A review of a publication on The Stars Campaign for Interracial Friendship, which arose to combat racism after the 1958 anti-black ‘riots’.
What a welcome job of historical recovery this pamphlet is. The community resistance to the Notting Hill and Nottingham anti-black race riots of August 1958 are well known. Much, much less well known is The Stars Campaign for Interracial Friendship (SCIF). But this brief little-acknowledged struggle deserves a place in the history of resistance to British racism.
Who now remembers that Cleo Laine and her late husband, John Dankworth, were both founding members of SCIF? Who knows that many famous people in the music and entertainment business supported SCIF? For that matter, how many people knew about SCIF in the late 1950s? As Blackman explains, he couldn’t ‘find massive SCIF gigs in 1958 or 1959, not because they didn’t happen, but because they couldn’t happen … not only was the television in black and white, but so was society.’
‘The music industry in Britain had, soon after the end of World War Two, given voice to anti-racism.’ As early as 1947 the Musicians’ Union (MU) resolved that it would oppose the colour bar wherever it appeared, and was one of the first organisations to demand a boycott of apartheid in South Africa. Partly through MU initiatives over racism in dance halls, and ‘after a sustained campaign, the colour bar was lifted in Mecca ballrooms in: Nottingham, Birmingham, Streatham and Sheffield on 16th Oct 1958’.
The MU had influenced the earlier prompt reaction to the August Bank Holiday riots from the music industry. Just a day after the trouble had finally subsided, a statement signed by twenty-seven entertainment industry celebrities appeared on the front page of Melody Maker 5 September 1958:
At a time when reason has given way to violence in parts of Britain, we, the people of all races in the world of entertainment, appeal to the public to reject racial discrimination in any shape of form. Violence will settle nothing: it will only cause suffering to innocent people and create fresh grievances. We appeal to our audiences everywhere to join us in opposing any and every aspect of colour prejudice wherever it may appear.
By early 1959, even as the far Right continued to build, regular social /musical gatherings were being organised through ‘The Harmony Club’ and ‘Skiffle Cellar’. ‘However tame these events may now seem, for 1959 it was ground-breaking. The colour bar was being openly challenged and music was at the heart of it.’ In addition, through its celebrity links, SCIF was able to reach and influence not only musical paper readers but millions of TV viewers too, as they sought to make ‘racism unattractive and unpopular by suggestion’. Despite its small size, Blackman sees SCIF’s public opposition to racism as having a widespread influence like no other organisation at the time.