We look at why Black History Month is celebrated in October in the UK and what some of our faculty have planned for this month in their classes.

Why is black history month celebrated in October?

While Black History Month started in the US in the 1920’s, it wasn’t celebrated in the UK until 1987. Here it was started by Akyaaba Addai-Sebo, who after moving to the UK from Ghana as a refugee in 1984, developed the annual celebration of Black History in the UK. Part of his motivation for doing this was for young people, as he wanted to get conversations about Black history and identity started in schools. This is one of the reasons that we now celebrate Black History Month in October in the UK, as it is near the start of the school year.

In our Arcadia classes, students and faculty have been joining in with the celebration, with conversations taking place in and out of the classroom. Some of which our faculty have kindly shared for us to spotlight below.

conversations in the classroom

• The Contemporary Photography Practice class are planning a visit to Autograph (Association of Black Photographers) this month, to visit their ‘I Still Dream of Lost Vocabularies’ exhibition. This exhibition looks at collages of photographs that have been deconstructed and reassembled to offer new perspectives on complex histories and individual identities.
• Topics such as Ethnicity and the Social Construction of Race will be discussed this month in an Introduction to Sociology. One of the resources they will be referring to in their discussions is Good Hair: Perceptions of Racism. This award winning short film explores the policies that discriminate against Black & Minority Ethnic Communities and how these can manifest in school and the workplace.
• In A History of Black Britain, the class recently took a walking tour of Brixton, following 100 years of Black British Music. Brixton is home to London’s largest Afro-Caribbean community, with a rich music history covering everything from Jazz, to reggae and rock.
• The legacy of Slavery and Black Georgians has been studied and discussed in London: Experiencing The Global City, while students in an Introduction to British Politics will be discussing Superdiversity Theory in the coming weeks.
• In Showcasing the Nation there will be a film screening of ‘Lover’s Rock’ by Steve McQueen, a film about young Black British Culture in the 1980s. 

While teaching and conversations about Black history will continue in classes throughout the semester, we are grateful to faculty for sharing some of the content they have planned during this month.

To learn more about Black History Month in the UK, see the Black History Month Magazine, or get involved with some of the events listed by Time Out taking place in London this October.