The Week - UK (2020-09-12)

52 The last word

THE WEEK 12 September 2020

Onedayinearly 1963 ,

RoyHackettwaswalkingin

Broadmead,Bristol,whenhe

sawamancrying.Theman,

whowasoutsidetheBristol

OmnibusCompany,told

Hacketthewasweeping

becausethecompanyhad

toldhimhecouldnotget

aninterviewforajobthere,

solelybecausehewasblack.

Almost 60 yearslater,and

despiteallhehasseeninhis

92 years,itstillsticksin

Hackett’sthroat–“not

becausehewasaJamaican,

orforeign,butbecausehe

wasblack.Itisdegrading.”

Hackett marched straight

intothe buscompanyto

demand answers.Hewas,he

says,“bornanactivist” and

sawit ashis dutyto challengeracismwheneverhesawit.Once in

frontofthemanager, hemadeitclearhewasnotaskingforblack

people tobe treatedequally–he wasdemandingit. Ashespeaks,

theindignation stillringsin hisvoiceashe remembers tellingthe

boss:“If hecan’tdrive it,then the bus won’t bemoving,willit?”

Inthefaceof suchresolve, themanager crumbledand promised

to give themananinterview.It wasfar from asimpletriumph,

however.Threeyearslater,Hackettmettheman again–when he

steppedontoabusandsawhim

behind thewheel. But togetto

thathappyending,hehadto

takeonnotjust onemanager,

butan entirebuscompany–

along withallthestructures

thatallowedan informal,but

devastatingform ofsegregationtoflourishin parts ofthe UK.

Ittook amonths-longboycottbefore thebus company’sopen

discrimination wasfinally overturned.

At thetime, theso-called “colour bar”meantethnic minorities

in th eUKcouldstill belega llybanned from housing, employment

and public places. Prior to the Race Relations Act1965,itwas

legaltohangsigns saying“No blacks,noIrish, no dogs”inpublic

placessuch as pubs. Anduntil the RaceRelations Act1968,

discrimination inhousingandemployment was not coveredby

anti-racism legislation.

Acrossthe country, housing wasthemostroutine areain which

the colour bar wasapplied–which explainedtheconcentration

of minorities ininnercities, as thosewerethe only homes

available to them.Buttradeunions,employers,working

men’s clubs andpubsalsoexercisedtheir right todiscriminate

againsttheblack andAsian population. In1965,Malcolm X

visited Smethwick, intheWest Midlands,where the council

wasstill refusing to renthouses to immigrants;at theprevious

general election,the Conservative candidate hadwon with

the unofficial slogan:“If you wantan****r foraneighbour, vote

Labour”,and crosses had been burnedin front of people’shomes.

Atthetime,theBristol

OmnibusCompanywas

notoriousforracial

discriminationin

recruitment.Hackettsays

labourersfromthecolonies

andformercolonieswere

allowedto“washthebuses

atnight”,butbarredfrom

better-paidworkonthe

buscrews.Thissegregation

wasnotonlyupheldby

thebuscompany,butalso

vigorouslydefendedby

thelocalbranchofthe

TransportandGeneral

Workers’ Union,which

didnot want itsmembers

to lose jobs toimmigrants.

Hackettbelievesthat

underlyingtheseeconomic

fearswas anevenmore

insidious fear–thatwhitewomen wouldnotbesafewithblack

menworkingonthe buses.Aneighbour ofHackett’stoldhim

thathewastormentedbyhiswork colleaguesbecause helived

nextdoortoablackman.Hackett recallsthattheytold thisman

to “gohome–yourneighbour willbeholding downyourwife”.

Thesameneighbouralso providedhimwithaperfectexample

of the resentmentthatunderpinned thecolourbar:one day,as

Hackett waswashing hisVauxhallCresta –hisprideandjoy –

the neighbourmarched over

and started rantingthat itwas

notright forhimtohavesuch

afancycarwhenhehad “just

got here”. Hackettletsout

amischievous laugh atthe

memory,butat thetime he

simplyexplainedtohisneighbourthathehadactuallybeen

strugglingasanimmigrant inBritainforyears,and that itwas

not hisfaultthatthe man could affordonly amotorbike and a

sidecar forhis wife andchild.

Hacketthad grownup in TrenchTown in Kingston,Jamaica,

on the same7th Street immortalisedby BobMarley inthe song

Natty Dread.Despite workingas an insurance broker, among

otherjobs, he hadstruggledas ayoung man tomake enough

money even to eat. Ir onically,he sayshewas drawnto Britain

by thepromises ofabetter life made by none otherthanEnoch

Powell–the politicianwhose racis t“rivers ofblood” speech,

delivered in 1968, warned ofthe danger of allowing immigrants

into the country.

BeforePowellbeca me theforemostanti -immigrant MP of his

generation, hewasthe healthminister between 1960 and1963,

championing the recruitment of doctorsand nurses from the

Caribbean. Hackett insiststhat Powell hadoncespokenat

ameeting in Kingston thatheattended(althoughthis proved

impossible to verify).Thepolitician, says Hackett,was“talking

friendly”,encouraging peopleto migrateto aland of plenty

with “loadsofjobs”.Atthe time,everyone thought Powell

Raising the bar: the man who

launched the Bristol bus boycott

“What we started now we won’t stop until we get what we want”

WhenhearrivedintheUKin1952,RoyHackettfacedviciousracism–buthedecidedtofightback.

HerehetellsKehindeAndrewsthestoryofthelandmarkBristolbusboycott,inspring 1963

“Thebuscompanytoldhimhecould

not get an interview forajob there,

solelybecause he was black”

©O

LUMEDIA/GUARDIAN/EYEVINE