STORIES THAT CONNECT GENERATIONS
1987—2027
40 years of Black History Month in the UK
EXPLORE THE COLLECTION
Explore Black working lives through jobs, trades and professions, and the everyday experiences of earning a living and supporting families.
The wealth produced by enslaved people travelled far beyond the plantation. Following sugar, cotton, credit and compensation reveals the connections between colonial violence and everyday economic…
Seafarers, students, workers and families have connected Africa and Britain through different journeys. Their histories emerge in community archives, everyday care, neighbourhood institutions and the changing…
Finding a home in post-war Britain meant confronting discrimination as well as shortages. Archive records, community savings schemes and housing campaigns reveal how Black families built…
From cane fields and oilfields to ports and city streets, workers challenged poverty and colonial power. Their struggles changed the possibilities of trade unionism and political…
Mapungubwe’s sandstone hill was the centre of a thirteenth-century African state. Fields, livestock, traded beads and skilled metalwork reveal the society behind its famous gold rhinoceros.
Black miners helped sustain Britain’s coal industry through skilled work, dangerous shifts and community life. Their recorded memories reveal different routes into mining, experiences of solidarity…
Bill Morris rose from Birmingham’s engineering industry to lead the Transport and General Workers’ Union. His career connects the everyday work of representation with campaigns against…
Caribbean nurses helped staff an expanding health service while building professional lives of their own. Their history includes training institutions in the Caribbean, demanding hospital apprenticeships,…
Black seafarers helped operate the ships that carried Britain’s trade and fought its wars. Their history also belongs ashore, in boarding houses, families and port neighbourhoods.…
London Transport began recruiting directly in Barbados in 1956. The scheme brought new workers into buses, stations and catering, while official films presented a particular image…