From You were Black You were Out

About the black community in Ladbroke Grove and Notting Hill which grew up in the 1950s. “No Irish, no coloured, no dogs" read the rooms-to-let signs in what was already a decaying inner area of London. In the Grove black people had to face the brunt of a crude and brutal racism and a grassroots defence was organised against white racist attacks in 1958, to become part of the more general community resistance. And that strength was reflected in the emergence of several major 'Black Power' organisations. Since the 1960s the vital sense of black community which developed in the Grove has resisted attempts to disperse and weaken the community and in particular the attempt to suppress the annual Carnival - the major Afro-Caribbean event in Britain.