source: The Guardian

published: 2 March 2023

Image Credit: Migrant Media

The archive of a magazine chronicling the lives of Britain’s black community during the 1970s and 1980s will be available online for the first time.

Race Today magazine, first launched in 1973, combined radical journalism with campaigning zeal to shine a light on the issues affecting Britain’s black communities, as well as providing insight and commentary on politics in Britain and abroad.

The wide-ranging magazine included interviews with political figures such as the newly elected black MP Bernie Grant and members of the British Black Panther party, stories on deaths in custody and racist murders, political commentary on protest movements abroad, such as John La Rose on “insurrections” in the Caribbean, as well as cultural pieces, including reviews of books, art exhibitions and theatre productions.

"The archive is the first time that all past editions will be accessible in a single place and that a significant period of British history will no longer be overlooked,” Leila Hassan Howe, who was the magazine’s last editor, said.

Race Today’s most notable campaign was to bring the New Cross fire to prominence. The tragedy, in which 13 young black people between the ages of 14 and 22 were killed in January 1981, was a hugely politicising moment for the black community as a result of the lack of attention it received from politicians and the media.

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