Anna Boyne
The Trent building is an iconic UoN landmark. No freshers’ week or dissertation submission would be complete without an Instagram post featuring it.
But in 1986, the Trent building became iconic for another reason. More than 300 students gathered outside to protest Enoch Powell who’d been invited to speak by the Conservative Association.
Two students attacked his car. One was dragged off the bonnet by police officers. A further two were arrested.
Yet twenty years prior, Powell had been a relatively unimportant politician. Impact only made passing comments about him.
That changed when he delivered the infamous ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech in 1968.
Addressing the Conservative Political centre in Wolverhampton, Powell condemned mass immigration to Britain. Using inflammatory language, he warned of serious racial conflict if people were not returned to their countries.
He quoted personal experiences which were never properly traced. One elderly white woman was supposedly harassed by immigrant neighbours who pushed excreta through her letter box.
Less than a month later, Impact reported that The Times “had received a petition from Nottingham University deploring the nature of Mr. Enoch Powell’s recent racialist speech at Wolverhampton. It was noted that the petition did not intend to question Mr Powell’s right to make this speech but rather the tone in which it was presented.”
The divisiveness of his speech played out on a national scale. But the Impact ‘Letters’ section sheds light on the ways it divided opinion amongst UoN students.
Those who defended Powell repeatedly presented him as a defender of freedom of speech.
One frustrated student wrote into Impact saying: “They seem to have missed the point altogether: encroachment on Mr. Powell’s liberty which would result from refusing to allow him to make such a speech is insignificant when compared to the encroachment on the liberty of the coloured person who suffers discrimination from attitudes such as that of Mr Powell.”
From then on, Powell became symbolic of extremist views on immigration and race relations. Impact, much like the national papers, referenced ‘Tory Powellites’, ‘Powellism’ and ‘Powellist racialism’ in the decades that followed.
In 1971, Impact reported that 150 people had gathered in Market Square to protest Powell’s upcoming visit to Nottingham.
15 years later, little had changed. Upon news of Powell’s upcoming visit to speak at UoN’s Conservative Association, students like Chiz Onuora took to student democracy by submitting a ‘No Platform for Racists’ policy at the SU general meeting.
“The views of Enoch Powell are detrimental to society and if the visit goes ahead the University is leading intellectual credibility to his disgusting views.” Chiz Onuora
Freedom of speech once again played a key part in the debate. Supporter Dave Trower was quoted saying “fascists and racists deny free speech for Blacks and Asians in this country.”
Impact 12 November 1986
Yet the Chairman of the Conservative Association argued “freedom of speech results in tolerance and stability.”
For another opponent of the bill “Universities should be allowed to air all views otherwise they’re an insult to the whole concept of Higher Education.”
The controversy extended beyond the policy debate. In the same Impact newspaper edition, students voiced their opinions through the ‘letters’ section.
David Trower, featured again: “In 1976 Powell’s racists speeches added to the wave of anti-immigration feeling which led directly to the murder of a number of black people.”
But an anonymous writer emphasised that Powel would be discussing ‘Finance and Higher Education.’
They added: “Trying to ban Enoch Powell and other alleged racists from speaking glorifies them and makes them appear something special, martyrs even.”
“That’s why when Enoch Powell speaks at this university I’ll be there forming my own opinion of him.”
Ultimately the policy was defeated. But students agreed (only by 195:193 votes) that a demonstration should take place instead.
And that’s exactly what happened 10 days later.
Impact 26 November 1986
Grabbing front page attention again (testament to its all-consuming effect on campus), Impact reported: “More than 300 protesters greeted the MP with shouts of ‘Out, out, disembowel Enoch Powell’ and ‘Kick these racists out the door.'”
While Powell spoke in the Great Hall, “a self-confessed anarchist was forceably [80s typo- Grammarly wouldn’t let that happen now] led away by police after she and a dozen others attempted to break into the building by a back window.”
“I am not, never have been and never could be described as a racist.” Enoch Powell
Impact’s ‘letters’ in the same newspaper edition were absolutely dominated by discussions of the Powell protest with headlines like ‘Left’s Hysteria’ and ‘Oppose Racism!’
Impact 28 January 1987
By the new year, the Powell protest took a new direction. The Labour Club wrote into Impact, aiming to emphasise the peaceful nature of the demonstration. But they also rose a new issue: the presence of “plain clothed individuals on the roof of Trent Hall scanning the crowd with a video camera.”
“If the individuals on the roof were officers of the Special Branch, it makes one wonder to what purpose these films are going to be used- could they be used against students seeking work in the future?” The Labour Club
During the 80s, the police’s special branch monitored potential terrorists and national threats. In response to spying suspicions, “Chief Constable Charles MacLachlan, speaking to Law Society, claimed that the camera was recording police behaviour in case of allegations of brutality- such as those at Manchester University- were made against his men.”
MacLachlan said: “The police faced a dilemma. If a policeman arrests a person for spraying peace symbols on the pavement he is criticised but if that person is spraying swastikas, he is praised.”
The powerful influence of the ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech cannot be underestimated. It marked an escalation in anti-immigration attitudes.
During the 1950s and 60s, immigration was largely considered a short-term disturbance. Immigrants had arrived to fill gaps in the postwar labour market and would soon go back to their own countries.
By the late 60s, immigrants became permanent residents.
As David Trower said, “Powell’s racists speeches added to the wave of anti-immigration feeling which led directly to the murder of a number of black people.”
He writes in the past tense. Yet black people continue to face racially motivated violence in the decades that followed. Stephen Lawrence died only 7 years after the Powell protest.
Both figures became symbols of Britain’s struggles to reconcile with its multiracial population- struggles that surpassed the 1998 rose-tinted Windrush story of arrival and once again flared up in the 2018 scandal.
Anna Boyne
This article is part of a series examining how UoN print media fit or contradicted the Windrush narrative. To read the other articles, please click the tag ‘Windrush Project’ below.
Best efforts have been made to contact the original authors who retain copyright. If they come forward and would like articles to be removed, then they will be taken down.
Other articles in the series…
- How Impact Told the Windrush Story
- British Segregation: The Colour Bar
- Roots in Boots, Blaxploitation and the Marcus Garvey: Culture
- The Colour of Justice: Stephen Lawrence
Bibliography
Primary sources
University of Nottingham Manuscripts and Special Collections, University of Nottingham Collection; os.X.Periodicals Not 5.G14.8 .F48, Impact 9/05/1968 p. 6.
University of Nottingham Manuscripts and Special Collections, University of Nottingham Collection; os.X.Periodicals Not 5.G14.8 .F48, Impact 14/01/1971p. 3.
University of Nottingham Manuscripts and Special Collections, University of Nottingham Collection; os.X.Periodicals Not 5.G14.8 .F48, Impact 12/11/1985.
University of Nottingham Manuscripts and Special Collections, University of Nottingham Collection; os.X.Periodicals Not 5.G14.8 .F48, Impact 26/11/1986 pp. 1-2.
University of Nottingham Manuscripts and Special Collections, University of Nottingham Collection; os.X.Periodicals Not 5.G14.8 .F48, Impact 26/11/1985 p. 2.
University of Nottingham Manuscripts and Special Collections, University of Nottingham Collection; os.X.Periodicals Not 5.G14.8 .F48, Impact 28/01/1986 p. 2
University of Nottingham Manuscripts and Special Collections, University of Nottingham Collection; os.X.Periodicals Not 5.G14.8 .F48, Impact 25/02/1986.
Secondary sources
Gordon, P. & D. Rosenberg, Daily Racism: The Press and Black People in Britain (London, 1989).
