Liverpool University Press Black 1919: Riots, Racism and Resistance in Imperial Britain (Postcolonialism Across the Disciplines): 5

The 1919 port riots were a dramatic manifestation of a wave of global unrest which affected Britain, parts of its empire, continental Europe and North America during and in the wake of the First World War. The violence in many of Britain's ports was caused by severe post war competition for jobs, especially in the merchant navy, and also by housing shortages as sections of Britain's working class turned to violence to express dissatisfaction at their unsatisfactory peacetime circumstances. During the 1919 riots in Glasgow, South Shields, Salford, Hull, London, Liverpool and Cardiff, Newport and Barry, crowds of white working class people targeted black workers, their families, and black-owned businesses and property. One of the chief sources of violent confrontation in the run-down port areas arose due to a 'colour' bar being implemented by the sailors' trades unions campaigning to keep black and Asian sailors off British ships in a time of increasing job competition. Jenkinson's book sets out the economic and social causes of the riots and their impact on Britain's relationship with its empire and its colonial subjects. The riots are also considered within the wider context of rioting elsewhere on the fringes of the Atlantic world as black people came in increased numbers into urban and metropolitan settings where they competed with working class white people for jobs and housing during and after the First World War. The book then focuses on the events of the port riots in Britain, with chapters devoted to assessing the motivations and make up of the rioting crowds, examining police procedures during the riots, considering the court cases which followed, and looking at the longer term consequences for the black British workers and their families post riot. Black 1919 also assesses the affect of repatriation of black sailors from Britain to the West Indies, these and parallel outbreaks in France, Canada and the United States are also examined in the book Thoroughly researched, 'Black 1919' is a stark and timely reminder of the violent racial conflict that emerged post WWI and the shockwaves that reverberated around the Empire.