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UK black culture archive 'to get permanent home' after Lottery boost
Plans for a permanent home for a major archive of black culture and history received a £4 million Lottery boost today.
The backing from the Heritage Lottery Fund will help convert Raleigh Hall in Windrush Square, Brixton, London, into a centre for the Black Cultural Archives (BCA).
It is hoped the conversion of the derelict Grade II-listed Raleigh Hall into a home for the archive will provide an educational resource for schools, students and the general public.
And when the centre is established, organisers expect donations of important contemporary and 20th century records will come from organisations, families and individuals.
The collection, which has been developed over the past 27 years, contains letters, notebooks, photographs and other documents recording the lives and heritage of people of African and
African-Caribbean descent in the UK.
The 8,000 items are currently predominantly from post-1945, but include documents from the family of writer and activist John Barbour-James, who founded the League of Coloured People and a 1843
bill of sale for a slave auction in England.
In addition to Lottery backing, the project is to receive £600,000 from the London Borough of Lambeth, as well as the gift of a 99-year gifted lease for Raleigh Hall.
Actor, writer and broadcaster Kwame Kwei-Armah said: "This is great news. I've been a huge fan of the BCA since it was first set up in 1981 - it's a goldmine of information about black cultural
identity in Britain.
"I'm looking forward to taking my children to Raleigh Hall and showing them how much they have to be proud of from their past and how much that past has influenced their lives today."
Paul Reid, director of the BCA, said: "This announcement is a major milestone achievement for people of African descent - we want to tell our stories from our own perspectives.
"We've worked so hard to get here and there's still a lot to do to reach our remaining fundraising target of £1.5 million.
"I'm confident that we will be able to achieve this and build a centre that we can all be proud of."
COMMENTS
Ian Stewart
Commented 16 weeks ago
Wouldn't it be nice if the children of ordinary, native Britons could be told "how much they have to be proud of from their past and how much that past has influenced their lives today", instead of being taught how shameful their history is. Oh, to be an immigrant in a country like Britain, where national denigration & suicide is the smart, PC thing to engage in.
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