Baby sprayed with substance in 'racist attack', 14yo saves life & other stories from Black, Asian & Arab communities you shouldn't have missed this week - curated by Melissa Sigodo
The Source celebrates Black History Month
Good morning, afternoon or evening,
Thank you for subscribing to The Source and Happy Black History Month.
For those of you who are new, my name is Melissa Sigodo and I am the editor and founder of The Source.
I took a short break from bringing you your weekly recap of news from Black, Asian and Arab communities last week, but I am back with a combined version of this week and last week’s news you shouldn’t have missed.
However, despite the lack of a recap last week, you will have seen more frequent emails from The Source covering the UK’s Black community with the help of one of our contributing reporters as well as myself in the last few days. I hope you have found our journalism valuable as we endeavour to shed a light on the dark and to bring you the facts as quickly as we can in the age of misinformation.
It was also great to see that after Arike Idris broke the news on the council forcing a Caribbean restaurant owner to take down his Jamaican-styled canopy over its “negative” design - Metro News also reported on the story. We love to see the issues highlighted by The Source getting greater coverage so please share them with your friends and family to help The Source grow.
October is Black History Month in the UK, but as many of you may have noticed, the nation has gone extremely quiet on the topic. The idea of championing diversity, equity and inclusion is well and truly in the bin, for the performers at least. But there is no love loss, because ultimately, we are going back to Black History Month’s grassroots origins. Long before big corporations and politicians saw it as an PR opportunity, Black people were celebrating and honouring this important history be it on a smaller scale. For those of us who genuinely enjoy learning about the trailblazers and the events that shifted the dial, these 31 days present an opportunity to teach one another by using the resources and platforms we have to amplify and preserve the stories that shaped us and shaped the country we live in.
In honour of that, in your weekly recap, I will also be sharing bitesize Black history related facts and information with you till the end of the month.
For this week’s highlights, here are some notable Black bookshops and Black figures you should all get to know and hopefully support.
Black bookshops
New Beacon Books
New Beacon Books is the UK’s first Black bookshop founded in 1966. In 2021, owners said they’d be closing down due to financial pressures but then the public stepped in and over £70,000 was raised to keep them open.
You can find the shop at 76 Stroud Green Rd, Finsbury Park, London N4 3EN. 020 7272 4889.
https://www.newbeaconbooks.com/
Afrori Books
Afrori Books was founded by Carolynn Bain after being tired of searching through ‘tiny BAME’ sections meant for Black authors. Now Afrori has one of the biggest selection of books by Black authors.
Brighthelm Church & Community Centre, Brighton and Hove, Brighton BN1 1YD. 07434 655178
Lolwe Books
Black-owned Pan-African bookshop Lolwe Books previously based in Peckham, London, before moving fully online this year due to rising costs. They still offer a wide range of Black writing that ‘is often ignored.’
Black history figures
Una Marson
Una Marson from Jamaica was the BBC’s first Black female full time broadcaster and producer for her show, Calling The West Indies in 1941. As an activist and creative, her work made space to discuss the importance of Black women in society.
George John Scipio Africanus
George John Scipio Africanus who lived in Nottingham, England, was taken from Sierra Leone and enslaved in 1766. He went on to become one of the UK’s first successful Black entrepreneurs owning property and an employment agency.
John Edmonstone
John Edmonstone was born into slavery in British Guiana but later taught a young Charles Darwin taxidermy which helped the renowned naturalist form his revolutionary ideas on evolution.
Arthur ‘Kwame’ Wharton
Arthur ‘Kwame’ Wharton was a supreme athlete and is regarded the first Black professional footballer in England. He moved from Ghana in 1865 and later played for Rotherham Town, Sheffield United and others.
Gaza ceasefire
A ceasefire has been called in Gaza. The negotiated truce will see 48 Israeli and foreign hostages released in exchange for 250 Palestinian prisoners and 1,700 detainees from Gaza. One can only hope this will truly bring an end to the deadly assault on the region which has seen over 67,000 Palestinians killed of which 20,000 are estimated to have been children. A unbelievably dark chapter in the world’s history.
Crime news
A 77-year-old woman has been arrested after a one-year-old baby who was with their father was sprayed with a substance during a ‘racist attack’ in Worcester. The woman has been arrested on suspicion of assault, racially aggravated public order and threats to kill. Read the full story by Charlotte Albutt at Worcester News.
Arrests have been made after an arson attack at a Mosque in East Sussex where video footage showed two people wearing masks spraying a substance on the entrance of the building and setting it on fire. Four people in total have been arrested on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life. Read the full story by Morgan Ofori at The Guardian.
A man has been arrested on suspicion of a racially aggravated assault at a college in Bradford where after two members of the public and two emergency workers were assaulted. Police responded to reports of a man with a knife and a small gardening tool was later seized. Read the full release by West Yorkshire Police News.
A 64-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life after a fire at a London hotel housing asylum seeker. The Metropolitan Police said that the incident was being treated as a hate crime. Read the full story by Jordan Reynolds at The Independent.
An Imam was left needing hospital treatment after he was allegedly stabbed in an unprovoked attack. The police say they are keeping an ‘open mind’ over the motive. Read the full story by Ben Gardner at the East London Advertiser.
Tribunal
A woman who won £65,000 from an employment tribunal for unfair treatment and dismissal has yet to receive any of the money after Peckham Levels Ltd, the company she worked for went into administration. Nadine Fallone had reported staff for taking drugs at the bar. Read the full story by Zoe Conway and Esyllt Carr at BBC.
Health
An inquest has found that a mother died as a result of ‘inadequate diagnosis’ after hospital staff failed to check her test results and request for her to return to hospital. The family of Ayaan Ali Waeys who developed pre-eclampsia and lost her daughter believes she would have been treated differently if they were of a different background. Read the full story by Anita Mureithi at Hyphen Online.
Legal
Three teenage girls have been detained after admitting the manslaughter of a 75-year-old man they attacked in the street. The teens aged 14, 16 and 17 at the time of the unprovoked attack, assaulted Fredi Rivero after getting of a bus. Read the full story by BBC.
Ten Metropolitan Police officers are facing accelerated misconduct hearings after an undercover BBC documentary exposed disturbing behaviour including calling for immigrants to be shot, ‘revelling’ in the use of force and misogyny. Read the full story by Anthony France at The Standard.
David Norris, one of the men convicted of murdering Stephen Lawrence has admitted his role in the racist attack claiming, ‘he was the last person to punch the teen’ but that he won’t name as it would put his family ‘at risk.’ He is currently bidding for his release from prison. Read the full story by Daniel De Simone and Amy Johnston at BBC.
Zimbabweans who were abused by British barrister John Smyth who ran a Christian summer camp are taking legal action against the Church of England to get compensation and answers. Read and watch the full report by Cathy Newman at Channel 4 News.
Grenfell
The deconstruction of Grenfell Tower where 72 people were killed after a fire broke out has triggered a rise in calls for mental health support from the local community. Clinical psychologist Dr Sara Northley, from the Grenfell Health and Wellbeing Hub said that some were worried that once the Tower was taken down, it would ‘disappear from the public eye.’ Read the full story by Rachael Venables at Sky News.
Windrush
The Windrush Commissioner says that one of the first people he helped when he founded the Nottingham Windrush Support Forum before coming into his new role was a ‘white Canadian male’ who he helped get ‘thousands in compensation.’ He says the scale of the scandal has been limited. Watch the full interview by Enact Equality and Black Things UK.
A three-year-old non-verbal toddler with hip dysplasia who was born in Birmingham has been denied a British passport despite her older brother being granted one. Zharia-Rae who is being assessed for autism is now being asked to prove she has the right to NHS treatment. Read the full story by Natricia Duncan at The Guardian.
A father-of-one who was adopted from the US by a British couple at the age of two has been denied citizenship by the Home Office which has left him unable to work. Donte Ragan says that his adoptive parents should have filled in paperwork for him when he was a teenager before immigration laws changed in 2018 which has now left him in “limbo.” Read the full story by ITV News.
Immigration
The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan is calling for the government to halt its changes to visa rules which would see the salary threshold increased for sponsorship and the removal of transport roles from the skilled worker list. The transport union says the new laws could see up to 300 Transport for London staff “at risk of removal.” Read the full story by Kumail Jaffer and Harry Craig at BBC.
The members of the “Kingdom of Kubala” who set up camp in the Scottish Borders and were then served with an eviction notice have been arrested on suspicion of immigration offences. American national Kaura Taylor, 21, who was one of three members was later de-arrested, but the Ghanaian man who was part of the group remains detained. Read the full story by Connor Giles at Sky News.
World News
Seven people from Kenya have been able to prove that they were fathered by British men who worked at an army base in their country after DNA databases were used to identify them. Read the full story by Josephine Casserly and Ivana Davidovic at BBC.
The niece of Agnes Wanjiru, 21, a Kenyan mum who was allegedly murdered by former British army soldier and found in a septic tank in 2012 is set to visit the UK to push for him to be extradited after a High Court in the African country issued a warrant for his arrest. Read the full story by Megha Mohan at BBC.
Community
A schoolgirl who saved a woman’s life after she suffered a complex epileptic seizure and stop breathing has been shortlisted for a bravery award. 14-year-old Layla successfully performed CPR and revived the woman after spotting her collapse on the bus. Read the full story at West Midlands Police News.