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History Matters are pleased to present the History Matters Journal as a free and easily accessible digital resource

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We hope that you will support History Matters by sending information about your research interests. We are particularly keen to hear from those of African and Caribbean heritage who are researching this history in universities, schools and elsewhere, but we are interested to hear from anyone who is working in our field.

 

Please let us know the title or focus of your research and send us a summary or any interesting findings. If you wish to submit an article, or any piece of writing, please send no more than 5000 words, including any references. If you have information on any significant historical figures and organisations, especially those that have hitherto been neglected and those outside London, please send information.

 

We are also interested in interviews, photos and historic documents. If you have other ideas about what might be included, please let us know, we are always seeking to involve others. You can contact us at: histmatters@gmail.com

History Matters Journal Vol. 4, No. 1 (Winter 2024)

Contents:

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Editorial:

  • Message from History Matters founder Professor Hakim Adi

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Announcements:

Save the MRes Campaign Update: Legal Press Statement

  • Leigh Day

Call for Papers: History Matters 3rd New Perspectives on the History of African and Caribbean People in Britain Conference

  • History Matters

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Articles:

Queer Britain and representations of Blackness in Queer History

  • A.S. Francis

The Landmark Case

  • Councillor Michelle Simmons-Safo​

Committee for Ethiopian and Eritrean Relief (1990 – 1993): Part Two

  • Aleja Taddesse

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Reviews:

​Review - Black and Gay in the UK: An Anthology - 10 Year Anniversary

  • Hannah Francis

Review - Gerlin Bean: Mother of the Movement

  • Perry Blankson​

Review - Many Struggles: New Histories of African and Caribbean People in Britain

  • Aleja Taddesse

History Matters Journal Vol. 3, No. 2 (Autumn 2023)

Contents:

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Editorial: â€‹

  • Welcome to the Autumn 2023 History Matters Journal

  • Call for Papers: History Matters Conference

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Articles:

University of Chichester make Professor Hakim Adi, redundant

Save the MRes Campaign update

  • Hannah Francis

Statement from students: Standing in Solidarity with Professor Hakim Adi

  • Save MRes Campaign

Artwork from the Save MRes Campaign

  • Ameena McConnell

Interview with the London Metropolitan Archives - Unforgotten Lives: Rediscovering Londoners of African, Caribbean, Asian and Indigenous Heritage 1560-1860

  • Laurence Ward

The Historians Toolkit: using film as a historical source, part 1

  • Anna Osarose

In Memory of Roy Sawh (1934-2023)

  • Tionne Parris

From Black Boy Lane to La Rose Lane: Our Fight for Racial Dignity and Pride in Haringey

  • Councillor Michelle Simmons-Safo

Records in Focus: The National Archives and Windrush 75

  • Kevin Searle

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Reviews:

Pearl Prescod: A Black Life Lived Large

  • A.S. Francis

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A Hidden History: African women and the British Healthcare Service, 1900-1949

  • Idil Longe and David Kwao Fianko

History Matters Journal Vol. 3, No. 1 (Winter/Spring 2023)

Contents:

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Editorial: â€‹

  • Welcome to the Winter /Spring 2023 issue of the History Matters Journal

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Announcements:​

  • Distinguished historian Marika Sherwood receives honorary doctorate

  • History Matters collaborates with The History Hotline

  • MRes: the History of Africa and the African Diaspora at the University of Chichester

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Articles and Documents:

  • In memory of Mavis Best

    • A.S. Francis​​​

  • The Committee for Ethiopian and Eritrean Relief (1990-1993)

    • Aleja Taddesse​

  • The British Guiana ‘Power Couples’ fighting racial injustices in Britain

    • Claudia Tomlinson​

  • The National Archives: Records in Focus - Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

    • Drew Ellery

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Reviews:

  • Black Victorians: Hidden in History

    • Hannah Francis​​

  • Ethiopianism: The Forgotten Movement​

    • Claudia Tomlinson

  • Black Students in Imperial Britain​

    • Kaitlene Koranteng

History Matters Journal Vol. 2, No. 3 (Autumn 2022)

Contents:

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Editorial: â€‹

  • Welcome to the Autumn 2022 issue of the History Matters Journal

  • In memory of Harry Goulbourne

 

Announcements:​

  • MRes: the History of Africa and the African Diaspora at the University of Chichester

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Articles and Documents:

  • BASA and the school curriculum: A History

    • Marika Sherwood​

  • Researching Black History in the Communist Party Records

    • Claudia Tomlinson​

  • Claudia Jones & Black Radicalism in Britain

    • Tionne Parris​

  • The Ku Klux Klan in the Midlands: part I​

    • Ruben E. Darrell

  • Samuel Jules Celestine Edwards – A Black radical in Edwardian Britain​

    • Danny Thompson​

  • John Archer: The First Black Mayor of London

    • Arista Ajidele​

  • The National Archives: Records in Focus

    • Kevin Searle​

Reviews:

  • African and Caribbean People in Britain: A History

    • ​Montaz Marché

  • A Hidden History: African Women and the British Health Service

    • ​Frankie Chappell

  • Freedom Seekers: Escaping from Slavery in Restoration London​

    • Annabelle Gilmore​

History Matters Journal Vol. 2, No. 2 (Spring 2022)

Contents:

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Editorial: â€‹

  • Welcome to the Spring 2022 issue of the History Matters Journal

Announcements:​

  • MRes: the History of Africa and the African Diaspora at the University of Chichester

  • Call for Submissions: Insightful Black History

Articles and Documents:

  • 2nd March 1981 - Black People's Day of Action

    • Kevin Williams​

  • Exploring The Political Activism of Billy Strachan

    • Claudia Tomlinson​

  • The History Hotline

    • Deanna Lyncook​

  • How Imperial Liverpool became an African city, and why it matters

    • Stephen Small​

  • Zainab Abbas: a snapshot of revolutionary activism

    • A.S. Francis​

  • Cricket, oh Lovely Cricket, in Preston Where I saw it: The Story of Jalgos W.I. Cricket Club

    • Stephen Poleon​

  • The National Archives: Records in Focus

    • ​Drew Ellery​​

Reviews:

  • Belonging: Fate and Changing Realities

    • Montaz Marché​

History Matters Journal Vol. 2, No. 1 (Autumn 2021)

Contents:

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Editorial: â€‹

  • Welcome to the Autumn 2021 issue of the History Matters Journal

  • Reflections on 2nd New Perspectives on the history of African and Caribbean people in Britain conference​

Announcements:

  • MRes: the History of Africa and the African Diaspora at the University of Chichester

  • The Young Historians Project Unveils mural at Royal United Hospital, Bath

Articles and Documents:

  • Music, Dance and Politics in Georgian Britain

    • Karl Arthur

  • Una Marson in London

    • Lynette Mills

  • Pathways to Preston West: How Preston’s West Indian community challenged the colour bar

    • Stephen Poleon

  • Ras Daniel Heartman’s work launched African history Classics and Inspired Generations in the Struggle for Black Liberation

    • Claudia Tomlinson

  • Who was Jackie Berkeley? The Black Parents Movement versus Greater Manchester Police, April 1984 – May 1985

    • Hannah Francis

  • Caught in the Storm of the Education of the Black Child: Interview with Waveney Bushell

    • Claudia Tomlinson

  • The National Archives: Records in Focus

    • Kevin Searle

  • Black British history: student perspectives

    • Richard Akerele

  • Black History Matters: Then and Now

    • Kesewa John​

Reviews:

  • Claudia Jones: A Life in Exile

    • Tionne Parris​

  • Blackening Britain: Caribbean Radicalism from Windrush to Decolonisation

    • A.S Francis​

  • This Lovely City

    • Kesewa John​

History Matters Journal Vol. 1, No. 3 (Summer 2021)

Contents:

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Editorial: â€‹

  • Welcome to the Summer 2021 issue of the History Matters Journal

  • In Memory of Menelik Shabazz​

Announcements:

  • 2nd New Perspectives on the History of African and Caribbean people in Britain Conference

Articles and Documents:

  • The 2021 Sewell Report: a Vindication of the Young Historians Project

    • Perry Blankson​

  • Building Black History into the Curriculum: Historical Videos for Schools and Museums

    • Angela Platt and Matthew Smith​

  • The Art of Narration: Memory, Voices and Archival Deadening in the reconstruction of Black British history

    • Olivia Wyatt​

  • Football and Social Acceptability in Victorian Britain: The Contrasting Fortunes of Andrew Watson and Arthur Wharton

    • Tony Talburt​

  • The Importance of Newspapers as Documents in African Historiography 

    • Rey Bowen​

  • Archive Adventures

    • Kesewa John​

  • From Jamaica to the UK, Searching for Cliff Tyrell an Artist in the Periphery

    • Rachael Minott​

  • Finding a 'celoured man': Reclaiming the Black Past 

    • Norena Shopland​

  • Booker T. Washington in England, 1899

    • Marika Sherwood​

  • The National Archives: Records in Focus

    • Kevin Searle​

  • Colonial Britain's Secret Surveillance of the People's Progressive Party of Guyana's Leaders in Britain in 1953

    • Claudia Tomlinson​

Reviews:

  • Black Resistance to British Policing

    • Claudia Tomlinson​

  • African Europeans: An Untold Story

    • Montaz Marché​

  • 1973 and Me: The England V. West Indies Test Match and a Memorable Childhood Year

    • James Serieux​

History Matters Journal Vol. 1, No. 2 (Winter 2021)

Contents:

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Editorial:​

  • Call for Papers: 2nd New Perspectives on the history of African and Caribbean people in Britain conference

    • History Matters​

  • The African Diaspora in Britain

    • Hakim Adi​

  • Why did the Black Poor of London not support the Sierra Leone Resettlement Scheme?

    • Michael Siva​

  • The African Times and Orient Review: A Pan-African and Pan-Asian Journal

    • Rey Bowen​

  • Black women and the Suffragette Movement

    • Emily McCulloch​

  • The impact of Imperialism and the media on our understanding of the NHS, and African contributions

    • Alex Douglas Bailey​

  • Militant Diaspora: Britain’s International African Service Bureau and the Caribbean Labour Rebellions of the 1930s

    • Kesewa John​​

  • The West Indian Federation and the founding of the West Indian Gazette

    • Ellie Kramer-Taylor​​​

  • History Matters Archive: The East London Black Women's Organisation

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Book Reviews:

  • Hakim Adi: The History of African and Caribbean communities in Britain, 4th Edition (London, Hachette Children’s Group, 2020)

    • Natasha Howell​

  • Asher and Martin Hoyles, Before Windrush West Indian in Britain, (Hansib Publications, 2020)

    • Marika Sherwood​

  • Robin Bunce and Samara Linton: Diane Abbott: The Authorised Biography by (Biteback Publishing Limited, 2020)

    • Claudia Tomlinson​​​

  • Gretchen H. Gerzina: Britain’s Black Past (Liverpool University Press, 2020

    • Annabelle Gilmore​

History Matters Journal Vol. 1, No. 1 (Autumn 2020)

Contents:

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  • Introducing History Matters​​

  • Why and how Black Lives Matter became so important to me

    • Marika Sherwood​

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  • Researching Black British history in the Huntley Archives at the London Metropolitan Archives

    • Claudia Tomlinson​

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  • African women and the British health service: Irene Ighodaro

    • Young Historians Project​

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  • Dusé Mohamed Ali and the Tenor Roland Hayes

    • Rey Bowen​

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  • A Focus on Black women in Eighteenth-century Britain

    • Montaz Marché​

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  • Writing community-engaged histories: Rastafari in Britain

    • Aleema Gray​

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  • The Mother of the Movement: Gerlin Bean

    • A S Francis ​

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  • Call for Papers: 2nd New Perspectives on the history of African and Caribbean people in Britain conference

    • History Matters​

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