“I wonder how many people know that black boxers were banned from becoming British boxing champions until 1947 or about the contribution of black soldiers in the battle of Waterloo?” asks Richard Benjamin, the director of the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool, part of National Museums Liverpool.
Benjamin is discussing Black History Month, which celebrated its 29th anniversary last month.
“The International Slavery Museum not only covers transatlantic slavery and modern forms of slavery and enslavement, but African and black history more generally,” he says.
“These subjects should be obligatory aspects of world and British history, but we are not there quite yet. So in the meantime, let’s get behind Black History Month events nationwide.”
Black History Month was introduced by the Greater London Council in 1987. But there is no coordinating body behind the initiative to provide participating museums and galleries with guidelines.
A London-based publishing company, Sugar Media and Marketing, compiles event information, but a spokesman says that “nobody organises Black History Month”. He adds: “Most events and exhibitions are privately funded or backed by local authorities.”
Meanwhile, the issue of whether museums should focus more on representing black culture throughout the year, including via permanent displays, is often aired during Black History Month.
“Although black history and culture certainly need to be integrated within our exhibitions and displays, and showcased via events and activities at different times of the year, we also mark Black History Month,” says Karen Garvey, engagement officer, events, at Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives.
“It fulfils the needs of local people, it plays a role in the city-wide programme and also puts a spotlight on black heritage and achievements at a time when people are looking out for this.”
Bristol’s programme included an exhibition at Bristol Record Office, which focused on British people’s fight to end apartheid in South Africa.
Black and minority ethnic history and culture is reflected across the galleries and themes at M Shed, Bristol’s local history museum, stresses Garvey, who is meeting a group of African-Caribbean artists, performers and writers this month to discuss diversifying the programme.
Debate continues
But the debate over whether a targeted month-long event is still necessary continues. Marika Sherwood, a senior research fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies
in London, says: “It is better, perhaps, to have a Black History Month than to have no black history recognised a tall.
The history of black people in the UK dates back about 2,000 years, so their manifold contributions to society should be recognised in all exhibitions, and should be taught in schools.”
David Olusoga, a British- Nigerian historian, wrote in the Guardian recently: “There’s no doubt that black British history, as celebrated during Black History Month, has helped thousands of black children understand their place within the British story.
The stories of remarkable men and women – from Britain and around the world – become counterweights against the tsunami of negative stereotypes that wash over black children growing up in this country.
“But the problem is that biography, especially heroic biography, can at times displace and obscure history rather than explain or deepen it. This is because the life stories of the men and women who make up the pantheon of black heroes are not wide enough, even when viewed together, to encompass the global scale and variety of black history.”
Benjamin is discussing Black History Month, which celebrated its 29th anniversary last month.
“The International Slavery Museum not only covers transatlantic slavery and modern forms of slavery and enslavement, but African and black history more generally,” he says.
“These subjects should be obligatory aspects of world and British history, but we are not there quite yet. So in the meantime, let’s get behind Black History Month events nationwide.”
Black History Month was introduced by the Greater London Council in 1987. But there is no coordinating body behind the initiative to provide participating museums and galleries with guidelines.
A London-based publishing company, Sugar Media and Marketing, compiles event information, but a spokesman says that “nobody organises Black History Month”. He adds: “Most events and exhibitions are privately funded or backed by local authorities.”
Meanwhile, the issue of whether museums should focus more on representing black culture throughout the year, including via permanent displays, is often aired during Black History Month.
“Although black history and culture certainly need to be integrated within our exhibitions and displays, and showcased via events and activities at different times of the year, we also mark Black History Month,” says Karen Garvey, engagement officer, events, at Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives.
“It fulfils the needs of local people, it plays a role in the city-wide programme and also puts a spotlight on black heritage and achievements at a time when people are looking out for this.”
Bristol’s programme included an exhibition at Bristol Record Office, which focused on British people’s fight to end apartheid in South Africa.
Black and minority ethnic history and culture is reflected across the galleries and themes at M Shed, Bristol’s local history museum, stresses Garvey, who is meeting a group of African-Caribbean artists, performers and writers this month to discuss diversifying the programme.
Debate continues
But the debate over whether a targeted month-long event is still necessary continues. Marika Sherwood, a senior research fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies
in London, says: “It is better, perhaps, to have a Black History Month than to have no black history recognised a tall.
The history of black people in the UK dates back about 2,000 years, so their manifold contributions to society should be recognised in all exhibitions, and should be taught in schools.”
David Olusoga, a British- Nigerian historian, wrote in the Guardian recently: “There’s no doubt that black British history, as celebrated during Black History Month, has helped thousands of black children understand their place within the British story.
The stories of remarkable men and women – from Britain and around the world – become counterweights against the tsunami of negative stereotypes that wash over black children growing up in this country.
“But the problem is that biography, especially heroic biography, can at times displace and obscure history rather than explain or deepen it. This is because the life stories of the men and women who make up the pantheon of black heroes are not wide enough, even when viewed together, to encompass the global scale and variety of black history.”