| AdminHistory | Organisations involved: Barrow and Geraldine S. Cadbury Trust, Paul S. Cadbury Trust, Barrow Cadbury Fund Ltd.
Previous title and/or title variations: race relations and equal opportunities; race relations; community and race relations; community relations.
Related grant categories: employment; civil rights and social justice.
Duration of use: 1971/1972 to 1992/1993.
Cadbury Trusts grant subject filing reference number(s): 3.
Race relations emerged as an independent trusts grant category in 1971/1972. Prior to this date the presence of black people in a community group was viewed as incidental and such a grant would likely have been made under the heading of social service or housing and town planning. Though the term race can be very broadly defined, for the purposes of early grant making it applied principally to black people. In outlining its rationale for creating this new category, Trustees pointed to two facts, 1) that immigration into the United Kingdom reflected an imbalance in employment opportunities on an international scale, and 2) that discrimination based on colour was a fact of life in British society.
Race relations grants broadly aimed to challenge existing institutions to accept the presence of black people both as individuals with the same rights as whites, and as a reminder of the vitality of other cultures besides those already in existence in the UK. By supporting organisations amenable to this approach the Cadbury Trusts hoped to avoid supporting left-wing radicalism or the status quo. Projects involving black participants were not necessarily transferred to the race relations category. Rather, this classification was reserved for groups that considered 'blackness' highly relevant, if not crucial, to their identity and function. Decisions on this question were reached by agreement between grantees and Trust staff.
Race relations grant files first appear in the early 1970s under the heading 'community and race relations' and were subsequently assigned the number three as a category filing reference in accordance with Anthony Wilson's classification scheme for grant subjects. The preponderance of race relations grants were administered by Anthony Wilson who spent a great deal of his time working with Black self-help groups in Birmingham. A representative grant file label for the 1970s-1980s might read '3/7/1' to denote race relations/the seventh file assigned to race relations, in this case black churches: Partnership Between Black and White/file 1. The initials of the administrator may also appear as a prefix though there is considerable variation in file references.
The vast majority of race relations grants were paid through the Barrow and Geraldine S. Cadbury Trust or the Barrow Cadbury Fund Ltd. Given the difficulties that many Black self-help groups found when attempting to register as charities the Fund's role was particularly crucial in this area. Paul S. Cadbury Trust expenditure on this heading was minimal, though not entirely absent.
During the 1970s Trustees identified a number of race relations themes including immigration, black churches and community self-help groups. Most race relations grants were made at the national or local level with the preponderance of individual organisations operating in the West Midlands. Relations between the Cadbury Trusts and Black self-help groups were often difficult owing to the tension between the groups' radical rhetoric and their practical function as providers of community services. The Harambee Housing Association in Handsworth, Birmingham merits note as the most prominent and fractious of these organisations. The Trust's work with black churches and self-help groups in Birmingham was ground breaking and drew a degree of criticism from right wing elements in the press. Anthony Wilson recalled that the Trust did not seek out organisations with a radical edge; rather these were the only organisations working in the community to improve conditions for black people.
Barrow and Geraldine S. Cadbury Trust spending on race relations grants amounted to 3.6% of total expenditure for 1973/1974 at £7,754. That same year the Fund committed 53.5% of its annual expenditure or £48,520 to this category. The use of the Fund as the primary channel for supporting race relations projects was short-lived and by the late-1970s the Barrow and Geraldine S. Cadbury Trust was making the majority of payments. Total expenditure on this category increased markedly during the first ten years of the category. By 1981/1982 the Trust and Fund were committing over £125,000 to grants in this area.
The 1980s saw a broadening of groups represented in the race relations category. While black groups continued to represent a sizable proportion of grantees, any organisation, regardless of its ethnic makeup, was eligible to apply for support if their work had a racial dimension. Additionally, support for grantees focusing on service provision decreased as more of these organisations established links with statutory organisations and were able to operate without Trust support. Increasingly, employment, discrimination and equal opportunities became the key concerns of Trustees during the 1980s.
Emphasis on the racial dimension of grantee organisations and projects led to a diversity of successful applications. During 1983/1984 regional grant recipients included the Immigration Aid Unit, the Asian Resource Centre, the National Association for Multi-Racial Education, the Bangladesh Workers Association, the Black Social Workers and Probation Officers Group and the St. James Language Project. The establishment of the employment category in 1982/1983 brought about the transfer of race relations employment grants to the new classification. The introduction of the Minority Arts Programme also created a separate but closely related category focusing on minority arts in the West Midlands. Minority arts grants above £500 were paid through the race relations budget. In 1986/1987 the title of the race relations category was amended to 'race relations and equal opportunities'. An increase in the number of grantees working against gender discrimination reflects the Cadbury Trusts' commitment to the equal opportunities principle.
By the early 1990s the category title was again changed with 'race relations' dropped leaving simply 'equal opportunities'. Trustees now defined the category as consisting of three main themes: race relations, gender and disability. The addition of disability to the equal opportunities remit was in large part at the behest of Eric Adams. Equal opportunities expenditure increased dramatically during its final years from £230,297 in 1989/1990 to £543,930 in 1992/1993. Prominent grantees in 1992/1993 include the Birmingham Women's Advice and Information Centre, the Walsall Bangladeshi Youth League, the Single Parent Action Network, the Parliamentary Bill on Disability and Wolverhampton Voluntary Sector Council.
The equal opportunities category was eliminated as part of a general reorganisation of grant classifications prior to the merger of the Paul S. Cadbury Trust with the Barrow and Geraldine S. Cadbury Trust in 1994. It last appears as a separate category in the 1992/1993 annual report of the Barrow and Geraldine S. Cadbury Trust and the Barrow Cadbury Fund Ltd. Grants made under the equal opportunities heading were subsequently transferred to new programme groups including 'gender', 'disability' and 'racial justice'. |