Britain’s first Black History Month took place in October 1987. The familiar date grew out of organising: people developing an idea, securing support, arranging public events and making space for histories that were too often left outside the national story. Akyaaba Addai-Sebo was central to that work, alongside Ansel Wong, Linda Bellos and a wider network of colleagues, councillors and community participants.
Understanding how it happened means distinguishing the inspiration from the institutions that made it possible. It also means recognising the historical work already being done before October became an established place in the calendar.
A longer effort to make history visible
Black Cultural Archives began collecting and preserving material in 1981, six years before the first British Black History Month. Its co-founders included Len Garrison. The organisation describes an archive built from community collecting, intended to change the historical representation of people of African and Caribbean descent in Britain. [1]
That history helps explain the setting in which the month emerged. Making history visible required somewhere for evidence to survive and people able to find it. A family photograph, a pamphlet or the records of an organisation could become part of a wider account when collected and understood in context.
There were therefore two connected tasks: preserving knowledge and bringing it to an audience. A public commemoration could create attention, while an archive could sustain the learning after an event had finished. Both involved decisions about whose experiences deserved to be kept and whose voices would be heard.
American inspiration, British circumstances
In the United States, Carter G. Woodson established Negro History Week in February 1926. The organisation he founded, now the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, explains that February drew on existing commemorations of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. The week developed into a month, while the work of researching and teaching continued throughout the year. [2]
Addai-Sebo knew the American observance and saw possibilities for Britain. In a later interview, he connected his thinking to the effects of racism on children’s confidence and identity. He described conversations at the Greater London Council, where he worked on special projects, and consultation with Black communities. His concern was how a child’s understanding of African history could be shaped by the wider society around them. [3]
From the GLC to a new organising body
The Greater London Council was abolished in 1986. The first British Black History Month followed in 1987. The sequence matters because the GLC helped provide the groundwork, but it no longer existed when the first October programme took place.
Some of its policy work continued through the London Strategic Policy Unit, established by London boroughs in April 1986. The London Archives’ catalogue describes a body carrying forward parts of the GLC’s programme. Its surviving records include committee documentation, publications, posters and work on public policy. [4]
This institutional history gives substance to the word “organising”. An idea needs people who can write proposals, gain approval, communicate with other bodies and make arrangements. Those practical tasks connect the visible public programme to less visible work in offices and committees. Following the records helps explain how a proposal could survive the abolition of the council in which it had developed.
The people who carried it forward
Ansel Wong, who led the GLC’s Ethnic Minorities Unit, later described the continuation of the project after abolition. He credited Addai-Sebo’s vision and persistence, and identified support from Linda Bellos, chair of the LSPU; Narendra Makanji, chair of its Race Equality Policy Group; and Bernard Wiltshire, deputy leader of the Inner London Education Authority.
Wong placed October within African Jubilee Year, a programme running from August 1987 to July 1988. The first Black History Month event was held on 1 October 1987, followed by events in London’s communities. Wider adoption developed as the declaration and idea travelled beyond the capital. The national observance grew through decisions made in different places over time. [5]
Linda Bellos’s own account clarifies her role. Writing in 2018, she recalled chairing the LSPU that authorised Black History Month in October 1987. She explicitly said that the original idea had not been hers. Her testimony directs attention to the difference between proposing something and providing the political support to make it happen. Both were necessary parts of this history. [6]
Why October?
The choice of October gave the British programme its own rhythm. Addai-Sebo explained that it came near the beginning of the school year, when organisers hoped to engage children with fresh energy. He also associated the month with African traditions of harvest and collective reflection.
Those are an organiser’s explanations of the choice, rather than evidence of one calendar shared across an entire continent. The educational intention is particularly clear: organisers wanted young people to encounter a history that could strengthen their understanding of themselves and their place in the world. [3]
What the organisers wanted remembered
Bellos also asked later readers to understand the political language of the 1980s. In her account, “Black” could express solidarity between people of African, Caribbean and Asian heritage confronting racism. That particular organising usage deserves explanation when we read the period’s documents.
Her concerns reached beyond lists of famous achievers. She asked who would preserve the records of pastors, trade unionists and community activists, and how their stories would be understood in relation to social class as well as race. These questions remain useful when deciding what a historical programme should include. The people who kept an organisation going or defended a neighbour’s rights may leave records as valuable as those of a nationally recognised figure. [6]
Looking towards forty years in 2027
In 2027, forty years will have passed since the first British Black History Month. The anniversary offers a reason to revisit the organising as well as the celebration. Local groups can recover programmes, identify the people in photographs and record memories while checking them against surviving documents.
Schools can follow one local history in depth. Archives can make the routes into their collections clearer. Editors can give space to lives whose significance is not immediately obvious from a list of honours. These are practical ways to extend the work that made October possible.
The history of 1987 shows how an idea becomes durable through people taking responsibility for it. Remembering their different contributions gives the anniversary a useful purpose: helping the next generation find evidence, ask better questions and carry the historical work forward.
Sources
1. Black Cultural Archives: Collections.
2. Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH): About Black History Month.
5. Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights (CRER): How did Black History Month come to the UK?.