19 April 1993 - Steve Robinson becomes WBO Featherweight Boxing Champion. On 17 April 1993 the defending Featherweight Champion, Ruben Palacios from Colombia, was due to defend his title in Washington, England against John Davison from England. However, the champion failed a HIV test by the BBBC prior to the bout and was immediately stripped of his title by the WBO. With only two days to go before the bout, the promoters had to find another opponent to face Davison. Steve Robinson accepted the chance to fight for the WBO crown. Robinson won the bout by a points decision against all the odds. He was the new WBO World Featherweight Champion. He was a worthy champion with 7 successful defences of his title.

19 April 1993 - Steve Robinson becomes WBO Featherweight Boxing Champion. On 17 April 1993 the defending Featherweight Champion, Ruben Palacios from Colombia, was due to defend his title in Washington, England against John Davison from England. However, the champion failed a HIV test by the BBBC prior to the bout and was immediately stripped of his title by the WBO. With only two days to go before the bout, the promoters had to find another opponent to face Davison. Steve Robinson accepted the chance to fight for the WBO crown. Robinson won the bout by a points decision against all the odds. He was the new WBO World Featherweight Champion. He was a worthy champion with 7 successful defences of his title.

18 April 2011 - A Plaque commemorating Dadabhai Naoroji, the first ever Asian MP to be elected to Parliament in 1892, is unveiled outside the Finsbury Town Hall on Rosebery Avenue, London

18 April 2011 - A Plaque commemorating Dadabhai Naoroji, the first ever Asian MP to be elected to Parliament in 1892, is unveiled outside the Finsbury Town Hall on Rosebery Avenue, London

17 April 2018 - Prime Minister Theresa May apologised to Caribbean leaders over the Windrush generation controversy, at a Downing Street meeting.

She said she was "genuinely sorry" about the anxiety caused by the Home Office threatening the children of Commonwealth citizens with deportation.

The UK government "valued" the contribution they had made, she said, and they had a right to stay in the UK.

It comes amid reports some are still facing deportation.

The deportation of one man, which had been due to take place on Wednesday, has been halted following an intervention by Labour MP David Lammy.

The Tottenham MP said the mother of 35-year-old Mozi Haynes got in touch saying her son was due to be removed from the country after two failed applications to stay.

With thanks to the BBC for the above information.

17 April 2018 -  Stephen: The Murder That Changed a Nation , a three part documentary, is broadcast on the BBC. 

"Duwayne Brooks, who was with Stephen Lawrence on the night of 22 April 1993, is now middle-aged. Stephen is frozen at 18, his life stolen by racist thugs. Asif Kapadia and James Gay-Rees’s damning three-part documentary, stripped across this week, tracks the (at best) hopeless police investigation, the undermining of Brooks and the disintegration of the Lawrence family. It tells an immigrant story that feels buried in the past, but grimly relevant to Britain’s present, too."

Phil Harrison, The Guardian

16 April 1994 - Samuel Selvon dies. (20 May 1923 – 16 April 1994). His 1956 novel The Lonely Londoners is  groundbreaking in its use of creolised English, or "nation language", for narrative as well as dialoguedies. He was  was a Trinidad-born writer. His 1956 novel The Lonely Londoners is groundbreaking in its use of creolised English, or "nation language", for narrative as well as dialogue.

See Hall of Fame for Biography.

16 April 1994 - Samuel Selvon dies. (20 May 1923 – 16 April 1994). His 1956 novel The Lonely Londoners is  groundbreaking in its use of creolised English, or "nation language", for narrative as well as dialoguedies. He was  was a Trinidad-born writer. His 1956 novel The Lonely Londoners is groundbreaking in its use of creolised English, or "nation language", for narrative as well as dialogue.

See Hall of Fame for Biography.

15 April 2018 -A red plaque is  unveiled in honour of George A Roberts by London Fire Brigade on New Cross Fire Station in South East London where he was stationed in World War Two.

See Hall of Fame for Biography

15 April 2018 -A red plaque is  unveiled in honour of George A Roberts by London Fire Brigade on New Cross Fire Station in South East London where he was stationed in World War Two.

See Hall of Fame for Biography

14 April 2020 -Former England fast bowler Devon Malcolm says it is "really difficult" to come to terms with the death of his father from coronavirus, after not being able to visit him in hospital.

Malcolm's father Albert, who lived in a care home, died aged 75 on 4 April.

He had been admitted to hospital with a bladder infection on 29 March and had only tested positive for coronavirus two days before his death.

"It's so sad, we lost him in a few days," Malcolm told BBC Radio 5 Live.

"It's so difficult when a loved one is admitted to hospital and you are told you can't visit, you can't be there for them.

"Later on when I got the call to say he had passed, it was a very, very weird feeling."

Malcolm said he last saw his father about a month before his death when he was in "good fettle" and had not visited since because he was adhering to social distancing measures designed to shield the most vulnerable from the virus.

"Until you get the death certificate and the reality sinks in, it feels like you're having a dream and you'll be out of it in a minute," added the 57-year-old.

"It's surreal - you're told he's responding well so you think everything is all right, then next you hear you're told to prepare for the worst and then 20 minutes later, he's gone," he said.

"We have a date for the funeral but the process is so different now to going through a bereavement in the past," added Malcolm, whose mother died when he was five. "There are only five people plus the vicar allowed at the graveside.

As of 13 April 2020, 12,868 in the UK have died in hospitals from the Virus. Care home deaths are not included in this figure. 

With thank to The BBC for the above information.

14 April 2020 -Former England fast bowler Devon Malcolm says it is "really difficult" to come to terms with the death of his father from coronavirus, after not being able to visit him in hospital.

Malcolm's father Albert, who lived in a care home, died aged 75 on 4 April.

He had been admitted to hospital with a bladder infection on 29 March and had only tested positive for coronavirus two days before his death.

"It's so sad, we lost him in a few days," Malcolm told BBC Radio 5 Live.

"It's so difficult when a loved one is admitted to hospital and you are told you can't visit, you can't be there for them.

"Later on when I got the call to say he had passed, it was a very, very weird feeling."

Malcolm said he last saw his father about a month before his death when he was in "good fettle" and had not visited since because he was adhering to social distancing measures designed to shield the most vulnerable from the virus.

"Until you get the death certificate and the reality sinks in, it feels like you're having a dream and you'll be out of it in a minute," added the 57-year-old.

"It's surreal - you're told he's responding well so you think everything is all right, then next you hear you're told to prepare for the worst and then 20 minutes later, he's gone," he said.

"We have a date for the funeral but the process is so different now to going through a bereavement in the past," added Malcolm, whose mother died when he was five. "There are only five people plus the vicar allowed at the graveside.

As of 13 April 2020, 12,868 in the UK have died in hospitals from the Virus. Care home deaths are not included in this figure. 

With thank to The BBC for the above information.

13 April 1972  -Love Thy Neighbour  a British sitcom, which was transmitted from 13 April 1972 until 22 January 1976, spanning seven series. The sitcom was produced by Thames Television for the ITV network. The principal cast included Jack Smethurst, Rudolph Walker, Nina Baden-Semper and Kate Williams. In 1973, the series was adapted into a film of the same name, and a later sequel series was set in Australia. A very controversial programme that would never be broadcast today - just like the BBC series it was seen to counter - Till Death Do Us Part - because of the severe racial stereotypes throughout. 

12 April 2012 - Sajid Javid, son of a Pakistani bus conductor, becomes the first Asian male to lead a government department, when he is appointed Minister for Culture and Sport by the Prime Minister, David Cameron.

11th April 1981 – Brixton is the scene of large scale rioting which involves 213 arrests and 201 police officers injured. Members of the fire and ambulance service as well as journalists also injured. A serious breakdown in trust between the local police and black youths is seen as the main cause of the disturbances.The Brixton Riots or Brixton uprising, was a confrontation between the Metropolitan Police and protesters in Lambeth, South London, England, between in  April 1981. The main riot on 11 April, dubbed 'Bloody Saturday' by TIME magazine, resulted in almost 280* injuries to police and 45* injuries to members of the public; over a hundred vehicles were burned, including 56 police vehicles; and almost 150 buildings were damaged, with thirty burned. There were 82 arrests. Reports suggested that up to 5,000 people were involved. The riots were seen as a protest against rising unemployment, poor housing and social conditions of local black people and an increasing alienation with the UK political system.

10 April 2020 -A doctor who warned the prime minister about a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) for NHS workers dies after contracting coronavirus. Consultant urologist Abdul Mabud Chowdhury, 53, died at Queen's Hospital in Romford, east London, on Wednesday.

Five days before he was admitted to hospital, Dr Chowdhury had appealed for "appropriate PPE and remedies" to "protect ourselves and our families".

Matt Hancock said the UK has made a "Herculean effort" to deliver PPE.

Speaking at the government's daily coronavirus briefing, he said the "plan to protect the people who protect us" included creating a new domestic manufacturing industry.

Dr Chowdhury's son Intisar described the consultant urologist as a "kind and compassionate hero" who had been in "such pain" when he wrote the appeal to the government on Facebook.

"He wrote that post while he was in that state, just because of how much he cared about his co-workers."

The news came as the UK suffered its biggest daily hospital COVID19 fatalities to date.The UK recorded another 980 hospital deaths, bringing the total to 8,958. 

With thanks to The BBC for the above information.

9 April 2020 - Dame Jocelyn Anita Barrow DBE  dies at the age of 90. Mrs. Downer was the first black woman to be a governor of the BBC and was founder and Deputy Chair of the Broadcasting Standards Council.

Dame Jocelyn was a founding member and General Secretary of Campaign Against Racial Discrimination (CARD) campaigning particularly around the period between 1965 and 1970 in lobbying for the two Race Relation Acts with additional work of helping individuals to exercise their rights for racism discrimination claims.See Hall of Fame for full biography 

8 April 2010 -The Equality Act 2010 comes into force. It legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society. It replaced previous anti-discrimination laws with a single Act, making the law easier to understand and strengthening protection in some situations.

7 April 2018 -Britain's James DeGale regained his IBF super-middleweight title with a unanimous points decision over Caleb Truax in Las Vegas.

DeGale, 32, lost his belt in a shock points defeat by the 34-year-old American in December 2017.

But he did not underestimate Truax a second time and went the distance, despite a bad cut, to secure the win.

With thanks to the BBC for the above information.

6 April 2019 - Coronation Street announces it will  introduce its first black family, in a move showrunners have described as overdue. 

While the show has previously featured individual black characters, the Baileys will be the first black family to join Britain's longest running soap all together in its 59-year history.

The show will explore themes of racism and homophobia in sport with the family, made up of Edison, the father, Aggie, the mother, and their sons, James and Michael. James, a 19-year-old footballer, will come out as gay in an upcoming storyline.

Asked why the show had taken so long to introduce its first black family, the producer Iain MacLeod said: “Short answer: I don’t really know. In the past, new families come in one at a time. I find that a harder way to do it, which is why they all turn up and you get the dynamic. Manchester has a large proportion of black residents so it did feel sort of overdue we did this and represented modern Manchester a bit more accurately.”

With thanks to The Guardian for the above information

5 April 1985 - The West India Committee, formed in London celebrated its incredible 250th Anniversary. The West India Committee was established in Bishopsgate, London to protect trade in the British West Indies. However, by 1836, the West India Committee coordinated fundraising to end slave ownership and slave labour. After emancipation in the British West Indies, the Committee reached out to slaves from Portuguese and Spanish colonies in the Caribbean and assisted them in being granted asylum in declared safe havens.

4 April 2005 - In one of the major changes in the British criminal justice system, Government drops the legal principle which prevents suspects being tried twice for the same crime. The Stephen Lawrence murder and subsequent events are seen as major catalyst behind this decision.

3 April 1999 - Southampton Saints' reserve team Ladies Keeper, Aman  Dosanj comes on as a half time sub to represent  England U-16s in a five-nations tournament in Dublin. In doing so she notably became the first British Asian to play football for England at any level. Dosanj described her international debut as "the proudest and most memorable day of my life. See Hall of Fame for biography on Aman Dosanj.

1 April 2017 - Darcus Howe, the broadcaster, writer and civil rights campaigner, dies aged 74. His family announced his death in a statement that read: “Darcus died quietly and unexpectedly in his sleep on the evening of Saturday 1 April. Our private grief is inseparable from our public pride.”

Howe, originally from Trinidad and Tobago, lived in Brixton, south London, for 30 years and was well known for his Channel 4 series Black on Black and late-night current affairs programme The Devil’s Advocate.

In a hugely varied and influential journalistic career, he was also an editor of Race Today, wrote columns for both the New Statesman and the Voice, and served as chair of the Notting Hill carnival. His television work included the multicultural current affairs documentary The Bandung File, which he co-edited with Tariq Ali, and more recently White Tribe, a look at modern Britain. See Hall of Fame for full biography 

31 March 2021 -A landmark report on racial disparityis  widely condemned by MPs, unions, and equality campaigners as “divisive” and a missed opportunity for systematic change.

Critics said the report by the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities had failed to acknowledge the “shocking disparities and shocking outcomes in health, education and housing” affecting minority communities in the UK.

Labour also called on the government to explain one of the most contentious passages, which, it alleges, glorifies the slave trade.

Published in full on Wednesday after selective leaks to the media earlier in the week, the report marks a significant shift in government policy, stating its findings “present a new race agenda for the country”.

The review behind the report was set up by Downing Street to investigate racial disparities in the UK in response to the Black Lives Matter protests last summer.

The commission’s report notes that while racism and racial injustice do still exist geography, family influence, socio-economic background, culture and religion all have a greater impact on life chances.

In a foreword to the report, commission chairman Dr Tony Sewell said some communities are haunted by historic racism and there was a “reluctance to acknowledge that the UK had become open and fairer”. He said the review found some evidence of bias, but often it was a perception that the wider society could not be trusted.

Simon Woolley, who was head of No 10’s race disparity unit until last summer, criticised the commission for disrespecting and disregarding people’s lived experience.

Lord Woolley said: “If you deny structural race inequality then you’ve got nothing to do and that in of itself is a huge problem. There was structural racism before Covid-19 and Black Lives Matter, in all areas and all levels of our society. There are shocking disparities and shocking outcomes in health, education and housing. That’s why we set up the race and disparity unit in the first place.

“Covid-19 laid bare these structural inequalities in such Technicolor and made them worse, where [BAME communities] are dying in greater numbers, becoming severely ill in greater numbers, and losing their jobs. Then to be not only in denial, but saying: ‘What are you complaining about? We live in a society that is much better than it was 100 years ago’ is monumental disrespect and disregard of people’s lived experiences, but above all a lost opportunity for systemic change.”

The report notes improvements such as increasing diversity in elite profession, a shrinking ethnicity pay gap and that children from many ethnic communities do as well or better than white pupils in compulsory education.

The 258-page report calls on the government to fully fund the Equality and Human Rights Commission, improve training for police officers and include a local residency requirement for recruitment. Within 24 recommendations it advocates establishing an office for health disparities, opening up access to apprenticeships, teaching an “inclusive curriculum”, and putting a stop to use of the term BAME.

It also pushes for a move of focus away from institutions and more towards “the extent [that] individuals and their communities could help themselves through their own agency, rather than wait for invisible external forces to assemble to do the job”.

In an open rebuff to the arguments of the Black Lives Matter movement, and the protests that erupted after the death of George Floyd in the US, the report says the “idealism” of “well-intentioned young people” promoting the dominant feature in society as being institutional racism, achieves little “beyond alienating the decent centre ground”.

Shadow women and equalities secretary Marsha De Cordova, said: “To downplay institutional racism in a pandemic where black, Asian and ethnic minority people have died disproportionately and are now twice as likely to be unemployed is an insult.”

Responding to one of the most contentious passages in the report, which argues that a “new story” needs to be told about the slave trade, which would highlight cultural transformation of African people, de Cordova said: “The government must urgently explain how they came to publish content which glorifies the slave trade, and immediately disassociate themselves with these remarks.”

The commission focuses significantly on education, which it describes as the single most emphatic success story of the British ethnic minority experience, where children from many ethnic communities do as well or better than white pupils, with black Caribbean students the only group to perform less well.

With thanks to The Guardian for the above information.