Britain's #BLM Statue
- Online event
- 22 Sep 2021 – 30 Jan 2022
Joseph Sturge memorial statue by John Thomas, 1862, in Birmingham, England Photo by Brianboru100 via Wikimedia - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0 The former site of the Buxton Memorial Fountain in Parliament Square, London, 2021 Photo: Dr Nathaniel Adam Tobias The former site of the Buxton Memorial Fountain in Parliament Square, London, 2021 Photo: Dr Nathaniel Adam Tobias The plaque marking the former site of the Buxton Memorial Fountain in Parliament Square, London, 2021 Photo: Dr Nathaniel Adam Tobias The Buxton Memorial Fountain in Parliament Square before removal, 1949 Courtesy The National Archives, ref. WORK20/266 Parliament Square in the 1930s with the Buxton Memorial Fountain in situ Courtesy The National Archives, ref. WORK11/53 The Buxton Memorial Fountain in its current location at Victoria Tower Gardens, London, 2021 Dr Nathaniel Adam Tobias The 1957 plaque to the Buxton Memorial Fountain, Victoria Tower Gardens, London, 2021 Dr Nathaniel Adam Tobias The 1990 plaque to the Buxton Memorial Fountain, Victoria Tower Gardens, London, 2021 Dr Nathaniel Adam Tobias The 1862 memorial statue to Joseph Sturge by John Thomas in front of the Marriott Hotel, Five Ways, Birmingham, 2021 Dr Nathaniel Adam Tobias "Memorial of the first of August, 1838 presented to each Sunday scholar in Birmingham who joined in celebrating the freedom of the Negroes" Birmingham City Archives: IIR 62/ 158748 (1/2). Reproduced with the permission of the Library of Birmingham William Bloye, Boulton, Watt and Murdoch (known locally as 'The Golden Boys') 1956, gilded bronze Photo: Craig Holmes The 1925 plaque erected by Birmingham City Council to mark the 1862 memorial statue to Joseph Sturge by John Thomas Image courtesy of the Birmingham Civic SocietyColemanColemanColemanColemanColemanColemanColeman
There has been a lot of talk, to put it mildly, about Britain’s statues and slavery. But what about Britain’s statues and anti-slavery? It turns out, that, while statues of slavers are among the statues Britain shows off, statues of anti-slavery activists are, in curious contrast, some of the statues Britain hides. To take us into Black History Month in the UK, Dr Coleman asks what, exactly, in its anti-slavery statues, Britain is hiding.
Listen online
Episode 1: Statues They Hide
Download transcript of Episode 1: Statues They Hide (PDF, 1MB) |
Episode 2: Back to Plaque?
Download transcript of Episode 2: Back to Plaque? (PDF, 3MB) |
Further information about the Birmingham 2007 Children’s March can be found on Birmingham City Council's website (via archive.org) at A Shared History, A Shared Future: March for Justice and Family Discovery Day and in MarcusBelben's YouTube video, Breaking the Chains Birmingham - A Shared History, A Shared Future: March for Justice.
Dedication: Dr Nathaniel Adam Tobias Coleman would like to dedicate these episodes to the memory of the late Charles W. Mills (1951-2021), Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at The Graduate Center, City University of New York.
Episode 3: Sturge Before Scarman
Download transcript of Episode 3, Part 1: Peace and Police (PDF, 2MB) |
Download transcript of Episode 3, Part 2: Britain Against Police (PDF, 3MB) |
On 30 January 1981, ten months before the Scarman Report into the ‘Brixton Disorders’ was published, the Final Report of the Working Party into Community/Police Relations in Lambeth was published - and promoted at a press conference. By remembering neglected connections between 1981 and 1839, Dr Nathaniel Adam Tobias Coleman, argues that the central claim, of that Final Report, was shared by Joseph Sturge, and was the reason Sturge's statue - Britain’s BLM Statue - was put up.
Dedication: Dr Nathaniel Adam Tobias Coleman would like to dedicate these episodes "To the siblinghood of my fellow Black Queer/Trans Men, like me living and thriving with HIV, in this, the 40th year of a pandemic that began in 1981. For more information about our siblinghood, visit the House of Rainbow; for more information on the pandemic we survived, listen to We Were Always Here."
About the speaker
Dr Nathaniel Adam Tobias Coleman is an independent scholar-activist, Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Warwick, and Public Engagement Co-ordinator for Citizens Researching Together at the University of Bristol. They are the incoming Project Director of 81 Acts of Exuberant Defiance. Born and based in Birmingham, they are writing a book about our collective memory of the colonial and anti-colonial arguments by which Birmingham built and attempted to abolish British Empire, called The House By the Rivers of Blood.
You can find out more about how they came to write this book on the Reluctant Sites of Memory blog, or listen to them talk about some of the book's themes in De Montford University's YouTube video, Scholar Activism in the UK – Questions of Ethics and Practice.
Monuments Research Season
Every Wednesday throughout September we will present new research around monuments in a variety of forms, ranging from pre-recorded lectures to podcasts and artists films.
Topics will include the relationship between monuments, gender and sexuality, the role of religion and politics, monuments and colonial memory, and artists’ responses to monumentality. All material will be available to access online on our website and YouTube channel.
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