For more than 250 years, Black writers, publishers, journalists and activists have shaped Britain's literary and media landscape. Yet the history of Black publishing is about more than individual success stories. It is also the story of communities building their own platforms, presses, newspapers, magazines, bookshops and cultural institutions when mainstream publishing failed to provide space for their voices. From abolitionist pamphlets and pioneering autobiographies to digital media platform

The article examines the rise and fall of political Blackness in the UK, emphasising its role in uniting racialised communities, the effects of division, and the urgent need for renewed cross-community solidarity today.

In this blog post, we revisit the 1964 General Election, when a bitter campaign in a small West Midlands town became a defining moment in modern British race relations. The Smethwick election of that year is still remembered as one of the most openly racist political contests in British history. Sixty years ago, immigration — then as now — acted as a lightning rod for deeper economic and social anxieties. Smethwick, a modest town on the edge of the Black Country, became the epicentre of a