"Notting-Hill-Race-Riots 1958"

Were a series of racially motivated riots that took place in Notting Hill,England,between August 30,-September 5,1958.

The end of World War II had seen a marked increase in Caribbean migrants to Britain.By the 1950s, white working-class "Teddy Boys" were beginning to display towards black families in the area,a situation exploited and inflamed by groups such as Oswald Mosley's Union Movement and other far-right groups such as the White Defence League,who urged disaffected white residents to "Keep Britain White"

There was an increase in violent attacks on black people through the summer.On August 24 1958 A group of 10 white youths commited a serious assaults on 6 West Indian men in 4 separate incidents. At  5:40 am,the youth's car was spoted by two police officers who pursued them into the White City estate,where the gang abandoned the car.Uing the car as a lead,investigating detectives arrested 9 of the gang the next day after working non-stop for 20 hours.

Just prior to the Notting Hill riots,there was racial unrest in Nottingham,which began on August 23,and continued intermittently for two weeks.

The riot is popularly believed to have triggered by an assault against Majbritt Morrison,a white Swedish woman,on August 29,1958.Majbritt had been arguing with her Jamaican husband Raymond Morrison at the Latimer Road Tube Station.A group of  various white people attempted to intervene in the argument and a small fight broke out between the invening people and and some of Raymond friends.The following day Majbritt was verbally and physically assaulted by a gang of white youths that had recalled seeingher the night before.According to one report,the youths threw milk bottles at Majbritt and called her racial slurs such as "Black Man's trollop,while a later report stated that she had been struck in the back with an iron bar.

Later that night a mob of 300-400 white people,ofof them Teddy Boys,were seen on
Bramley Road attacking the houses of West Indian residents.The disturbances,rioting and attacks continued every night until September 5.

The Metropolitan Police Service arrested more than 140 people during the two week disturbances,mostly white youths also many black people found carrying weapons.A report to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner stated that of the 108 people charged with crimes such as grievous bodily harm,affrayand riot and possessing offensive weapons,72 were white and 36 were black.

The sentencing of the nine youths arrested during the riots has passed into judicial lore as an example of "exemplary sentencing" - a harsh punishment to act as a deterrent to others.Each of the youths received five years in person and they were to also pay 500.

A "Carribean Carnival"  precursor of the Notting Hill Carnival was held on January 30 1959 in St.Pancras Town Hall,organised by activist Claudia Jones as response to the riots and the state of race relations in Britain at the time.

The riots caused tension between the Metropolitan Police and the British African-Caribbean community,which claimed  that the police had not taken their reports of
racial attacks seriously.In 2002,flies were released that revealed that senior police officers at the time had assured  the  Home Secretary,Rad Butler,that there was little or no racial motivation behind the disturbance,despite testimony from individual police officers to the contrary.

In 1964 Majbritt wrote about the riots in her autobiography,Jungle West 11.