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Know more about South Shields  

By 1900, like many port towns, the number of Black people from Africa and the Caribbean had increased as trade and imperial involvement around the world continued. This was increased by the First World War as the need for goods and services increased during war time. Many Black British men fought for Britain in World War One and many from the Empire answered the call. Many also served in the roles needed to keep trade and industry moving. Soldiers from Africa and the West Indies fought for Britain as volunteers, not conscripts.[1]

 

South Shields for thousands of years has been a place that attracted migrants from a myriad of places to it. From Roman times there had been a burial monument for Victor the Moor, a servant to an Asturian trooper.[2]

 

South Shields shows the signs of other migrations to Britain through the millennia. Christianity was introduced by Irish saint Aiden. Angles and Norsemen all left their imprint. Industrialisation did not invent trade and migration as it had done in other regions. Due to its location South Shields had been on a trading path since the Middle Ages.

 

Coal brought with it accompanying industries, such as iron works. Europeans migrated to this area and worked in the likes of Crowley’s iron works in Swalwell and Sunderland.[3]

 

Tied to the principal industries of the area, shipbuilding and coal and tied to the industry of the empire, South Shields was a destination for many from the UK, the empire and beyond. By the 1930’s one of the largest Arab and Muslim communities in Britain was established. South Shields' population grew from 11,000 in 1801 to 122,000 at its peak in 1921.[4]

 

By the end of World War One there was a growing reaction against these workers, like how women were treated after 1918 who had filled traditionally male roles during the war.

 

 

 

The northeast was no different and by 1919 there was a sizable migrant community, made up of Somali and Arab sailors in South Shields from the 1860s. There were also people from West Africa and the West Indies in North Shields.[5]

 

In January 1919, a group of Arab sailors from Yemen and Somalia[6] were attacked in South Shields in a premeditated assault. An Arab-owned shop in Waterloo Vale was damaged. Police were involved in clashes the day after where there was racialised chanting. In February Arab sailors were at first prevented from working and then chased back to boarding houses in the Holborn area. Outnumbered, Arabs fired pistols into the air to deter further attack. For their part in the disturbances 12 Arabs were sent to trial and nine imprisoned for between one and three months. One white man, a union official who incited the violence, was bound over to keep the peace for 12 months.[7]

 

Continued discriminatory employment practices led to the setup of the Minority Movement, made up of Black and white sailors, who protested against discrimination. In August 1930, planned demonstrations led to more violence. Violence led to imprisonment and deportation for many Arab sailors.

 

The South Shields area remained a multicultural area. Of the 3,000 sailors from South Shields killed in World War Two, many of them were Black. The Black community spread out from shipping to other jobs, opening cafes and restaurants. Others were door-to-door peddlers.[8]

 

These violent instances are not South Shields' whole story. There had to be a large degree of acceptance for the migrant communities to have become a part of South Shields. By no means was racialized violence just a part of South Shields; larger and more deadly racialized violence took place in other parts of the country during these times and other times as well. South Shields, like the rest of the region, is committed to a multi-cultural, positive life for residents and those new to the area.  

 

 

 

[1] Olusoga, D. (2021) Black and British: A forgotten history. London: Picador, an imprint of Pan Macmillan. P 453

 

[2] Tabili, L. (2014) Global migrants, local culture: Natives and newcomers in Provincial England 1841-1939. Palgrave Macmillan. P 15

[3] Tabili, L. (2014) Global migrants, local culture: Natives and newcomers in Provincial England 1841-1939. Palgrave Macmillan.p19

 

[4] Tabili, L. (2014) Global migrants, local culture: Natives and newcomers in Provincial England 1841-1939. Palgrave Macmillan.26

 

[5] Fryer, P. (2018) Staying power: The history of Black people in Britain. London: PlutoPress. P 300.

[6] Olusoga, D. (2021) Black and British: A forgotten history. London: Picador, an imprint of Pan Macmillan. P 454

[7] Lawless, R.I. (1995) From Taʻizz to Tyneside: An Arab community in the north-east of England during the early twentieth century. Exeter: University of Exeter Press. P 81 - 83

[8] Tyne Roots - Black History Month - the story behind Britain's first race riot (no date) BBC. BBC. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/tyne/roots/2003/10/arabontyne.shtml (Accessed: March 4, 2023).

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