Voice launch tome celebrating 40 years

40 years of black history in one book

The Voice launch book celebrating 40th anniversary in Birmingham and London

THE VOICE’S new book celebrating four decades of publishing was launched at two swish events in London and Birmingham.

The book — 40 Years of Black British Lives — chronicles the biggest stories capturing moments in history through the eyes of the newspaper.

Big names, community champions and entrepreneurs gathered at both events to hear the authors discussing key moments in black British history.

And there was a special award for the longest-serving employee, Voice of Sport’s Rodney Hinds, who has been at the paper for 22 years. He received recognition for his sterling service to the community.

Guests at the Millenium Hotel in South Kensington included entrepreneur and musician Levi Roots, Baroness Floella Benjamin, Diane Abbott MP, sports boss Geoff Thompson and sculptor Basil Watson.

It was also a chance for past Voice journalists such as Dionne Grant, Joseph Harker, Marcia Dixon and Elizabeth Pears — who have gone on to blaze a trail in the media — to catch up on old times.

Former editor Winsome Cornish, who wrote the chapter covering 2003 — 2012, said: “The Voice has been an institution in Britain for the past 40 years, and to celebrate the 40th anniversary with a book about black British life is really the pinnacle.”

Current editor Lester Holloway added: “It’s not just the story of The Voice newspaper over the past 40 years, it’s really a history book. It tells the story of the struggle that we’ve been through as a community. And in many ways it puts the present in context.”

The present team — covering editorial, advertising and everything else — were presented with special appreciation awards.

At both events, the chapter’s authors — Vic Motune, Richard Adeshiyan, Dotun Adebayo, Cornish and Hinds — discussed their decade and took questions from the audience.

The Voice’s executive director, Paulette Simpson CBE, said on the night: “We said what could we do to really celebrate 40 years and also leave a legacy for the community?

“So we thought about doing a book that will enable us to leave a legacy of the experiences of black people in Britain over the last 40 years.”

To get you copy email: subscriptions@thevoicemediagroup.co.uk

Then and now...

CAPTURING KEY MOMENTS IN HISTORY:

A collage of front pages from the early days of The Voice; below, 40 years on the newspaper is still campaigning for the community as shown in pages from its recent August edition

AUGUST 2022 THE VOICE | 3

Key moment

The year that made The Voice

The paper was at the heart of community demands for action after police deaths

THE YEAR 1985 was an important period for The Voice. When the late Val McCalla created the paper in the aftermath of the inner city uprisings of 1981, the hope was that having a voice would move the government to address the underlying causes of tension — police brutality, lack of jobs, and what we now call systemic racism.

That hope was quickly dashed as a policing law, introduced in the wake of the uprisings, led to fears it would make tensions between police and the community worse.

Our feature on pages 16 to 21 details the early campaigning in the paper’s first year over the fatal shooting of Colin Roach inside Stoke Newington police station. But it was ‘85 that really defined the paper.

Yet four years after Brixton, Handsworth in Birmingham, Chapeltown in Leeds, and Toxteth in Liverpool burned, little, if anything had improved. Margaret Thatcher built some new houses in Toxteth but the material conditions — poverty, unemployment and racism — remained.

In October 1985, ‘No Peace for Joy’ was the powerful headline demanding that officers responsible for the death of Joy Gardner — who suffocated as she was bound in 13 feet of adhesive tape during an attempt to deport her — be prosecuted.

Around the same time, Cynthia Jarrett died of heart failure as police carried out a raid at her house, and Cherry Groce was shot and injured by police in Brixton.

Tensions were boiling, and The Voice ran a front page calling for a Day of Action following a community consultation meeting. In an echo of the US

Black Panther newspaper, we carried five demands including an educational programme for black youth, and a study of disproportionate deprivation.

When Brixton erupted out of fury and frustration at the shooting of Groce, The Voice led with ‘the story behind the rioting’.

The Voice had not only warned against the consequences of government failure to act to tackle deprivation and oppression, but was an active participant in community organisation by carrying agreed demands on our frontpage.

As the dust settled on the ‘85 uprisings in Brixton and Broadwater Farm, Tottenham, our paper was once again providing analysis of why this had happened, and laying down the actions for the government.

This uncompromising stance took place even though the paper was benefiting from an influx of job adverts.

‘85 was a year that cemented the papers’ reputation for campaigning, and showed that we were not afraid to call for a demonstration and work closely with activists on the ground.

That year set the standard for campaigning by pointing the finger squarely at those responsible.

On pages 24 to 26, we highlight campaigns against proposed nationality and immigration laws, and the demand for reparations.

Much of this coverage in the years that followed is built upon the spirit of those early headlines.

When Black Lives Matter protests took place across Britain in 2020, in response to the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, US, this paper once again did not just cover the events but set out the changes we need to see. FIGHTING FOR CHANGE: Demonstrators including British actor John Boyega raise their fists in Parliament Square, London, in June 2020, after George Floyd’s murder (photo: Getty Images)

20

| THE VOICE AUGUST 2022 Policing ‘It doesn’t take a genius to see it was a racial murder’

Continued from page 18

In 2014, friends and family of Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old black man who was shot and killed by police in Tottenham, north London, gathered at a vigil outside Tottenham Police station. They were there to protest the findings of an inquest which had concluded that Duggan had been lawfully killed by police.

His death sparked nationwide riots three years earlier.

Community activist Stafford Scott, who was supporting the Duggan family, said: “For generations, (the police) have been killing black people all over the country, killing poor and working-class people. We will not and we cannot accept the perverse verdict that Mark Duggan was lawfully killed.”

That anger was reflected in a powerful Voice front page of the January 16 2014 edition.

Under the headline ‘Who is Next?’, it featured the names and pictures of many of those who, like Duggan, had died in police custody over the previous two decades and whose tragic cases have been highlighted on the pages of The Voice.

They included Sean Rigg, Leon Briggs, Shekou Bayoh, Roger Sylvester, Kingsley Burrell, Rashan Charles and reggae singer Smiley Culture, among others.

DISPARITIES

If the anger felt by black Britons about racial disparities in policing remained a fairly low priority for many politicians and much of the mainstream media, one tragic event served to catapult the issue of endemic police racism right to the top of the national agenda.

On April 22 1993, black teenager Stephen Lawrence was cruelly murdered in a racially motivated attack by a group of white youths while waiting for a bus in Eltham, south London.The Voice was one of the first newspapers to report Stephen’s tragic death.

And the family’s fight for justice formed a central part of the newspaper’s campaign for race equality to be at the heart

TRAGIC: The Voice was one of the first newspapers to report Stephen Lawrence’s death; Gary Dobson and David Norris received life sentences for his murder

MAKING THEIR

FEELINGS KNOWN: People attend a vigil in memory of Mark Duggan outside Tottenham Police Station in north London in 2014. They had gathered after an inquest concluded that Duggan had been lawfully killed by police in 2011 (photo: PA Images)

of policing. ‘Murdered for being black’ was the headline that dominated the front page of the April 27 1993 edition.

The accompanying story revealed the depth of pain of the Lawrence family. His father, Neville, told The Voice he wanted to see a return of the death penalty for the killers. “It doesn’t take a genius to see it was a racial murder,” he said. “He was chased down the street for no other reason than he was black.”

In the days following his murder, several residents came forward to provide names of the suspects — Gary Dobson, brothers Neil and Jamie Acourt, Luke Knight and David Norris. But no arrests were made until over two weeks after the murder.

Stephen’s family went public with the anger they felt that the police were not doing enough to capture his killers.

It was a meeting with the family and revered former South African president Nelson Mandela, arranged by the National Black Caucus and the Anti-Racist Alliance, that brought worldwide attention to the police’s shoddy treatment of the Lawrence family. ‘You just don’t give a damn’ was the headline of The Voice’s report of the meeting in its May 11 edition.

Mandela told the family: “I am deeply touched by the brutality of this murder, even though it is commonplace in my country. It seems like black lives here have been become cheap.”

After the meeting, Stephen’s mother Doreen told The Voice Mandela’s comments showed “people from abroad are more concerned about the death of black children than the Prime Minister of our own country, the Queen and all the ministers”.

Following the huge national attention Mandela’s comments received, the incompetent policing that governed the investigation into Stephen’s murder –

STEPHEN LAWRENCE SPECIAL EDITION FREE

www.voice-online.co.uk | January 2012

JUSTICE AT LAST!

It has been almost two decades since bright teenager Stephen Lawrence was murdered by racist thugs. Three court cases later and, at last, his parents ” Neville and Doreen have seen two men jailed.

MURDERERS: Gary Dobson and David Norris and the wider issue of police racism – became a leading story in the British press.

Furious with police failures, the Lawrence family decided to launch a private prosecution.

But the case failed in 1996. Charges against Jamie Acourt and Norris were dropped before the trial for a lack of evidence. The three remaining suspects, Neil Acourt, Knight and Dobson, were later formally acquitted.

But the decision in July 1997 of then Home Secretary Jack Straw to launch a judicial review into Stephen’s murder and the subsequent police investigation marked a major shift.

STATEMENTS

The report of the review, chaired by retired High Court judge Sir William Macpherson, produced one of the hardest-hitting official statements on racism in policing in British history.

In stark contrast to the Scarman report nearly two decades earlier, Macpherson concluded that the unsuccessful Met Police investigation into Stephen’s murder was due to institutional racism, which he defined as ‘the collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin’.

Although hailed as a watershed moment upon its publication in February 1999, race equality campaigners The Voice spoke to in its March 1 edition expressed disappointment that Macpherson didn’t go even further.

“I’m glad it’s a hard-hitting report,” Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP Diane Abbott told the newspaper. “But I’m disappointed that nobody has lost their job or been disciplined about it. I think Condon should have gone.”

Lee Jasper, Secretary of the National Assembly Against Racism, agreed. He said the black community wanted “clear, decisive and exemplary disciplinary action against the police officers who failed Stephen Lawrence’s family” and other victims of racist violence.

On the front page of that edition, under the headline ‘I Have A Dream’, The Voice said it was adding its weight to calls for a special day to mark Stephen’s memory. Then editor Annie Stewart said: “The idea of a Stephen Lawrence Day is a good one. It will be a hugely symbolic gesture and a lasting testament to Stephen.”

It was a dream that was eventually fulfilled in April 2018 when former Conservative PM Theresa May launched the annual Stephen Lawrence Day.

In May 2011, Dobson and Norris finally faced trial for Stephen’s murder following a review of forensic evidence that found the victim’s DNA on the defendants’ clothes.

AUGUST 2022 THE VOICE | 27 Business and Enterprise BACKING BLACK BUSINESS

We look back over 40 years of championing enterprise and empowerment. By Vic Motune

VOICE FOUNDER Val McCalla is often hailed for the legacy he left in creating a newspaper that campaigned for the black community on issues such as policing, education and mental health.

But McCalla was also a cheerleader for black entrepreneurs, a publisher who highlighted the need for more wealth generation in the black community and support for black businesses.

Through the pages of The Voice, he gave readers a window into the world of an emerging generation of black business owners and other professionals. Its coverage gave those who aspired to join them a chance to see that success as a black entrepreneur was possible.

Following the 1981 Brixton riots, the Scarman Inquiry sought to understand the causes of the violence. This effort included addressing some of the complex economic factors behind the uprisings. In its submission to Lord Scarman’s Inquiry, the Commission for Racial Equality said it was crucial to give more support to the development of the black business sector in deprived areas. It saw this as crucial in increasing job opportunities for black residents, many of whom had suffered disproportionately during the recession in the early 1980s.

It was a demand that The Voice championed. The emergence of black entrepreneurs in the 1980s was also enabled by measures put in place by then-prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who saw enterprise as the driving force behind economic growth and wanted to create an entrepreneurial culture in the UK. However, for black entrepreneurs, participat-

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Your UK Black Business Guide

Jamaica's Reggae Girlz v Nottingham Forest Ladies

Enter our competition for a chance to win tickets for the big match on October 28

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THE VOICE PROMOTES BLACK BUSINESSES

We launch the UK Black Business Guide as part of our campaign to promote entrepreneurs

FOR OVER 35 years The Voice has served the

black community.

This remit has led us to launch a special black business guide to mark this year’s Black History Month.

Black-owned businesses are becoming an increasingly important part of the UK economy.

More than 11,000 black entrepreneurs have launched businesses with the help of the government-backed Start Up loans since 2012.

And there are thousands more that are self-financing or have been assisted by family and friends.

It has always been important to support black business owners.

They create thousands of jobs, generate wealth in our communities and leave a legacy for the next generation.

WEALTH

But sadly many in our community either do not know about their excellent products and services or do not give them the support they deserve.

Black businesses cannot succeed without our support.

And we hope that this guide will inspire you, our readers, to support them.

See more on page 2

SUPPORT: The Voice urges readers to back entrepreneurs INSPIRATION: Nurse Mary Seacole

Calls for Mary Seacole to feature on new £50 note

LABOUR MP Wes Streeting has called for Mary Seacole to become the first black person to feature on a bank note.

The call follows news that the Bank of England will be rolling out a new £50 note in plastic material polymer.

It requested nominations from the public for the characters who will appearon the new note, which its set to be released after the £20 note in 2020.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Streetingsaid: "Mary Seacole’s achievements are toooften overlooked in history and yet what she did for soldiers in the Crimean War was an act of great heroism which led to her being voted the greatest black Briton.”

Continued on page 2

ing in that culture proved challenging. The unwillingness of banks to lend, and their lack of confidence in black business owners, meant it was difficult for these entrepreneurs to grow their businesses.

However, they were undeterred by these obstacles. The 1980s saw the growth of black business fairs aimed at sharing knowledge and resources among black business owners to help overcome challenges.

Among the most influential of these events was the Caribbean Business Focus 86, hailed at the time as the biggest black business fair that had been held in Britain. In a report about the event in its December 21, 1985 edition, The Voice quoted Sammy Jay Holder, chair of the UK Caribbean Chamber of Commerce which was organising the event. He said: “We want to highlight to the nation that black businesses are a serious and important part of the nation’s structure.”

SIGNPOST

The 1980s also saw the emergence of black business development associations. The Voice’s coverage helped them to signpost potential entrepreneurs to important sources of information.

In its October 5 1985 edition, The Voice profiled one of the earliest of these organisations.

Under the headline ‘Black Business Boom’ the newspaper profiled the work of the Black Business Development Agency in Fulham, launched in 1983. The organisation had a successful track record in helping unemployed young people between the ages of 16 and 24 start their own businesses.

Speaking to The Voice about VISION: The Voice has highlighted the need to support black businesses and encourage financial ambition (photo: Getty Images)

AUGUST 2020 • ISSUE NO. 1909

NEWSPAPER

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It’s virtually here but will be a little different this year

SEE INSIDE

£2.50

£4 BILLION

Estimated amount black-owned businesses contribute to the UK economy

BLACK ENTREPRENEURS could be

responsible for contributing an estimated £4 billion to the UK economy according to The Voice’s analysis of fi gures from the Federation of

how the organisation was creSmall Businesses. African Caribbean ated, spokesperson Seneca Joseph said: “The community felt that the facilities were not adequate to assist black people in business so we lobbied the council until they gave us the funding we needed. So far we’ve been doing quite well and now we want to expand.”

By the 2010s, black owned businesses had become a major force in the UK economy. ‘£4 billion’ was the eye-catching headline splashed on the front page of The Voice August 2020 edition. The headline referred to a Voice analysis of figures from the Federation of Small Businesses about the amount black-owned businesses contribute to the UK economy.

The noughties and 2010s also saw business based reality TV shows such The Apprentice and Dragons Den make household names out of entrepreneurs such as Tim Campbell, Bianca Miller and Levi Roots, one of Dragons Den’s biggest success stories. After securing £50,000 to manufacture his Reggae

business owners create innovative products and services plus thousands of new jobs.

It’s estimated that 95 per cent of us spend our money outside of our community. This must change. Supporting black businesses generates wealth that will strengthen our community, empower our young people and fi nance projects that challenge racial inequality.

See inside for full story

Reggae sauce, the product is now stocked in all major UK supermarkets making Roots a multi-millionaire. Following his success in the Den, Roots featured on the front of The Voice’s August 4 2008 edition.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with The Voice, he said: “I come from Brixton ghetto, and it shows that it doesn’t matter where you are from – you can raise above your circumstances and become successful once you have guidance, which I always got from my mother dearest.”

In the 2010s, The Voice took a lead role in reporting on the rebirth of economic protest as a way of achieving racial equality. ‘Black Wealth Matters’ was the headline on the front page of the July 28, 2016 edition after a wave protest against the police shootings of unarmed black men in the US. As well as highlighting how African-Americans were supporting black-owned banks and businesses, the newspaper reported on similar UK initiatives. Among them was a campaign by the Birmingham Black Pound Society, which was trying to encourage people here to support black-owned businesses.

While there are a number of black-owned banks in the US, there were none in the UK during the time of these protest.

That changed in October 2020, following the historic announcement that JN Bank had become the first 100 per cent Caribbean-owned retail bank in the UK. The news was splashed on the front page of the November 2020 edition under the headline ‘New Digital UK Bank Launched’. The exclusive frontpage story told readers that the bank, launched by the JN Group, had opened its first branch in Brixton, south London as well as launching a digital operation.

EQUITABLE

The headline on the accompanying story inside captured the feelings of Voice readers and supporters of the bank. “At last — we’ve finally got a bank of our own in Britain,” it said. “For far too long, black Britons have been poorly served by high street banks. For whatever reason, British banks have not treated their black savers and borrowers equitably.”

In the wake of George Floyd’s tragic death in May 2020, the debate about how black communities build economic muscle as a way of tackling inequality was one that occupied the mind of So Solid Crew member Swiss.

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In June 2020, at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests that year, he launched Black Pound Day, encouraging people to spend with black-owned businesses and invest in communities that have been historically economically disadvantaged. In an exclusive interview with The Voice, he explained why he launched the initiative. “When I saw these protests and how the world reacted, I thought I don’t see any solution based practical actions that come out of that. When we have control of our economic agenda we can move and make decisions from a position of power and achieve effective outcomes.” The black community’s desire for economic empowerment was a trend that The Voice had already identified. December 2018 saw the launch of the newspaper’s Black Business Guide and the inaugural Voice Black Business Fair, held at Brixton Town Hall, south London. ‘Community backs black businesses’ was the headline of the December 13 2018 front page news story about the event. ISSUE NO. 1740 | JULY 28 - AUGUST 3, 2016 Food 4 thought... Explore deliciousMore than 1,000 people gath-African & Caribbean cuisine African & To request your ered to buy from over 60 busiUNIVERSITY FEATURE INSIDE: nesses and entrepreneurs. Your guide to Freshers’ Week FREE GUIDE see inside

BLACK PLUS Among those who hailed the event was Joshua King, a busiCommunity fl exes fi nancial muscle to gain equality WEALTH MATTERS ness coach and speaker from London. He said: “Events like The Voice Black Business Fair help consumers discover new black-owned businesses, prod MANDELA TRILOGY The major South African production is set to hit the UK stage HIGH FLIER JohnsonThompson ready for Rio SEE INSIDE ›› ucts and services. It’s extremely needed and about time.”

@thevoicenewspaper @thevoicenews voicenews www.voice-online.co.uk

PANEL: Host Henry Bonsu holds the book alongside the panel (L-R) Winsome Cornish, Richard Adeshiyan and Vic Motune, and, right, our advertising team Trevor Raymond, Garfield Robinson, Sylvester Amara and Getnet Kassa receive special recognition awards

SPECIAL: Voice of Sport’s Rodney Hinds is presented with a special Arsenal shirt by the club’s media officer Reece Bedford; sub-editor Denise Dale checks in guests; and Lifestyle editor Joel Campbell poses with Voice columnist Seani B and the book

CATCHING UP:

Ex-Voice journalists Natricia Duncan, Rykesha Hudson and Dionne Grant left; current Voice journos Leah Mahon, Sinai Fleary and Rodney Hinds PRIDE: Prof Geoff Thompson MBE, Donna Watson, sculptor Basil Watson, Baroness Floella Benjamin and entrepreneur Levi Roots, left; Dotun Adebayo and Winsome Cornish discuss their chapters on stage