Ten years on race crime is down in Brighton and Hove but there is still much work to be done

The most recent figures show that number has increased to 53,351, accounting for 19.5% of Brighton and Hove.

But black history expert Bert Williams MBE, who was recognised at Buckingham Palace for his services to Brighton BHM in 2011, believes there is still an ignorance in the city when it comes to race.

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He said: “Unfortunately, I don’t think we have moved on as much as we like to think and there are still people who suffer from racial harassment out there.

“People are more politically correct these days, so they don’t say it out loud, but ignorance is still there.”

There has been a black community in Brighton and Hove for more than 400 years so the black history month had a lot of history to fit into 31 days.

That is why Brighton and Hove Black History Month has gone from cramming everything into October to spilling celebrations over into November as well.

Beginning on October 1, the project aims to show people of all races how they can learn from each other and learn more about the cultural heritage of the city.

Unfortunately, the first black families that settled in Brighton and Hove in the middle of the 16th Century were brought over in the name of exploitation rather than education during the slave-trade.

Following the American War of Independence at the end of the 18th Century, England offered a refuge to 30,000 freed slaves from America and some came and settled in Brighton.

Brighton’s black population swelled again in the 18th Century as well to do families returned to Brighton and Hove from the colonies with their house-slaves and servants.

Little black pageboys in fancy clothes were fashionable status symbols for many families, but were often abandoned when they grew older.

The influx of an Indian population into Brighton also began under unhappy circumstances at the end of the 19th Century with many seaman press-ganged on to ships in India and then abandoned when they arrived in England.

Mr Williams has unearthed baptism records of children born to Indian families in Brighton dating back to 1817.

This is not to say all black and minority ethnic people in Brighton during this time served under the yolk of servitude.

A West Indian J. B. Otto had sufficient wealth to buy land and build six homes in the Royal Crescent in 1789 while Sake Dean Mahomed opened the first shampooing vapour masseur bath in England at the site of what is now the Queen’s Hotel in Brighton.

His Turkish bath treatment for all sorts of rheumatic aches and pains was even deemed fit for a king as both King George IV and William IV turned to him for treatment.

St Nicholas Church in Brighton played host to the wedding of a West African princess in 1862 when Miss Sarah Forbes Bonetta, an orphan rescued from West Africa, married a black gentleman James Davies.

Fittingly for a Black History Month that is rooted in art and performance, Brighton was home to the nine-year-old African violin prodigy George Polgreen Bridgetower who played in the Prince’s band at the Royal Pavilion for 14 years and became good friends with Beethoven.

Although Brighton hosted many Indian soldiers and their servants at the Pavilion during World War I and Seaford played host to soldiers from the Caribbean, the majority returned to their homeland after the war.

However, following the Second World War, many people from the colonies decided to stay.

Generation Brighton General Hospital was one of the first to recruit black nurses and by the start of the 50s, 11% of nurses at the hospital were black.

Young students from Nigeria and Uganda came to study engineering at Brighton College and decided not to return home.

Today, the black and minority ethnic community make up more than 19% of the city’s population.

Mr Williams was among the post-war Windrush generation to move to England.

He first came to England with the RAF in 1960 and then was convinced by his two sisters, who worked at Brighton General, to move to Brighton.

He met his wife Shirley, also a nurse, and they have lived in the same house in Brighton since 1967.

He said: “When I first came I was a novelty and the centre of attention.

“Everybody wanted to talk to me because I was so unusual.

“It was only later when more black people came that people would say you are taking over.”

Mr Williams says that Brighton and Hove is in general a tolerant place but racism still persists.

He said: “You’re never going to remove it completely.

Mr Williams also added how a more silent racism means many people of the BME community continue to feel excluded.

He said: “I take displays on black history into the nightclubs because the BME community won’t go to libraries or public buildings so we have to go out and approach them.

“They don’t feel there is anything for them in these buildings and they feel uncomfortable going in.

“You walk in and two uniformed men will look you over and then later on as you’re walking around the exhibition they will be behind you watching you.”

Monika Akila Richards, 52, who describes herself as Afro- German with German and Liberian roots, says she found it a shock to acclimatise to Brighton’s ‘monoculture’, a mainly white population, when she started living here 19 years ago.

Ms Richards, who now lives in Seven Dials, said Brighton and Hove had changed a lot over the years but even with its self-projected image of tolerance and liberal values, racism still remained.

She recalled one time about eight years ago when she was parked on a yellow line as her son went to quickly collect something and a traffic warden said to her ‘you no park here’ as if he didn’t expect her to be able to speak English.

Thanks largely to the BHM, Ms Richards thinks such incidents are a thing of the past.

She said: “Black History Month has been both influential and instrumental in changing people’s perceptions and opening their eyes to the wider community.

“Brighton is beginning to come around, and that’s largely downto the work of Black History Month.

“It’s forced local authorities to make a change and it is constantly changing perceptions and giving people a deeper understanding of our world.”

Programme dedicated to Irene

The month-long festival is celebrating its tenth birthday with a slight cloud looming above as it will be the first event without much-loved Brighton artist, poet and dancer Irene Mensah. This year’s programme is dedicated to the influential figure, who passed away on April 12 this year just short of her 50th birthday.

Irene was a dedicated member of the Black History Month group. A special event on October 15 and exhibition of her art work from October 5 to 25 have been organised to celebrate her rich artistic life and contribution to the city of Brighton.

Amy Zamarripa Solis, who had worked with Irene since 2010 on Brighton Black History Month projects, described her as special friend.

She said: “I remember Irene’s little comforting smiles to members of the group, as well as her strong ideas and opinions, which were always welcome.

“She was a great supporter of the monthly spoken word and music Countdown nights, which we used to build audiences for Black History Month – all year long.

“It was a lot of fun and we had a lot of laughs.”

Irene was a multi-talented artist, dancer, community worker and educator.”

Bert Williams remembers Irene and said she would be a huge loss to the community.

He said: “She was an inspirational person and a real leader.

“Because we’re all volunteers I will really miss the regular emails she’d send everyone simply labelled ‘gentle reminder’.

“She kept us together, and she’ll be missed for sure.”