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Bernie Grant's many campaigns to oppose racism and the abuse of minority rights meant that he was always at the cutting edge of conflict between love and hate. His ongoing fight for racial justice quickly made him a target of tabloid hate and right-wing extremists within society. The nature and extent of the hate directed towards Bernie Grant and some of his associated campaigns will be represented by the following selection of items:
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Throughout many a struggle for social justice, Bernie Grant had to face the added onslaught of criticism and racism from the British press and media, particularly following the Broadwater Farm Estate disturbances in 1985. Despite being widely condemned for boldly speaking out on issues that few other politicians dared to explore, Bernie Grant continued to fight on even though his Parliamentary candidacy hung in the balance.
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Collage of Press Clipping Headlines.
The press files within Bernie Grant's collection include press releases and correspondence that he issued revealing his perspective on events as well as the media reaction to them. These are just a sampling of headlines from newsclippings within Bernie Grant's press files that give an indication of the nature of the hate campaign consistently waged against him. |
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Other archival material in Bernie Grant's collection such as personal libel papers and subject files provide detailed evidence of disagreements with the media and far right-wing groups during his many anti-racist and anti-fascist campaigns.
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In 1969, two years after taking up study in Mining Engineering at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Bernie Grant left the University in protest at the discrimination levelled against black students who he claimed were unable to undertake work experience in South African mines. Fuelled by Bernie Grant's pioneering spirit and leadership, a personal struggle against racism soon mobilised into a larger and united campaign against racial hatred throughout local, national and international forums.
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| An excerpt from one of the many pieces of hate mail that Bernie Grant received whilst a councillor and an MP for Tottenham. |
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| Note that this document contains language and imagery that is by its nature offensive to black and other ethnic minority groups. It has been included for the purpose of illustrating the nature of racist hate sentiment as displayed towards Bernie Grant and other ethnic minority individuals. |
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The archives contain a considerable amount of distressing and offensive hate mail (including death threats) addressed to Bernie Grant; in addition there are racial incident dossiers and race relations research that he maintained. Such records serve to provide a most revealing insight into the disturbing nature and extent of racial hatred in contemporary British society.
Amongst Bernie Grant's press clippings are interviews undertaken with Bernie Grant that reveal his views on how the media portrayed him. Notably, during one interview with Chris Hunt of Current Affairs where he was referred to as 'the hate object from Tottenham', Bernie Grant gave the following response when asked about the 'gutter press' and being caricatured as "Barmy Bernie":
“The papers doorstopped me for about a year. I had people digging in my garbage cans, looking through the windows, going to the kids school…we had all that business and it was very, very heavy. It triggered off racists from all over the country. I've got a whole room full of racist mail! Some of it, you'd never think that people would have such nasty imaginations, my family, my kids, I had to move them out.”
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Bernie undeniably tackled institutional racism head on and formed many alliances with political and community activists in order to strengthen the cause. Bernies advice and relentless investigations into racism provided the impetus for government action following the racist murder of the black teenager Stephen Lawrence in April 1993. In the same year as his passing (2000), Bernie Grant addressed the House of Commons stating that the Stephen Lawrence case "is the last chance for British society to tackle racism."
After becoming the first black leader of a local authority in Europe during 1985, Bernie Grant used his position as Council Leader to speak out against discrimination in all sectors of society from education to policing.
The disturbances on Broadwater Farm Estate in 1985, brought him to national prominence, as he passionately articulated the perspectives of the black youth who rebelled against police harassment in his Tottenham constituency. Bernie Grant also played a pivotal role in criticising initial police actions involving Mrs. Cynthia Jarrett whose death sparked the disturbances. Bernie claimed that the media, particularly in relation to Broadwater Farm, often misquoted him. During the late 1990s, Bernie Grant went on to campaign successfully for the acquittal of Winston Silcott whose conviction for the murder of a policeman during the disturbances was eventually quashed.
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| Bernie Grant and other supporters campaigning for the Tottenham Three. |
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Bernie Grant is particularly well known for leading a successful campaign in helping to overturn the unjust convictions of the Tottenham Three who were wrongfully convicted for the murder of a policeman during the Broadwater Farm disturbance. It has been commented that numerous groups including the families of the Tottenham Three, community groups, trade union branches and Labour Party wards throughout the country successfully campaigned in the face of the tabloid hate campaign and the accompanying populist racism that it incited. |
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| Petition signed by members of Parliament as part of the campaign to overturn the unjust convictions of the Tottenham Three. One of many petitions and campaign documents found within the Tottenham Three and Broadwater Farm campaign files held in the archives collection. |
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In 1987, Bernie Grant also intervened on behalf of the family of Joy Gardner who died in a police immigration raid and similarly encountered opposition and attacks from sections of the media and racist elements. Despite this, he fearlessly took centre stage wherever there were cases of official harassment or misconduct and represented many unheard voices.
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| One of many flyers enlisting support for justice in the Joy Gardner campaign. Many leaflets, petitions and flyers were issued by Bernie Grant's MP office throughout the campaign and are located within the Joy Gardner campaign files as part of the archives collection. |
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Despite the mounting campaign of hatred launched by the media and extreme right wing groups, Bernies spirited activism of the 70s and 80s found a larger arena as he went on to lead the fight against the rise of racial hatred across Europe and subsequently helped to launch the organisation SCORE (Standing Conference on Racial Equality in Europe). In May 1993, Bernie Grant was awarded an honorary doctorate by Pace University, New York, in recognition of his work in striving for justice and equal rights.
On the battleground of love and hate, Bernie Grant will be remembered as a soldier of peace, equality and justice who dared to fight against hatred in its most entrenched and potent form.
“The Bernie Grant Trust, a registered charity has been established to continue his work for racial justice. He contributed greatly towards ridding Britain and the world of the scourge of racism. However, his story was also that of a generation of black and ethnic minority European citizens, for whom discrimination and lack of opportunity is still a reality. The Trust will both record the life and work of Bernie Grant, and engage in practical projects for education and empowerment of those communities.”
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