As part of WoW’s Black History Month celebrations, they will be embarking on a historical walking tour of the L1 area, exploring a forgotten yet integral part of Liverpool’s cultural and racial history.
The tour is held 4 and 18 October, starts Chinese Arch, Nelson Street, L1, 11am. You can book tickets here.
Inspired by the hugely successful Great War to Race Riots Archive project and our on-going ‘Black Lives and Legacies 1919’ project, in association with Livepool University, their volunteers have researched and mapped a history yet to be recognised in mainstream accounts of the city’s well documented past.
The racial riots of 1919 were a watershed moment for Liverpool’s longstanding black community. On the night of 6th June 1919 unprecedented racial violence erupted in the modern day Chinatown area.
The violence continued for days, as gangs of people, reportedly in the hundreds or thousands, hunted out “any black man they could find … severely beating and stabbing” them.
Black homes and businesses were looted and wrecked as over 700 members of the black community were removed from their homes into the main Bridewell, for their own protection.