Find out about Bristol’s Black History with Bristol Museums. Who were the first Black people in Bristol? What are the city’s links to Somalia? What are the legacies of the Slave Trade?
Here you’ll find stories, blog posts and events from Bristol Museums related to Black History.
Migration is not something new. The flow of people joining and leaving Bristol has helped make our city what it is. From ancient Roman settlements to today’s Syrian resettlements, people have been making new homes beside the Avon for thousands of years. Many have also left Bristol, crossing vast oceans to seek fortune and freedom in faraway lands.
Which Black Bristolian women do we need to shout louder about? You told us that you wanted more stories of inspiring Black Bristolians, so we’re putting together a new story celebrating women who’ve really made a difference.
Black people have lived in Bristol for over four centuries. We don’t know much about Black residents before the period when the city’s merchants began trading enslaved African people overseas in 1698. However, records at Bristol Archives and elsewhere show that Black people lived and worked here least a century before then.
The slave trade was part of the network of trade which existed between Britain, West Africa and the Caribbean. Between 1501 and 1866, over 12 million Africans are estimated to have been exported to the New World, around 2 million of whom probably died en route.
‘Windrush’ is a term used to describe the mass migration of people invited from the Caribbean colonies into Great Britain, just after the Second World War.
Bristol’s longest-running street festival is more than just a carnival. For many, it’s part of their very identity. How did St Pauls Carnival start? And what does it mean to those whose lives it has shaped?
Bristol’s involvement in the Transatlantic slave trade and the great wealth acquired from it brings uncomfortable questions about how we deal with our city’s past. Tayo Lewin-Turner explores the stories that lurk behind some of the grand Georgian buildings in Bristol…
Find out about Bristol’s Black History with Bristol Museums. Who were the first Black people in Bristol? What are the city’s links to Somalia? What are the legacies of the Slave Trade? We’re gathering stories and showcasing voices that shine a light on this often hidden part of Bristol’s past.
Racial discrimination was entirely legal in Britain right up to the late 1960s. The Bristol Bus Boycott of 1963 was the nation’s first black-led campaign against it. It marked a new chapter in the struggle for racial equality in Bristol and the UK.
Somali is the third most commonly spoken language in Bristol. Around 20,000 people of Somali heritage live in the city. Where have we come from and why are we here?