Although the 1919 race riots claimed columns of newspaper coverage across Britain at the time, a surprising number of Welsh people are unfamiliar with the event.
In Riots in the Bay (Terfysg yn y Bae), Good Morning Britain presenter Sean Fletcher digs deep to find out what happened and how the beliefs of today’s society compare.
“When I lived in Cardiff, I thought I understood a lot about its history; a cosmopolitan city with one of the oldest black communities in Britain. But nobody talked about one of the most important events in the city’s history. This story was dead and buried.” – Sean Fletcher
To find out more about the events, Sean talks to residents of the Butetown area of Cardiff, where the riots happened, as well as to several historians and crime experts.
“Just over a hundred years ago, there was terrible violence; buildings destroyed and guns fired. White people attacking people of colour in a riot that lasted days, a race riot.
“Workers from Africa, Asia and the Caribbean were targeted, as were mixed race families. The authorities didn’t want these people in their city. But some stood firm, rightly claiming Wales as their home, after all many had lived there for generations and raised families there.” – Sean Fletcher
Leslie Clarke grew up in the old Tiger Bay. Her mother had painful memories of the riot. Leslie recalled how as ‘a mixed race family’, her Grandparents were targeted in the hostilities. Leslie remembered the shocking events of how her grandmother was beaten by a gang in front of her mother who was a child at the time, and the mob ran down the street after her Grandfather. “If they had caught him, he would have been lynched.”
When Sean asks Leslie if enough people have heard of the riot, her response is: “No. And it will disappear. Because of people like me. I’m 87, and when I go, the story will be forgotten.”
To discover awareness levels among the city’s young residents, Sean meets his daughter Lili’s former school friends. Emily Pemberton, 21, grew up in Grangetown streets away from the scene of the 1919 riot but hadn’t heard about them. According to Emily, learning about it in school, along with the history of black people in general, would be a huge advantage.
Sean is inspired by the attitudes of the young people of Cardiff, as they discuss their experiences of growing up in the city today. They discuss racism, education, gentrification and bias in the press. They, and Sean believe that the positive stories of people of colour need to be taught, without focusing on racism alone.
“The slogan today is that black lives matter. But we don’t know much about the lives of people of colour here in Wales. It amazes me how little is known about what happened in the area. If I had lived in Cardiff 100 years ago, my mixed race family and I would fear for our lives.”
“How could something like this happen in Cardiff?” – Sean Fletcher
Professor Martin Johnes agrees that the uncomfortable history needs to be confronted he states ‘We like learning about Owain Glyndŵr, hearing about how badly we have been treated by the English, but Welsh people have to think and remember what we have done to people within Wales. Racism is part of our history.
Terfysg yn y Bae, S4C, Thursday 13th May, 9 pm. Also accessible on the BBC iPlayer. English subtitles available
