Trinidadian activist Claudia Jones organised a Caribbean carnival at St Pancras Town Hall in London in 1959 in response to riots caused by racial tensions, planting the seeds for the Notting Hill Carnival, one of the world’s largest street parties.
Partygoers on Monday (26), the second day of this year’s carnival, said Jones’ message of unity had never been more important after racist riots in late July sparked by false information online about the suspect in the knife attack in Southport, northwest England.
Matthew Phillip, chief executive of Notting Hill Carnival, told Reuters the event was the UK’s biggest celebration of inclusion — “of the things we have in common, rather than focusing on our differences”.
The 56th edition of the carnival is expected to attract 1 million people to the streets of west London to celebrate the city’s diversity and its Caribbean community.
Carnival has its roots in the hundreds of thousands of Caribbean migrants, known as the “Windrush generation”, who came to the UK between 1948 and 1971 to help rebuild the country after the Second World War.
Their arrival was accompanied by racial tensions and unfair treatment of black people, with riots in 1958, including in the London district of Notting Hill, where many Caribbean migrants lived at the time.
“Notting Hill Carnival was born in response to the racist riots,” said the Runnymede Trust, a racial equality think tank. “These events and the divisive rhetoric that fuelled them feel painfully relevant today.”
London police deployed around 7,000 officers to the event, which police said was seen by a minority of people as an opportunity to commit crime.
Police said three people were stabbed on Sunday (25) — a 32-year-old woman, who was in critical condition in hospital, and two men, aged 29 and 24. A total of 103 people were arrested and 18 police officers were assaulted on Sunday, police said.
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This content was originally published in Notting Hill Carnival celebrates London’s diversity after racist attacks on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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