In February 1965, Malcolm X visited Selma, Alabama, supporting Martin Luther King’s civil rights campaign against segregation. Seventeen days later, he was assassinated.

Between these two events, Malcolm X visited Smethwick to experience the colour bars and racial prejudice in the Midlands.

At the time, Smethwick was a town torn apart after Peter Griffin’s openly racist election campaign had played on the fear of immigration.

His visit to an area with a growing Asian and Caribbean immigrant population confirmed his conception of a worldwide struggle that united all oppressed people of colour to work together. It also highlighted the broad anti-racist activism connections that linked Smethwick, Selma, Harlem, and India. This global vision of anti-racism was an inherent part of the Midlands and has meant that now, 60 years later, Smethwick is primarily at peace with its diverse communities.

His visit was a crucial moment in his European and African tours, part of his ongoing campaign against racist violence, support of global Black Liberation struggles, opposition to the US involvement in the Congo and Vietnam and showing the intersections between the local and international.

When asked by local reports why he visited Smethwick, he replied Malcolm X replied, "I have heard that the blacks ... are being treated in the same way as the Negroes were treated in Alabama - like Hitler treated the Jews" (Birmingham Post, 1965, p15).

Come to our events, and learn about how local communities tackled these issues in the past, how we can develop new tactics for the future.