for a population which, like all members of modern society, relies on the media for information and entertainment. It relates how, despite legislation, black people still do not have equality of opportunity and that this is true, too in the case of employment in the mainstream media industry - particularly at senior level.