It’s been twenty years since the Handsworth Riots, and there’s some galleries put up by local photographer Pogus Caesar (greatest name ever, eh?) and an article on the riots on the BBC site.
Check them out here. or here. You can also post your memories of the events there (or here, of course).
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I was 15 at the time of the riots. My only real memory of them is watching them on TV and that there was a bit of a debate in some of my classes at school about the media coverage. From the way the media were covering them the riots seemed much larger and wide spread than they actually were and they were portrayed very much as unprovoked attacks by blacks on whites. There was very little attention payed to the context or the role the National Front played in them..
If you can’t get to see Pogus Caesar’s photos of the Handsworth riots at The Drum in Birmingham starting on 30th Sept – I’ve found his online exhibition called ‘Handsworth Riots – Twenty summers On’ being displayed at OOM Gallery in Birmingham.
Also saw Caesar on BBC and Central TV talking about being in the middle of the riots..one of his pictures showed (an elderly lady peering through curtains as smoke rises in her front garden)..what a haunting image!!
HI I WOULD JUST LIKE TO SAY THAT THIS TYPE OF THING WAS PREDICTED BY ENOCH POWELL WHO WASN’T LISTENED TO AND DUE TO GOVERNMENT AFTER GOVERNMENT BENDING OVER BACKWARDS FOR BLACK AND ASIAN PEOPLE WE HAVE ENDED UP WITH A SPOILT BRAT CULTURE AND ALL OF THIS WAS INEVITABLE BUT DON’T WORRY BECAUSE MY WIFE AND I BOTH WORK SIXTY HOURS A WEEK AND WE’LL HELP TO PAY FOR ANY DAMAGE.
Holy shit, Derek, the caps lock button is there for a reason, y’know
I was 4 at the time and was living in Handsworth, perhaps too young to actually know what was going on I grew up in a school that taught acceptance of other people.
“Photos of the Handsworth riots at The Drum”
So who’s brillent Idea was it to pull that stunt then? It’s not something local people would like to dwell on, and from what I can make out 20 years on some people want to repeat the scenes that must be pictured in the photos in a gallery in an area of tension.
No one is bending over backwards for anyone. Much of the money for the regeneration of Birmingham has come from European sources, not tax payers. The expansion of and investment in areas such as Handsworth and so forth have come from local people who are both enterprising and aspirational of the places in which they live. They aren’t picture postcard places but there are some wonderful people trying to make a difference and avoid such tensions through the teaching of respect.
Back then rioters didn’t have so much free access to leathal weapons.
Pogus Caesar has a new online exhibition called ‘From Jamaica Row – Rebirth of The Bull Ring’, his photographs taken over three years show how the site of the old Bull ring has been transformed (some really nice images, it’s amazing how you forget what the tired old place looked like!) ….what a contrast from Caesar’s last show about the Handsworth riots!