20 October 2016 -  In July 1966, British Rail officially ended a work bar on Black people working in British Rail customer facing jobs. It was a policy backed by the Rail Union at the time and following its exposure ( in spite of death threats also) by Asquith Xavier after he applied for a transfer to Euston station , led to the Race Discrimination Act of 1968 ending this discrimination. 

Following  a campaign by the The One Show on BBC One, Network Rail unveil  television interviewed Xavier's family and covered the unveiling of the plaque at Euston station that marked his fight.

19 October 2019- Non league Haringey FC players walk off the pitch after racist abuse in their 4th round qualifying FA Cup tie vs Yeovil Town of the Football League. 

Haringey Borough’s chairman, Aki Achillea, hopes the actions of his players in walking off the pitch after suffering alleged racial abuse from opposition fans will prove to be a watershed moment and prevent others from being targeted after Saturday’s FA Cup tie against Yeovil was abandoned.

Achillea said he feared for the future of football after members of the club’s coaching and playing staff were reduced to tears when the goalkeeper Valery Pajetat and defender Coby Rowe were subjected to alleged abuse five days after England’s Euro 2020 qualifier in Bulgaria was marred by racist chanting.

Police said no arrests had been made but confirmed they were investigating alleged racism and reports that missiles were thrown on to the pitch. Achillea said stones were thrown at Pajetat from the away end before Yeovil scored a second-half penalty, and that the Cameroonian goalkeeper was also spat at on the head. The referee allegedly confirmed to Haringey staff that a water bottle hit Pajetat and a plastic beer bottle was thrown in the player’s direction. After the penalty was scored, Rowe was allegedly abused. Haringey left the pitch after 64 minutes with the score 1‑0 to Yeovil.

With thanks also to The Guardian for the above information,

18 October 2013 - Death  of Felix Dexter, actor, comedian, and writer aged 52 from from multiple myeloma. See Hall of Fame for Biography 

17 October 1979 -  US President Carter writes to congratulate British American Sir Arthur William Lewis for being awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics.   

16 October 1918 - The newly formed African Progress Union (APU) send a letter to the UK Prime Minister David Lloyd George demanding Britain recognise the role the Colonies played in defeating the German forces. They state as the owners of the African Colonies, the indigenous people had "inalienable rights" to self determination.

See Hall of Fame for Biography on the APU. 

16 October 1918 - The newly formed African Progress Union (APU) send a letter to the UK Prime Minister David Lloyd George demanding Britain recognise the role the Colonies played in defeating the German forces. They state as the owners of the African Colonies, the indigenous people had "inalienable rights" to self determination.

See Hall of Fame for Biography on the APU. 

15 October 2015 - Manchester Council unveils Red Plaque On Chorlton Town Hall, All Saints, in Manchester, marking the fact that the Fifth Pan-African Congress was held there from the 15th-21st October 1945.

Participants included such towering figures as Kwame Nkrumah, future leader of Ghana, Jomo Kenyatta, future leader of Kenya, the Jamaican Pan-Africanist Amy Ashwood Garvey (first wife of Marcus Garvey), the black American W.E.B Du Bois who was hailed by many as ‘the Father of Pan-Africanism’, the Trinidadian radical George Padmore and Ras Makonnen from British Guiana.  The plaque goes on to describe the congress as an ‘historic event’ as ‘decisions taken at this conference led to liberation of African countries’. 

14 October 2019 - Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo are named the joint winners of the 2019 Booker Prize after the judges broke their rules by declaring a tie.

Atwood's The Testaments, the Canadian writer's follow-up to The Handmaid's Tale, was recognised alongside Londoner Evaristo's novel Girl, Woman, Other.

The pair will split the literary award's £50,000 prize money equally.

The Booker rules say the prize must not be divided, but the judges insisted they "couldn't separate" the two works.

Evaristo is the first black woman to win whilst Atwood, 79, is the oldest ever Booker winner, while 

The award's rules were changed after the last tie in 1992, and organisers told this year's judges they were not allowed to pick two winners. But after five hours of deliberations, Peter Florence, the chair of the judges, said: "It was our decision to flout the rules."

He told reporters: "The more we talked about them, the more we found we loved them both so much we wanted them both to win."

With thanks to The BBC for the above information.

13 October 2018 - Poet and community leader Michael Groce leads history walk uncovering hidden treasures, meeting local people and experiencing important cultural elements in a community project telling local stories that  uncover 70 years’ history of Coldharbour Lane - one of the iconic areas for Black People post Windrush.

12 October 2007 - A memorial plaque on the site of  Henry Sylvester Williams, the first Black Councillor of Westminster Council and Political Activist was unveiled at his former London home at 38 Church Street, Marylebone,

11 October 2020 - Lewis Hamilton equals  the all-time record for career Formula 1 victories by winning the Eifel Grand Prix.

The Mercedes driver's win was the 91st of his career and he will surely break Michael Schumacher's record soon.

Hamilton extended his championship lead over team-mate Valtteri Bottas to 69 points after the Finn retired.

The race had been poised for a close fight between Hamilton and Bottas before the second Mercedes hit trouble at the Nurburgring in Germany.

Hamilton, second on the grid, made a better start than Bottas and dived for the inside at the first corner, pushing him wide, but Bottas held his ground and recovered the lead on the inside of the second corner.

That gave Bottas control of the race, but Hamilton pressured him hard and in the end the leader buckled.

Bottas handed the advantage back to Hamilton on lap 13, locking a wheel into Turn One and running wide, allowing Hamilton to close in and pass for the lead around the outside of Turn Two.

Three laps later, the race fell further into Hamilton's lap when a virtual safety car allowed him and Verstappen to pit for fresh tyres and retain their positions ahead of Bottas, and two laps after that Bottas retired with a suspected failure of the MGU-H, part of the hybrid system.

Although Verstappen stole the point for fastest lap from Hamilton on the last lap of the race, Hamilton's lead is close to three clear race victories with only six races remaining. A seventh world title - which would equal another Schumacher record - is beckoning.

With thanks to The BBC for the above information.

10 October 2019 - Simon Woolley receives his  knighthood from  Her Majesty the Queen following his Award from her 2019  Birthday Honours list.

For more than 25 years of fighting for social and racial justice, Operation Black Vote's founder and Director 

Sir Simon Woolley has been credited with helping transform the ethnic and racial makeup, not only of parliament, but also local authorities, the magistracy and public bodies.

He is also seen as the inspiration behind the much acclaimed Race Disparity Unit launched by the Prime Minister, Theresa May. The RDA is globally seen as one of the most innovative tools to help tackle persistent race inequalities in Government, and public and private bodies. The Prime Minister appointed Woolley as its RDU Advisory Chair in 2018

9 October 2020 - Dizzee Rascal is  honoured in the Queen's Birthday Honours list. Dizzee Rascal, real name Dylan Kwabena Mills, has been made an MBE for services to music.

Dizzee Rascal is considered to have been one of the founding fathers of grime - a UK-based electronic rap genre which grew out of the English capital at the start of the century.

In 2003, aged 19, the East London MC became the youngest artist to win the Mercury Prize, with his debut album Boy in da Corner.

The elder statesman of the British rap game, will  drop his seventh album E3 AF at the end of October. 

His drive and success helped to pave the way for modern superstar Stormzy.

Edited with thanks from information from  The BBC.

 8 October 2022 - Glossop Cricket Club invite the Mayor of High Peak to unveil a Blue Plaque to Charles Ollivierre in the presence of Randolph Benn (the cricketer’s great grandson) and members of Glossop Cricket Club and Glossop Heritage Trust. It was to commemorate the historical fact that Charles Ollivierre was the first Black cricketer to play county cricket in England which he did between 1901 and 1903.

It is a fitting celebration of, in the words of the Mayor, “a truly inspirational and extraordinary figure in our town’s rich history.”

Ollivierre s First-Class career with Derbyshire spanned 1901 to 1907. He played 110 matches for them, aggregating 4,670 runs with a highest of 229 and an average of 23.70. He had 3 centuries, held 109 catches, and took 10 wickets.

With thanks also to the BBC and County Cricket.com for the above information.  

 8 October 1984 -The Black Cultural Archives was established in the wake of the riots, initiated by historian and photographer Len Garrison and Ansel Wong, the founder of Black History Week. Its aim was the  establishing a team of a librarian, a researcher, a photographer and based itself loosely on the ideals of the Schomburg Research Centre for Black Culture in Harlem as an amassed historical narrative.

The African People’s Historical Monument Foundation (U.K) Charity (APHMF(UK) was established as the Official Charity of the BCA which made that name its working title and public face of the organisation. Earlier in 1983, The GLC grantsed £32,000 for the initial phase of setting up an office base. A part-time secretary was also  funded by the Comission for Racial Equality

The BCA moved into a large self contained building on Coldharbour Lane, Brixton as its first base.

With thanks to www.thequietus.com and also to the Black Cultural Archives  for the above information. And the Black Cultural Archives for the photograph. 

7 October 1947 - Evelyn Dove (pictured) Edric Connor, Mable Lee, Cyril Blake and his Calypso Band, Buddy Bradley, Winifred Atwell, and Adelaide Hall plus others performed in Variety in Sepia, an early example of a UK television special dedicated to Black talent, filmed live at the RadiOlympia Theatre, Alexandra Palace, London, and aired on BBC TV.

6th October 2003 Baroness Amos was made Leader of the House of Lords on 6 October 2003, following the death of Lord Williams of Mostyn, which meant that her tenure as Secretary of State for International Development lasted less than six months.More historically she was the first black leader in the UK to lead in Parliament( House of Lords).

5 October 1988 -Duke McKenzie wins  the IBF World flyweight Title with an 11th round knockout over Rolando Bohol.

4 October 2018 - drug dealer Zakaria Mohammed, 21, who trafficked teenagers to sell heroin and crack cocaine through his "county lines" narcotics network is  jailed for 14 years.

Mohammed groomed them before transporting them from Birmingham to rural Lincolnshire.

West Midlands Police said it was the first time a drug dealer had been convicted of trafficking children under the Modern Slavery Act.He admitted conspiracy to supply class A drugs and trafficking charges.

Police said Mohammed, from Aston in Birmingham, was "cynical, deliberate and ruthless" in befriending young and vulnerable children, aged 14 and 15 at the time, to use as a commodity to further his drug-dealing business.

Children, who had previously been reported as missing to the force, were found inside three flats in Lincoln when police conducted raids and recovered money, drugs and weapons.

With thanks to the BBC for the above information. Picture -Sky News

3 October 1989 - Nigerian Cartoonist, begins a regular series of cartoons in the The Voice Newspape, Britains biggest Black Newspaper.."Our Roots" which highlights the importance of Black history. The aim of the feature remains to focus on Black achievers in the diaspora. The series played a crucial role in  educating and informing  about Black history through illustrations with about 50 to 70 words to accompany the pictures.

2 October 2019 -Diane Abbott became the first black MP at PMQs despatch box. Shadow Home secretary Diane Abbott became the first black MP to represent their party at Prime Minister's Questions.

With Prime Minister Boris Johnson attending the Conservative Party conference Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab represented the government, and Diane Abbott took the place of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

With thanks to The BBC for the above information.

1 October 2019 -Reggae legend Bob Marley is  honoured with an English Heritage blue plaque at the London house he lived at when he finished recording the ground-breaking album Exodus.

The plaque marks where Marley lived with his band the Wailers in 1977 at 42 Oakley Street, in Chelsea.

It comes after a drive to uncover more addresses of ethnic minority figures.

Marley and the Wailers' famous Exodus album included hits such as Jamming, Three Little Birds and One Love.

Marley also gave a different address during an arrest for cannabis possession in 1977 to prevent the police from searching the house in Oakley Street for drugs.

English Heritage confirmed the house was the band's headquarters and Marley's primary address from contemporary reports.

With thanks to The BBC for the above information.

30 September 2004 -The ninth annual MOBO Awards ceremony took place on 30 September 2004 at the Royal Albert Hall in London and was broadcast by BBC Television. Winners included:

Best Single: Jamelia(Pictured) Best UK Newcomer: Estelle Best Hip Hop: Kanye West UK Act of the Year: Dizzee Rascal/ Jamelia Best Video: Jamelia - See It In A Boy's Eyes Best Reggae: Sean Paul  

29 September 2010 - the BlackPoppyRose is  launched  by Selena Carty. Created to be a symbol that represents the contributions made by the African/Black/Caribbean/Pacific Islands communities to various wars since the 16th century. A symbol that signifies pride, honour and glory, with the hope that future generations will be inspired by these largely untold historical legacies.

28 September 2022 - Stormzy urged the music industry to take diversity more seriously, as he was honoured at Wednesday AIM Awards.

The rapper was named Diversity Champion for his efforts to "level the playing field" through his charities Merky Foundation and Merky Books.

"I encourage everyone in the room today to not just use diversity as a buzzword," he said in his speech.

"Whatever position you're in... let that be a driving factor, and not just see it as a quota or a box to tick."

Addressing a room full of music industry executives, he stressed "the worth and the value" of embracing a wide range of voices in the workplace.

According to the latest figures from UK Music, 22% of people working in the music industry are from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds; while women hold 49.6% of industry roles.

However, career progression for these groups remains sluggish, with representation tailing off in higher age and income brackets.

Stormzy's Merky Foundation has pledged £10m over 10 years to organisations and charities "committed to fighting for racial equality, justice reform and black empowerment within the UK".

It currently supports the Black Heart Foundation, which aims to improve access to education for underprivileged children, and partners with Cambridge University to award £20,000 scholarships to black students.

Thanks to The BBC for the above information