| Description | This series generally contains publicly available material such as leaflets, pamphlets, booklets, posters, flyers, newsletters and other promotional items, as well as some correspondence and papers relevant to the official function of some organisations and public bodies. The material here documents some of the community focused, targeted and often community led activity of various themes, but mainly activity with a social support function for respective community members.
The majority of the activity is focused in the Handsworth and surrounding inner city areas of Birmingham, however there are samples of material from organisations and activities of similar function around the country and, in some cases, abroad. Much of this activity is strongly geared towards the support of the African Caribbean communities in relation to the specific community experience. However there are examples of similar activity from other groups, such as the Asian community.
This series is seperated into 5 sections:
/1 'Community Focus and Activity', containing sections of information on African and Caribbean community groups, various community events and information, including a selection of various community circulated newsletters.
/2 'Political Awareness and Activity in Community' contains material collected from within communities and gives a sample of the political activity and involvement of community, locally, nationally and globally. This section contains files dedicated to black politics, the politics and activity surrounding migration, racism and the experience of settlement of minority ethnic communities in Britain, with emphasis on race relations, and black international politics, including South African Anti-Apartheid, Pan-Africanism, Civil Rights, as well as black self awareness and socio-political consciousness;
/3 'History and Heritage: Events and Activity in Community' generally focuses on the dissemination of informal learning of black history within communities in Britain, as well as the recording and sharing of histories, through programmes detailing Black History Month events, publications and distributed leaflets discussing black history;
/4 'Health and Social Care' contains various items documenting the provision of support in the community for mental health care, as well as general physical health. The bulk of the material focuses on care provision targeted at black people, and some specifically for the Handsworth area. This section includes files of material that document some of the socio-economic regenerative activity in the Handsworth and surrounding areas.
/5 'Recreation' contains promotional material for recreational activity located within community. The bulk of the material documents club nights focusing on black or Asian music; organised to cater for musical and social preferences that may otherwise be neglected in the mainstream.
The material contained in this series documents some of the activity and information being circulated within the black community with regard to social and political issues. Certain sections of the series would be useful for assessing the types of information being disseminated amongst the community in response to the activity and initiatives originating in the mainstream, or institutions. In particular this series contains material from significant community organisations such as the African Caribbean Self Help Organisation and the Pan African Congress Movement, both of which involve the prominent community member Bini Brown, or Butakwa, and which have also been prominent organisers of the annual African Liberation Days in Birmingham and nationally. The more recent organisation Ting-a-Ling organises the prominent Handsworth community annual event, Marcus Garvey Day.
This series also includes a file on the Handsworth Disturbances of 1985, containing information leaflets circulated by community at community level in response to the "official" communication of events.
The material in this series supports many of the subject matters in the photographic series (MS 2192/A), such as 'Handsworth from the Inside', 'Nkunzi', some of the other South Africa series, and many others. |