Operation Black Vote & BHM

Simon Woolley says why Operation Black Vote's involvement in Black History month is important.

"If we are good enough to fight the wars of the country, we are good enough to receive the benefits.... Our object is to demand, not ask, but demand our rights". A Archer 1919.

During the 2000 Mayoral election campaign I had a conversation with the now 'fallen from grace' Lord Jeffery Archer. He spoke about his confidence in becoming Mayor Archer, the capital's first directly elected Mayor. Despite his misdeeds I generally liked him, however, on this particular occasion I belligerently informed him: 'You may aspire to become the capital's first directly elected Mayor, but you will never be the first Mayor Archer. That position,' I proudly proclaimed, 'belongs to a Black man, John Richard Archer, elected Mayor of Battersea in 1913'.

My proclamation was with great pride, because this wasn't the ceremonial mayor of the type we see today in local authorities. This was a man before his time, an outspoken man who stood up for Black people, the working classes, and the disadvantaged. Furthermore, our history informs us John Archer would be the UK catalyst that would spawn a legacy of Black politicians and activism, which continues to the present day.

On election night Archer caused quite a stir outside the Town Hall as a significant crowd gathered to see history in the making and the UK's first Black Mayor declared. W E B Dubois was to write in one of his famous papers that Archer 'fears no man and brooks no insult because of the race to which he is proud to belong'.

Archer worked with Samuel Coleridge Taylor the committed Pan Africanist and classical composer. He also joined other Black leaders for the 2nd international Pan African Congress in Paris 1919. Archer was to work tirelessly to ensure that other Black people also stood up to be counted politically. In 1921 he persuaded Shapurji Saklatvala to stand as a Labour candidate, becoming his agent in the process. By 1922 Saklatvala was to become one of the first Black elected MPs.

I found all this information during a Black History Month some years ago. I love this period; it is an opportunity to once again plough through withered books or modern websites in search of our history. A history that is Black and white, regional and international. Type in, for example, Black History and London on any search engine and great - sometimes tragic - stories, such as that of Dr Marcus Mosiah Garvey, unfold. At the same time as Mayor Archer was calling for a Black political voice here in London, Garvey, then based in New York, was commanding the loyalty of over two million African and African Americans with his organisation UNIA - Universal Improvement Association. Hounded, imprisoned and then deported by the US Government, Garvey spent the last five years of his life here in Fulham, London. He died a sad and lonely death.

It is also sad that after so many years of Black activism the capital's institutions, such as our own London Assembly, are nearly all white. Going back to the future clearly tells us that self-organisation is still the only effective tool to ensure a society that affords equality of opportunity. Sometimes activists like myself feel that we are the first to say or think an original idea, then you come across the writings of these individuals and you realise the debt we owe them.